Louisiana made headlines recently, finalizing its redistricting plan to help Republicans maintain control of the state and block Democrats from winning. While it may not appear as an issue to some, as one-third of states, Republican and Democratic alike, have also implemented a redistricting of their state, Louisiana is the first redistricting that directly targets and splits one of two majority-Black congressional seats, limiting the importance of the Black vote and decreasing the chances of a Black leader being elected in the state.
The new map significantly reshapes the 6th District, represented by Democratic U.S. Rep. Cleo Fields, which currently curves in an S-shape northwest from Baton Rouge to Shreveport, creating a second majority-Black district. That district would instead be clustered around predominantly white communities in southern Louisiana around Baton Rouge. This eliminates U.S. Rep Troy Carter’s 2nd district, which is also a predominantly Black community. This election would pit both Black U.S. reps against each other for a seat.
“I’ve said from day one, I have no interest in running against Troy Carter. Period,” Fields told the Associated Press. “The real issue is not whether I serve a second term in Congress. The real issue is whether or not a person like me will have the opportunity to serve in Congress.”
The new map preserves a single majority-Black district anchored around New Orleans, largely protecting the seat held by Democratic Rep. Troy Carter. But it extends into Baton Rouge, where Democratic Rep. Cleo Fields currently represents a district, potentially setting up a member-versus-member primary between the two Black Democrats. The Louisiana redistricting Black district proposal effectively forces them into the same lane.
“The Court ruled on the merits of the current map—but it did not rule to halt the current election. While the state legislature has the authority to act, redrawing maps for an election that has already started would not be prudent,” Fields said.
Leading up to the convening of the decision for the new map being upheld, Fields once again pleaded for the 2nd District not to be touched. “It has never been challenged, and it should be left alone. Any attempt to draw it into this redistricting effort is not a legal necessity — it is a political calculation to pack Black voters into Baton Rouge and New Orleans,” Fields said.
Carter says this decision, which saw tens of thousands of ballots returned, is the wrong move.
“It’s the quintessential definition of reprehensible harm because when a person who’s serving our country at home and abroad puts their lives on the line, they may not get another vote; and to suggest that is tough. Let them vote again.” Carter said on “60 Minutes.” “No man. What do you mean? This is still America.”
Gov. Jeff Landry supported the redrawing of the state’s congressional voting map in an interview with “60 Minutes.” During the interview, Landry called out people for pushing a narrative he deemed false and tried to correct it. Barack Obama was elected twice as the United States president. We’ve had a number of minorities elected. We’ve seen a rise of Republican candidates who are Black get elected,” he said. “Are we really trying to dredge up the past only to continue a failed narrative?”
Landry continued, “In the United States, we get ‘equal’ rights,” he said. “No one gets ‘extra’ rights.” Landry was adamant about pointing out that racial acceptance has made progress, and the redraw has nothing to do with racism. Rep. Field disagreed with the statement. “There is progress in the nation. But there is no progress in the Southern part of our country to the extent that you should get rid of the Voting Rights Act,” he said. “There are people in this state who just will not vote for a Black person.”
Before the redraw was finalized, Landry suspended the state’s primary elections within a day of the Supreme Court’s April 29 ruling banning the Voting Rights Act. This put a direct target on both Black Democratic congressmen and Black legislators in Louisiana and across the South, as Republican-controlled legislatures rush to pass new maps before the midterms.
Black residents in Louisiana and many Democratic leaders are furious with the new map because it is very similar to the 2022 revised map proposal from Republican State Sen. Jay Morris that a federal judge struck down because it violated the Voting Rights Act. This led the Louisiana Legislature to pass a revised map that created the 6th district for the 2024 election. Unfortunately, the U.S. Supreme Court challenged that map, ruling that Louisiana’s districts relied too heavily on race, which opened the door for Republicans in the state to create a new one.
Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock said during a press conference he would “fight this with everything I have.”
“There is an extreme movement in this country that will stop at nothing to hold on to power, even if it means stripping representation away from millions,” Warnock wrote in an online post.
Mitchell Brown, Voting Rights Senior Counsel and Coordinator, points out that in 1982 Congress amended the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which removed the plaintiff from having to prove intentional discrimination in order to prove a Section 2 case. Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibits voting practices or procedures that discriminate on the basis of race, color, or membership in one of the language minority groups identified in Section 4 of the Act.
“The quiet part is being said out loud; it’s going to be very hard to prove that the remapping of districts is based on racism because gerrymandering claims are not justifiable in federal court,” Brown said. “The Supreme Court has backtracked and stripped Congress of its power by denouncing the Voting Rights Act, and millions will suffer due to discrimination that needs hard evidence to be proven in court on the federal level.”
In 2023, Allen vs. Milligan presented the direct problem between race and party as the Supreme Court directed Alabama to draw a map that featured a second majority district, which the governor of Alabama declined to do until a three-judge district panel proved that declining the remapping was intentionally discriminatory against Black voters. Now, three years later, the Supreme Court reversed its 2023 ruling and has allowed Alabama to redraw its maps, disregarding the Black district and Black voters.
“We are concerned that this will reach the local level, as city officials can turn elections from nonpartisan to partisan, opening the door for groups of all kinds to have their votes diluted,” Brown said about how cunning officials can become with the movement from the Supreme Court. “We want people to be proactive and aware about everything going on because racial
