BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana’s Republican senators pushed through a proposal Wednesday to dismantle one of the state’s two congressional districts where Black voters hold a majority, acting on a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that invalidated the current House map for illegal racial gerrymandering.
The Senate committee’s decision came in the early morning hours following extensive emotional testimony from Black community members and Democratic lawmakers who opposed the redistricting plan. While Republicans could have pursued an even more drastic strategy targeting both Democratic-held seats, they chose a more restrained approach.
The Supreme Court’s latest decision has weakened federal voting rights protections for minority communities, encouraging GOP lawmakers across the South to target House districts where large minority populations have consistently elected Democratic representatives. Both Tennessee and Alabama have already moved forward with revised congressional maps that could boost Republican chances of gaining additional seats. However, a comparable initiative in South Carolina’s Senate failed to advance on Tuesday.
These efforts to dismantle minority-majority districts represent the newest chapter in a nationwide redistricting fight that has been ongoing for 10 months and has affected roughly one-third of all states. The movement intensified when former President Donald Trump encouraged Texas Republicans to redraw their House boundaries last year in hopes of capturing more seats during midterm elections. California Democrats responded with their own redistricting efforts, followed by numerous other Republican-controlled states.
GOP strategists believe their party could pick up as many as 15 House seats through new district maps across Texas, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Florida, Tennessee and Alabama. Democratic analysts estimate their party could gain six seats from revised maps in California and Utah. Last week, Virginia’s Supreme Court rejected a redistricting plan that might have created four additional competitive seats for Democrats.
