Louisiana lawmakers advance new 5-1 congressional map that favors Republicans

Louisiana lawmakers on Wednesday unveiled a new congressional map for the 2026 election after the Supreme Court struck down the state’s current map in a landmark ruling last month. 

The new map will eliminate one of the state’s majority Black, Democratic-leaning districts while keeping one Democratic-leaning district. The district map now favors Republicans in five districts and Democrats in one. 

The state Senate and Governmental Affairs committee advanced the map in the early hours on Wednesday. Democrats had proposed their own map that kept the 4-2 map in place. 

The new single Democratic-leaning district stretches from New Orleans into parts of Baton Rouge, potentially pitting the state’s two Black representatives, Cleo Fields and Troy Carter, against each other. Fields’ majority Black district was dissolved into other districts.  

In a statement, Fields vowed to fight the new map. 

“That bill may have failed, but its principles have not,” Fields said in the statement. 

He added that as the bill “moves to the full Senate, I will be fighting to ensure those principles are not left behind. The demographics of this state demand fair representation. The history of this state demands it. And the people of Louisiana — all of the people — deserve nothing less.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson, whose 4th District was partially redrawn in the new map and now includes Shreveport and the surrounding area, said Wednesday that the Supreme Court “restored a simple but profound truth, yes, the Constitution protects every American equally, and that’s a very important concept for us to maintain.”

“You can’t have an election on an unconstitutional map,” Johnson said. “That’s why, not just Louisiana, but other states have reviewed their maps under this new rule in the clarification of the court to make sure that we do this right.” 

Public comment on the GOP-led maps stretched into 4 a.m., according to CBS New Orleans affiliate WWL.

The Supreme Court ruled last month that the congressional map enacted in Louisiana in 2021 leaned too heavily when redrawing the state’s voting boundaries to comply with Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The ruling narrowed the Voting Rights Act, kicking off a redistricting race in many southern states ahead of the 2026 midterm election. 

The Supreme Court decision was the latest development in the redistricting wars kicked off last year by President Trump when he pushed Texas lawmakers to redraw their congressional map to net up to five more seats for Republicans as his party seeks to stay in control of the U.S. House. 

Although early voting in Louisiana was set to begin only a few days after the Supreme Court ruling and more than 40,000 ballots had already been returned, Republican Gov. Jeff Landry suspended the state’s House primaries. Landry told “60 Minutes” earlier this week that the ballots already returned will be discarded. 

The other primaries in the state are still underway, including the highly-watched Republican primary for the Senate seat. Early voting ended on May 9 and the primary will be held on May 16.