Louisiana has 79 contested state legislative primaries this year, a 14% decrease from 2019.
Louisiana holds top-two primaries, where all candidates compete in the same primary and a candidate can win the election outright by receiving more than 50% of the vote. If no candidate does, the top-two vote recipients from the primary advance to the general election, regardless of their partisan affiliation.
Of the 79 contested primaries, there are 60 top-two primaries in the House and 19 in the Senate.
Forty-three incumbents face primary challenges, representing 41.3% of all incumbents running for reelection. This is lower than in 2019 (46.4%) and 2011 (45.5%) but higher than in 2015 (34.5%).
Of the 43 incumbents in contested primaries, 14 are Democrats and 29 are Republicans.
Overall, 267 major party candidates — 98 Democrats and 169 Republicans — filed to run. All 105 House and 39 Senate seats are up for election.
Forty of those seats are open, meaning no incumbents filed. This guarantees that at least 28% of the Legislature will be represented by newcomers next year, the second-largest such percentage since 2011.
Louisiana has had a divided government since 2016, with Republicans controlling both legislative chambers and a Democrat holding the governorship. Republicans currently have a 71-33 majority in the House and a 27-12 majority in the Senate.
Louisiana’s state legislative primaries are scheduled for Oct. 14, the fifth and final statewide primary date of the 2023 state legislative election cycle.
