(The Center Square) – U.S. Rep. Cleo Fields will not seek reelection to Congress and instead plans to run for the Baton Rouge-area state Senate seat he left less than two years ago, ending months of uncertainty over his political future after Louisiana lawmakers dismantled the congressional district that sent him back to Washington.
“After a great deal of prayer and reflection, I have decided not to seek re-election to Congress, in the 6th District or any other district in Louisiana,” Fields said Tuesday. “Instead, I will be running to fill the unexpired term for the State Senate in the 14th District.”
“I feel my calling to serve the people is better put to use back home than here in D.C., and I intend to answer that call,” he added.
Fields’ decision comes after a dramatic reversal in Louisiana’s congressional map.
The Democrat returned to Congress in 2025 after winning the newly redrawn 6th Congressional District, a majority-Black district that stretched diagonally across Louisiana from Baton Rouge toward Shreveport. Fields had previously served in Congress from 1993 to 1997.
That version of the 6th District was created by the Republican-controlled Legislature in 2024 amid federal litigation over whether Louisiana’s previous map unlawfully diluted Black voting strength. Fields won the new district in the November 2024 election with just over 50% of the vote.
But the district’s existence proved short-lived.
On April 29, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Louisiana had relied too heavily on race when drawing the second majority-Black district and held that the map amounted to an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.
Louisiana lawmakers responded by redrawing the congressional map again. Senate Bill 121, sponsored by Republican Sen. Jay Morris of West Monroe, dismantled the configuration of Fields’ district and reduced Louisiana from two majority-Black congressional districts to one, creating a map expected to favor Republicans in five of the state’s six U.S. House seats.
Gov. Jeff Landry signed the map into law as Act 2 on May 29.
The redistricting effectively erased the political foundation of the seat Fields won in 2024, while preserving a Democratic-leaning, majority-Black district centered around New Orleans and represented by Democratic U.S. Rep. Troy Carter.
Fields had previously indicated he would not challenge Carter if the redistricting process forced Louisiana’s two Black Democratic congressmen into competition for the state’s lone heavily Democratic seat.
His decision instead sets up a return to familiar territory in Baton Rouge.
Fields represented Louisiana Senate District 14 before leaving the Legislature to return to Congress. His departure created a vacancy filled in a February 2025 special election by Democrat Larry Selders, a former state representative whom Fields had endorsed.
Selders died unexpectedly July 7 at age 44, leaving the seat vacant once again.
