Blake Miguez, a Louisiana state senator and Republican US House candidate, is trying to salvage his political future after a redistricting upheaval forced him to choose between two districts to pursue. In doing so, he is also hoping to reclaim an endorsement from Donald Trump that now carries fresh complications.
Miguez had secured Trump's backing in February to run for Louisiana's fifth congressional district, a safely Republican seat. But a landmark Supreme Court decision in March altered the state's congressional map, rendering his previous district boundaries obsolete and forcing him to decide where to run when the campaign qualifying window opens in August.
A spokesperson for Miguez's campaign acknowledged the predicament on Wednesday, saying the candidate was "honored to have President Trump's endorsement for an old congressional district that no longer exists" and that he "hopes to earn it again after he announces a campaign under the new district lines."
The White House responded cautiously. A Trump spokesperson said the president did not formally rescind the endorsement but would reassess the candidate field after qualifying if necessary. "At this point, he has not made any changes nor does he have an intent to," the spokesperson said, adding that any new information could change that calculation.
The uncertainty surrounding Trump's support stems partly from a 2007 rape accusation that Miguez denies. The Atlantic and the Guardian reported in March that a woman alleged Miguez assaulted her in his hometown of Erath, Louisiana, when he was in law school. A police report documented her account but noted she did not want to press charges against him.
The accusation was not disclosed to Trump's team before he endorsed Miguez, according to reporting from the Atlantic. That omission reportedly raised concerns within the White House that Miguez "either wasn't fully vetted or wasn't forthcoming about discoverable documents from his past."
Miguez's campaign has aggressively defended against the claim, circulating an email attributed to the accuser's father that called his daughter a liar with substance abuse problems. The campaign also directed attention to statements from the woman's family members questioning her credibility. The Guardian subsequently reached out to the accuser offering her a chance to respond to her family's statements, but she did not reply.
Rick Edmonds, Miguez's Republican rival in the race, quickly challenged the candidate's explanation for why Trump's endorsement was now uncertain. A spokesperson for a political action committee supporting Edmonds called it "silly" to blame redistricting, saying "Nobody believes that."
The redrawing of Louisiana's districts created new strategic options for Miguez. Under the new map, his home in Erath now falls within the third congressional district, which has been represented by Republican Clay Higgins since 2017. But the new sixth district encompasses Baton Rouge and the surrounding capital region, where Miguez has long maintained both a home and business interests. Democratic incumbent Cleo Fields announced Thursday he would not seek re-election under the altered district boundaries, opening that seat.
According to the Shreveport Times, Miguez opponents claimed the candidate had asked Trump to transfer his fifth district endorsement to the sixth. Miguez's campaign declined to specify which district he would target when the three-day qualifying period begins on August 5.
Federal law does not require House candidates to live in their home districts, only that they reside somewhere in the state where they are running. That flexibility has given Miguez options as he navigates both the political map changes and the shadow cast by the rape accusation.
Author James Rodriguez: "Miguez is betting he can talk his way back into Trump's good graces by simply switching districts, but the rape allegation he failed to disclose is a dagger that won't disappear because the congressional lines did."
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