Louisiana lawmakers approve a new congressional map with a second majority-Black district
Louisiana state lawmakers approved a new congressional map on Friday, drawing a second majority-Black district to comply with a court order.
Louisiana state lawmakers approved a new congressional map on Friday, drawing a second majority-Black district to comply with a court order.
A federal court had ruled in 2022 that Louisiana’s Republican-controlled Legislature had illegally disenfranchised Black voters in the state with their previous redistricting plan. After more than a year of appeals and a U.S. Supreme Court ruling forcing a new map in a similar case in Alabama, state lawmakers set out to redraw the Louisiana map this week.
The state is nearly one-third Black, but five of the state's six congressional districts are a majority white. Louisiana’s 2nd District, which is majority Black, is currently represented by Rep. Troy Carter, a Democrat.
The new map will lower the Black voting-age population in Carter’s district to 51%, while drawing a new 6th Congressional District as a narrow strip through the center of the state, from Shreveport to Baton Rouge. That district will have a Black voting-age population of 53%.
GOP Rep. Garret Graves represents the current iteration of Louisiana's 6th District, which has a Black voting-age population of 23%.
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