The map was approved by the state Senate on Wednesday and passed the Louisiana House in a landslide 86-16 vote. Gov. who was sworn in last week. The map soon heads to the desk of Jeff Landry (R) for approval. Landry said Supports Map.
The new map increases the black makeup of Louisiana's 6th Congressional District from 23 percent to 54 percent.
Republican Rep. Garrett Graves holds this position. There were also tombs approved One of Landry's rivals for governor.
The new plan affects Graves' holding of the seat, a map that protects the seats of the two most powerful Louisiana Republicans in the House: Speaker Mike Johnson and Majority Leader Steve Scalise.
News of the new maps was presented at the State House, Graves told E&E News He hoped he would run for re-election in his current district and “run a district similar to what we have today.”
Representing Louisiana's 2nd Congressional District, Representative Troy A. Carter (D-La.), who is overwhelmingly black, praised the passage of the new map.
“Louisiana did the right thing. The math prevailed,” he said in a statement.
The addition of a majority-black seat in Louisiana adds to the list of recent redistricting decisions in several other states, mostly across the American South, where black voters have sued for representation, citing the Voting Rights Act in court to reverse policies they say are diluting their voting power.
In June 2022, a federal court overturned a congressional map of the state drawn with 2020 census data, saying it violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The court ordered the state legislature to create a second majority-black district, but the decision was taken Suspended Until the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Section 2 in the case involving the map of Alabama. US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit was set up January 30 is the deadline for a new map to be approved.
“We have finally taken the pen out of the hand of a federal judge and given it back to the people of the states to draw our congressional map. So we should all be excited,” Landry said In a video released after the conclusion of the assembly.
Earlier this week, Johnson expressed concern about a new map passed by the state Legislature.
“My position is that the existing map is constitutional and that a legal challenge to it should be tried on the merits so that the state has ample opportunity to defend its merits,” Johnson said. wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday. “If the government doesn't win the trial, it's legally compliant and doesn't require an unnecessary capitulation by Republicans in Congress,” several map options.
The state's newly elected legislature approved the map during an eight-day special session. With new map approval, Lawmakers also agreed to tighten some aspects Landry's broader push follows the state's “wild primary” system that begins in 2026.
