Louisiana is on track to temporarily return to a jungle primary system for its U.S. House races after Gov. Jeff Landry suspended this month’s closed primaries so the state could redraw its congressional map to favor Republicans in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling that deemed the current map unconstitutional.
Under House Bill 842, which the Legislature passed Wednesday, voters would select their preferred House candidates from a list of Republicans and Democrats on the November ballot. The top two vote-getters in each district would head to a run-off in December, regardless of party.
That plan was incorporated into HB842 through amendments added by a conference committee, a small group of state representatives and senators who meet in private to hammer out amendments to bills in the final stages of the legislative process.
Typically, bills only go through that stage when the two chambers disagree on the particularities of legislation, but they can sometimes include substantive changes.
The House approved the changes to HB842 in a 67-27 vote, while the Senate’s vote was 29-7. The bill deals with a broad set of changes to Louisiana’s election code.
State Rep. Beau Beaullieu, R-New Iberia, who sponsored HB842, said on the House floor that Louisiana needed to temporarily revert to an open primary because the Secretary of State did not have time to hold a closed primary and a run-off ahead of the general election.
Louisiana’s Senate primaries remain closed and will be decided when voters go to the polls on May 16. The state adopted a closed primary system for the U.S. House and Senate races in 2024, at Landry’s behest.
Candidates who ran for the House in the suspended election will have to sign up to run again. Under HB842, which needs Landry’s signature to take effect, qualifying dates would run from Aug. 5 to Aug. 7.
HB842 was passed hours after the Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee held a tense overnight hearing to redraw Louisiana’s congressional map. They approved a “5-1” map with one majority-Black district stretching from New Orleans to Baton Rouge; under it, Democrats would likely lose a seat in Congress, as Black voters in Louisiana overwhelmingly favor the Democratic party.
The map, contained in Senate Bill 121 by state Sen. Jay Morris, R-West Monroe, now needs the approval of the full chamber before it heads to the House.
A landmark redistricting decision
In the wake of a Supreme Court ruling that declared Louisiana’s existing map unconstitutional, Republicans in the state have moved to create a map that would give their party more seats during the upcoming midterms.
Louisiana has six House seats. Two are held by Black Democrats, who picked up a seat in 2024 after Landry and the Legislature responded to civil rights litigation by adding a second majority-Black district. The rest of the seats are held by Republicans.
Previously, just one of Louisiana’s House seats was in a majority-Black district. About one-third of Louisiana’s population is Black.
Using the Voting Rights Act, civil rights lawyers argued that, for Black Louisianans to be fairly represented, candidates favored by the Black community should be able to win two of the state’s House seats.
But the new 4-2 map sparked more litigation – this time by White voters who said it discriminated based on race.
That lawsuit, Louisiana v. Callais, went all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled that lawmakers cannot take race into account when they draw election maps. Their decision upended the Voting Rights Act, which for decades has been used to ensure Black candidates get a seat at the table.
Other political battles
The ruling has roiled Louisiana politics, where Black Democrats already were upset after Republicans passed legislation to merge the New Orleans civil and criminal clerks’ offices. The law shut criminal clerk-elect Calvin Duncan out of office; Duncan is a Black lawyer who overwhelmingly won the election in November.
The Legislature also is considering a bill to eliminate some judgeships in Orleans, which critics say will also reduce the number of Black elected officials in the state.
The debate over Louisiana’s congressional maps is part of a national gerrymandering effort in which Republicans and Democrats are trying to tilt as many districts as possible in their favor ahead of the November midterms.
Other Republican-led southern states, like Tennessee and Florida, also moved to eliminate majority-minority districts after the Callais decision. Though they may no longer consider race, lawmakers are allowed to consider political party and work to protect incumbents when they draw voting maps.
