By Sheridan White, Kylah Babin, Avery White and Gracie Thomas | LSU Manship School News Service
BATON ROUGE – The Senate voted 27-10 along party lines Thursday to advance to the House a new voting map that favors Republican candidates in five of Louisiana’s six congressional districts.
After a contentious, 9 1/2-hour meeting in the Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee that lasted throughout the night until early morning Wednesday, the Senate met for four hours Thursday and advanced the 5-1 map outlined in Senate Bill 121 by Sen. Jay Morris, R-West Monroe.
Sen. Beth Mizell, R-Franklinton, and Sen. Larry Selders, D-Baton Rouge, were the lone senators who did not vote. Selders has been recuperating from health issues.
Morris said he created the new map based on party affiliation rather than race, which was the guiding principle highlighted by the Supreme Court in its decision in Callais v. Louisiana, which indicated race could not be used as the primary factor in drawing congressional maps.
“It’s perfectly fine for us to redraw maps based upon politics,” Morris said. “Since I am a Republican and believe in the policies that Republicans often advance, these maps are drawn to maximize Republican advantage for the incumbent Republicans that we have in Congress at the present time.”
“This is based on the ideals that a majority of Louisiana citizens hold,” Morris added. “The maps will perform well for Republicans. I admit that in considering that, but race had nothing to do with it.”
The new 5-1 map would protect the Republican incumbents in Congress, specifically House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and House Speaker Mike Johnson. Morris also stated that the map allows for as many Democratic voters to be put into a single minority-majority district, District 2.
Sen. Sam Jenkins, D-Shreveport, questioned the map, asking Morris if a single Democratic district was just a way to discriminate against Black and Democratic voters. Morris responded no.
“If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s probably a duck,” Jenkins said.
Morris responded, “It’s not quacking.”
“It’s quacking pretty loudly all over this state,” Jenkins replied. “This bill unfairly packs Black voters into a single district. That’s not OK.”
Morris also admitted that he chose to intentionally protect U.S. Rep. Troy Carter out of the two Democratic representatives, which will cause U.S. Rep. Cleo Fields either to lose his seat or choose to run against Carter.
“It’s respectful of New Orleans, which has traditionally had a district centered for itself,” Morris said.
Senate President Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, said Fields is unlikely to run against Carter for the new Democratic-majority district.
“(Fields) doesn’t want to pit New Orleans and Baton Rouge against each other,” Henry told reporters.
Democrats rallied during the floor meeting in opposition to the bill. Passionate testimony was heard from Sen. Royce Duplessis, D-New Orleans.
“The people of Louisiana are going to remember this,” Duplessis told the Senate. “The people of Louisiana will take action. We are setting our state and our country back six decades.”
Duplessis argued that Morris’s map is based on race but disguised as partisan, citing that SB8 from 2024 was also created on the basis of party. He said pressure from President Donald Trump motivated the creation of the final map.
“It’s an order from one person who doesn’t care about anybody other than himself,” Duplessis said. “What kind of democracy is that? The decision was decided by somebody who doesn’t even live in Louisiana – ‘Go get me some congressional seats.’ This ain’t even about Louisiana politics. If your policies were so good, so great, what are you afraid of? Go win in November. … You might win on this vote today, but you’re not going to win in the end.”
A large portion of the debate centered on the party registration statistics within the state. Republicans, Democrats and No Party voters each share one-third of the registered voter population. Therefore, according to Democrats such as Sen. Regina Barrow, D-Baton Rouge, Louisiana’s district map should be more representative of those shares rather than give Republicans a 5-1 advantage.
“We can’t say we love people and then dilute your vote,” added Sen. Katrina Jackson-Andrews, D-Monroe.
According to Morris, the map returns to similar concepts of the state’s previous 5-1 map from 2022, favoring five Republican districts and one Democrat district and would “easily pass any sort of challenge.”
The map also splits up at least 15 parishes among two, sometimes three different districts, which Democratic senators criticized heavily.
Sen. Edward Price, D-Gonzales, offered an amendment that would have provided a substitute map to the one Morris proposed. Price’s map split up only seven parishes among no more than two districts and created two majority-Democratic districts without creating majority-minority districts based on race.
Price’s amendment was killed in a 10-27 vote along party lines.
Price’s substitute map was the same map that was killed in the Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee meeting early Wednesday morning after hours of supporting testimonies from the public. The committee voted 4-3 to advance Morris’ map instead.
“The democracy of the Greeks (says) majority rules,” Morris said. “The majority still has the right to rule. You’re right if you say we may not have a majority for long. That could be the case. If we have fair elections, I will accept that.”
“Everybody’s got constituencies, and I understand that,” Morris added. “A lot of what has been said by the opposition plays well in their districts, but at the end of the day, we have a job to do.”
SB 121 will be heard in the House next week.