(The Center Square) — Louisiana lawmakers have given final approval to a newly redrawn congressional map that is likely to shift one U.S. House seat toward Republicans after months of legal uncertainty over the state’s district lines.
The Senate voted Friday to concur in House amendments to Senate Bill 121, sending the map to Gov. Jeff Landry’s desk. The bill’s official status is now “Sent to Governor,” according to the Legislature’s website.
The new map would leave Louisiana with one majority-Black, Democratic-leaning congressional district instead of two, reshaping the state’s delegation ahead of the November elections. Republicans currently hold four of Louisiana’s six U.S. House seats, while Democrats hold two.
The biggest political effect would fall on U.S. Rep. Cleo Fields, D-Baton Rouge, whose 6th District was created after earlier litigation over whether Louisiana’s congressional map diluted Black voting power. Under the newly approved map, Fields’ district would be redrawn into a more Republican-friendly seat, while U.S. Rep. Troy Carter’s New Orleans-based 2nd District would remain the state’s lone majority-Black district.
Republicans framed the proposal as a constitutionally safer map after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Louisiana’s 2024 congressional map in Louisiana v. Callais. That map had created a second majority-Black district after a separate federal court found the state’s earlier map likely violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The Supreme Court later held that the 2024 map amounted to an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.
Sen. Jay Morris, R-West Monroe, the bill’s sponsor, has argued throughout the process that the Legislature was drawing a map based on politics rather than race, a distinction central to defending the plan in court. Republican lawmakers said the new map better reflects the state’s political makeup and reduces the legal risk created by the prior district lines.
The redistricting fight has left Louisiana’s congressional elections on a compressed timeline. Landry previously postponed the state’s U.S. House primary elections to give lawmakers time to respond to the Supreme Court decision and adopt a replacement map.
Landry is expected to sign the map into law. The congressional races will then move to the fall, with candidates required to qualify again Aug. 5-7 before a Nov. 3 open primary and a Dec. 12 election if no candidate wins a majority.
