Louisiana: One Is Not Enough
Republicans draw a single majority-Black district in a state that deserves two.
Topline Takeaways
Louisiana’s new districts were passed by a rare bipartisan super-majority vote, overriding the Democratic governor’s veto.
Much of the new district boundaries resemble the old ones with most of the map’s changes being focused on LA-1 and LA-6 to retain the makeup of the majority-Black LA-2.
The decision to draw only a single majority-Black district has led several civil rights groups to file a lawsuit alleging a racial gerrymander.
UPDATE: SCOTUS has lifted its stay on Louisiana’s racial gerrymandering case. This allows a decision to be made by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals before the next congressional elections in 2024.
Who’s In Control
Louisiana’s redistricting process is controlled by the legislature and requires the governor’s signature for approval. Both houses of the state legislature are controlled by Republicans and the state currently has a Democratic governor. Republicans passed the district map above and were met with a veto by Gov. John Bel Edwards. While Republicans didn’t have the votes by themselves to override the gubernatorial veto, they were joined by just enough Democrats and independents to garner a super-majority vote and enshrine the new districts into law.
District Breakdown
Louisiana’s mapmakers tried their hardest to lean on tradition by retaining old borders. The state’s third and fourth congressional districts, holding much of the western portions of the state, remain largely unchanged. The same can be said of LA-5: it retained most of its area along the west bank of the Mississippi River while expanding slightly to the south to include more of the Florida Parishes.
The maze-like shape of LA-2 represents the state’s large Black population, following the Mississippi River from Baton Rouge to New Orleans. Since roughly 1-in-3 voters here identify as African American, the state is required by the Voting Rights Act to draw districts that enable these minority voters to elect the candidate of their choice. As the proportion of African Americans has grown over the years, many have argued that Black voters in Louisiana are owed a second minority-majority congressional district. (Creating 2 minority-majority districts out of the 6 seats available brings the state’s district makeup in line with its voting base at 33%.)
-Liza Weisberg, voting rights staff attorney at the Southern Poverty Law Center.
While some may be tempted to look toward simplifying the odd shapes of the state’s first and sixth districts to create a new minority-majority district, North Louisiana is where African Americans most desperately need increased representation. There are a total of six parishes in this region where White voters are a minority, three of those hold Black majorities. A bill was proposed (and rejected) during the legislature’s redistricting process that would have reconfigured the state’s northern districts to give Black voters more agency.
Now, racial justice advocates have turned to federal courts in the fight to earn Louisiana a second majority-Black seat. A coalition of civil rights groups have challenged the map for racial gerrymandering in hopes that a court will force the legislature to draw fairer districts.