Louisiana Senate Passes Bill to Eliminate One of Two Majority-Black Congressional Districts

The Louisiana state senate voted 27-10 on Thursday to pass a new congressional map that would eliminate one of the state's two majority-Black House districts. The resulting map is expected to produce five Republican-leaning districts and one Democratic-leaning seat.

This would give Republicans a net gain of one seat in Louisiana's congressional delegation. The map is nearly identical to one the state used in 2022 that resulted in a 5-1 Republican majority. It would reshape district 6, which is currently represented by a Democrat, and make it more Republican.

District 2, currently represented by a Democrat, would retain its Black majority and cover New Orleans to part of Baton Rouge. Under the existing map, the majority-Black district 6 runs almost 250 miles from Baton Rouge and Lafayette in the south through Alexandria to Shreveport in the north.

The new map would center district 6 around predominantly white areas in the Baton Rouge suburbs and south Louisiana.

The supreme court's recent decision in Louisiana v Callais severely weakened the Voting Rights Act. Several other southern states have called special sessions to pass redistricting maps that would limit Black voting power. The state's legislature gave final approval on Wednesday to a bill that would move the election to an open primary on November 3.

During a lengthy floor debate on Thursday, the Republican state senator who sponsored the bill defended the new districts. A Democratic state senator argued that the map uses race as a predominant factor because the Republican party is predominantly white.

Senate Bill 121 will now head to the state house. If it passes there, lawmakers must approve a new map by June 1. The current map was ruled unconstitutional.