By Izzy Wollfarth and Veronica Camenzuli | LSU Manship School News Service
BATON ROUGE – A 5-1 congressional redistricting map will go before the Senate floor on Thursday, but not without continued pushback from Black legislators and the public.
The new map maintains District 1, represented by House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, and District 4, held by Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, but splits East Baton Rouge Parish into two congressional districts, causing uncertainty regarding the House seats of two Louisiana Democrats, Rep. Troy Carter and Rep. Cleo Fields.
The House and Senate agreed on Wednesday to set new election dates for the U.S. House seats for Nov. 3 under an open primary system. The new qualifying period for candidates would be from Aug. 5-7.
Gov. Jeff Landry must sign the bill for the dates and process to go into effect. The adjustment would be solely for this election cycle.
Under the new map, Sen. Blake Miguez, R-New Iberia, and Sen. Rick Edmonds, R-Baton Rouge, two of the four Republican candidates in the race for District 5, would live outside the areas they seek to represent.
U.S. Rep. Troy Carter, D-La, who serves District 2, would likely vie with Fields to represent the lone Democrat district, which includes New Orleans, the River Parishes and parts of Baton Rouge.
Carter said he hoped “core principles” of the failed map put forward by Sen. Edward Price, D-Gonzales, in Senate Bill 407, “can still be incorporated” through amendments to SB 121, which advanced to the House floor.
“SB 407 offered a fair and balanced approach by creating two districts in which African American communities would remain relatively whole, thereby preserving the opportunity for African American voters to elect candidates of their choosing,” Carter said. “As this process moves forward, I will continue advocating for fairness, equity and representation that truly reflects the demographics and voices of our great state.”
Fields said in a press release that the state’s demographics – about one-third of Louisiana’s voters are Black – “demand fair representation.”
“The history of this state demands it,” Fields said. “And the people of Louisiana – all of the people – deserve nothing less.”
Last week, Rep. Beau Beaullieu, R-New Iberia, chair of the House and Governmental Affairs Committee, told the Manship School News Service a priority of the new maps would be to “intentionally” protect the districts of Johnson as House speaker and Scalise as majority leader.
“That’s something I could be very clear with,” Beaullieu said.
The new congressional map advanced along party lines in the Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee meeting after 9 1/2 hours of overnight testimony bled into Wednesday morning.
Rep. Delisha Boyd, D-New Orleans, who was present for the committee meeting that ended at almost 4:30 a.m., said she was “extremely disappointed” with the outcome.
“I don’t know how anyone could sit in that room and hear some of the stories from the people who came before me, the passion of those who were coming behind me, and not feel compelled to do the right thing,” she said.
Boyd said previously that she would be unhappy with a 6-0 map and a 5-1 map. She said the 4-2 map, like the one proposed by Price, would be the only one to accurately represent the state’s population.
While presenting his 5-1 map that eventually advanced, Sen. Jay Morris, R-West Monroe, said the mapping decision was based on politics.
“In my view, because of the Republican philosophy and priorities are something I tend to prefer, I think the more Republicans you have in Congress, the more those priorities will be advanced,” Morris said. “And, I think that’s better for the country.”
Boyd called Morris’s testimony “self-righteous” and argued that even a Republican has a duty to fight for everyone regardless of political party.
Conrad Cable, a white Democratic candidate running for Johnson’s seat, insisted the fight is not over.
“This is not about policy,” Cable wrote on his Instagram. “This is a power grab, plain and simple. Hundreds of Louisiana citizens packed committee rooms. They testified. They stayed up all night. They were ignored.”
Rep. Denise Marcelle, D-Baton Rouge and a member of the Black Caucus, said she believes the decision is raising voter awareness.
“People are outraged, and they are going to show up at the polls to show them that they are outraged,” Marcelle said. “In fact, many of them took to the testimony yesterday and just said that, ‘Hey, we’re coming for your seats.’”
The map will have to pass on the Senate floor and then advance to the House and Governmental Affairs Committee before going to the House floor.