The Louisiana Legislature passed a new U.S. congressional map on May 29 that gives Republicans an advantage in five of six U.S. House seats in the upcoming midterm elections.
The Republican-led Senate chamber voted 28–10 on an amended version of SB 121 after it passed the state House.
The bill eliminated a black-majority district that stretched from Shreveport to Baton Rouge and adjusted district lines around the southern part of the state, including areas near New Orleans and Baton Rouge.
The legislation will be sent to Gov. Jeff Landry’s desk, and the Republican is expected to sign it.
State lawmakers started making efforts to redistrict after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on April 29 that race could not be used as the primary factor when drawing boundaries for Louisiana’s electoral districts.
The Supreme Court’s decision prompted Landry to issue an executive order on April 30 that suspended Louisiana’s primary elections on May 16 only for the congressional seats, so state lawmakers could redraw the districts.
But the map proposals have shifted during the redistricting efforts.
The new map, which was approved by the House in a 68–34 vote on May 28 before it advanced to the state Senate, was proposed by state Rep. Beau Beaullieu.
Beaullieu denied the lines were drawn based on race, but said that “partisan advantages were a strong factor” during a debate on the House floor on Thursday.
When Democratic Rep. Tehmi Jahi Chassion questioned why the new map wasn’t drawn equally to give Democrats two seats, Republicans two seats, and Independents two seats, Beaullieu said, “There’s nothing in the U.S. Constitution that says we have to draw these equally.”
Beaullieu added that Republicans “need to ensure that [U.S. House] Speaker [Mike] Johnson and [Rep. Steve] Scalise get reelected” with the map.
Johnson represents Louisiana’s Fourth District, and Scalise, from the state’s First Congressional District, serves as majority leader.
Democrats such as state Rep. Kyle Green voiced disapproval of the redistricting during Thursday’s floor debate.
“The distinction between partisan gerrymandering and racial gerrymandering is a distinction without a difference,” Green said.
U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins, a Republican who represents Louisiana’s Third District, split from his party’s push to prioritize Republican-leaning seats ahead of the midterms and called Beaullieu’s map “Frankenstein looking.”
“I am 100% opposed to this latest and worst iteration of proposed Louisiana Congressional Districts,” Higgins wrote in an X post on May 28.
