Louisiana lawmakers voted to advance a congressional redistricting plan that shrinks Black representation in the state's delegation, setting up a collision course between two sitting House members in the process.
In a marathon overnight session that stretched past 4:30 a.m. Wednesday, a Senate committee approved the map on a 4-3 vote. The proposal, authored by Republican Senator Jay Morris of West Monroe, keeps one majority-Black district but redraws the state's other five House seats to be majority-white.
The real casualty of the new map is its political consequence: U.S. Representatives Troy Carter and Cleo Fields, who now hold seats in separate districts, would be forced to run against each other under the redrawn lines. The map stretches one majority-Black district from New Orleans to Baton Rouge while consolidating white voters in the remaining districts.
Residents packed the committee hearing to voice concerns about a competing proposal from Democratic Senator Ed Price of Gonzales. Price's alternative would have created two "opportunity" districts designed to give Black voters a meaningful chance to elect candidates of their choice. That map failed to secure the votes needed to advance despite apparent support from those who testified.
The redistricting scramble was triggered by a U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Callais case, which prompted Governor Jeff Landry to suspend all House elections on April 30. He ordered lawmakers to produce a new map before races could resume.
The full Senate is expected to vote Thursday, with the map then heading to the House committee for consideration next week. Lawmakers are racing against a June 1 legislative deadline.
Senator Sam Jenkins, a Shreveport Democrat, indicated that members had agreed informally not to pursue a map that would eliminate all majority-Black districts entirely. The Morris map represents a middle ground of that sort, preserving one district but fundamentally reshaping the overall delegation.
Louisiana currently sends four white-majority and two Black-majority representatives to Congress. Once redrawn under the Morris plan, the delegation would shift decisively: five white-majority districts and one Black-majority district.
Author James Rodriguez: "When legislators stay up all night to ram through maps that happen to reduce minority representation, and the competing proposal gets blocked despite community support, the choreography of that process tells you everything about the real intention here."
Comments