Louisiana lawmakers have passed new district maps designed to give Republicans more seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.
But to do so, the map would eliminate one of the state’s two majority-black districts, both represented by Democrats.
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It was approved by the Louisiana Legislature on Friday. This follows the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in April that Louisiana’s current map was an illegal racial gerrymander because it was drawn to include two majority-black districts.
The decision in Louisiana v. Calais weakened the landmark 1965 federal Voting Rights Act, which was designed to prevent discrimination against minorities at voting places.
It also intensified a national redistricting battle fueled by President Donald Trump’s efforts to protect Republicans’ narrow House majority in the midterm elections. Louisiana is one of several southern states currently redrawing its maps to support Republicans.
Louisiana Republicans were considering drawing a map that would give the party a chance to win all six of the state’s U.S. House seats. But that would have required more Democrats to register in Republican-controlled districts, which could backfire and cause Republicans to lose.
Republicans currently hold four of Louisiana’s six seats and are on track to gain one-fifth of the seats under the newly passed maps.
The bill was approved Friday in the Louisiana Senate on a 28-10 vote.
“A fierce race to the bottom”
Despite the threat of further litigation Friday, Republican Gov. Jeff Landry is expected to sign the new maps into law.
The 30-minute debate in the Senate chamber centered on Democrats who argue that the proposed map is racially gerrymandered to force more black voters, who tend to register as Democrats, into a single district.
Democratic state Sen. Royce Duplessis noted that some southern states, such as South Carolina, refused to redraw their maps midway through an election year.
He warned that Louisiana is participating in a “vicious and vicious race to the bottom” by joining the redistricting drive.
The bill’s sponsor, Republican state Sen. Jay Morris, has repeatedly asserted that new district boundaries would be determined by political party affiliation, not race.
“I intentionally put a lot of Democrats in the 2nd District to help Republicans do better in the remaining districts,” Morris said at one point.
Morris said he has directed map demographers to avoid including data on race or including such statistics in the information they share with lawmakers before voting.
“This is a racially gerrymandered district and I think it’s going to get us into a lot of trouble,” Democratic state Sen. Sam Jenkins told Morris.
“I agree to disagree,” Morris told Jenkins.
More lawsuits expected in Louisiana
Louisiana is currently using maps ordered by a lower court in 2024 to comply with the Voting Rights Act. This district includes the 2nd District, which has a majority black population.
However, the map was challenged in court, and the Supreme Court responded on April 30, striking down the map as an illegal racial gerrymander.
Landry postponed the state’s closed primary for the U.S. House of Representatives, scheduled for May 16, to allow for the implementation of the new congressional map.
He then signed a bill to open the U.S. primary, moving the date to Nov. 3 to give Republican lawmakers time to draw and pass new maps. All candidates, regardless of party affiliation, participate in the voting of voters in their constituencies.
The proposed map would redraw the district, currently represented by Democratic Rep. Cleo Fields, to center it around predominately white communities in the Baton Rouge area and south Louisiana.
It would also add parts of Baton Rouge to the New Orleans-based, Democratic-controlled, majority-black district represented by Democratic U.S. Rep. Troy Carter.
More lawsuits are expected over the new map.
Democrats argue the proposed map could spark legal challenges over racial gerrymandering, and the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana on Friday threatened to file a lawsuit, calling the map “a racial gerrymander hiding behind a thin skin of partisanship.”
The ACLU branch added, “This fight has only just begun.”
Meanwhile, the plaintiffs, who won their case in a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, criticized the congressional map that left in districts where blacks were the majority.
Nationwide battle over district boundaries
In the weeks following the Supreme Court’s decision, other Republican-controlled southern states took advantage of the weakened federal voting rights law to redraw their own congressional districts.
So far, Republicans have won redistricting battles across the country, passing more partisan maps and winning more House seats than Democrats.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean they will win the narrowly divided U.S. House of Representatives in November.
Republicans believe they can gain up to 15 seats through previous redistricting efforts, while Democrats believe they can gain six seats through new districts in California and Utah.
Meanwhile, a Wisconsin court ruling on Friday could give Democrats a new path to win the seat in 2028.
The liberal-led Wisconsin Supreme Court has announced it will hear an appeal from a lawsuit brought by a bipartisan coalition of business owners seeking to overhaul the state’s Republican-leaning congressional districts. Republicans hold six of the state’s eight House seats, but only two are considered competitive.
A three-judge panel dismissed the lawsuit in April. Those who filed the lawsuit did not seek a ruling in time for the 2026 election. Instead, they asked the state Supreme Court to send the case back to a lower court for a hearing on their claims, which likely won’t happen until 2027.
