Democratic U.S. Representative Cleo Fields announced Tuesday that he has chosen not to run for reelection in his redrawn Louisiana congressional district — a seat that found itself at the heart of a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision involving race and redistricting.
The Louisiana state legislature redrew Fields’ majority Black district in May, reshaping it in a way that favors Republicans heading into November’s midterm elections. That action came one month after the Supreme Court ruled that the district had leaned too heavily on racial considerations and declared it an “unconstitutional gerrymander.”
“After a great deal of prayer and reflection, I have decided not to seek reelection, to Congress, in the 6th District or any other district in Louisiana,” Fields said.
Rather than pursue another congressional term, Fields — a longtime figure in Louisiana politics — said he plans to run for a seat in the state Senate instead.
The Supreme Court’s move to invalidate the map that had benefited Fields added fuel to a broader redistricting fight playing out across the country, one that has been significantly shaped by President Donald Trump’s push to strengthen Republican positions ahead of the midterms.
In June, the Supreme Court also allowed Alabama to proceed with a Republican-favoring map for this year’s elections.
Louisiana Republicans had explored the possibility of drawing a new map that could have positioned the party to win all six of the state’s U.S. House seats. However, doing so would have required placing more registered Democrats into Republican-held districts — a strategy that risked backfiring with potential GOP losses.
The newly redrawn map shifts Fields’ district to concentrate it around predominantly white communities in the Baton Rouge area and southern Louisiana.
Fields previously served two terms in the U.S. House between 1993 and 1997 and was the second Black member of Congress to represent Louisiana.
