BATON ROUGE, La. — Louisiana has called off its May congressional primary elections following a Wednesday Supreme Court decision that invalidated a majority-Black congressional district, state leadership announced Thursday.
Republican Governor Jeff Landry and GOP Attorney General Liz Murrill announced in a combined statement that the high court’s Wednesday decision prevents the state from conducting primaries using existing district boundaries. Early voting was set to commence Saturday ahead of the May 16 primary date.
“The State is currently enjoined from carrying out congressional elections under the current map,” Landry and Murrill said in the statement posted to social media. “We are working together with the Legislature and the Secretary of State’s office to develop a path forward.”
Democratic officials criticized the election postponement.
“This is going to cause mass confusion among voters — Democrats, Republicans, white, Black, everybody,” said Louisiana state Sen. Royce Duplessis, a Democrat who represents the New Orleans area. “What they’re effectively doing is changing the rules of the game in the middle of the game. It’s rigging the system.”
Louisiana’s current U.S. House delegation includes four Republicans and two Democrats. A redrawn map might allow Republicans to gain at least one additional seat during November’s midterm elections — contributing to GOP advances elsewhere in an unprecedented national redistricting fight.
Congressional districts are normally redrawn once per decade following each census. However, former President Donald Trump last year encouraged Texas Republicans to redraw House districts to benefit the GOP in midterm races. California Democrats responded similarly, and redistricting efforts subsequently spread to other states.
Wednesday saw Florida become the newest state to redraw its U.S. House districts, approving a new map supported by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis that might allow the GOP to capture several more seats.
The Florida decision happened just hours after the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority released a decision that substantially reduced minority safeguards under the federal Voting Rights Act. The court determined that Louisiana officials placed excessive emphasis on race when creating a congressional district currently represented by Democrat Cleo Fields.
Following the 2020 census, Louisiana officials created House district boundaries that preserved one Black-majority district and five predominantly white districts, in a state where approximately one-third of residents are Black.
A federal judge subsequently invalidated the map for Voting Rights Act violations. The following year, the Supreme Court determined that Alabama must establish its own second majority-Black congressional district.
Louisiana’s legislature and governor then approved a new House map establishing a second Black-majority district. However, this map faced court challenges as well, resulting in the latest Supreme Court decision.
