Louisiana governor signs new congressional map into law, likely costing GOP a seat

Gov. Jeff Landry (R-LA) gave final approval to a congressional map that creates a court-ordered second majority-black district and likely costs Republicans one of its five seats in the Louisiana legislature.

The new map protects the partisan lean of House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise’s (R-LA) districts, but reshapes Rep. Garret Graves’s (R-LA) district to become the state’s second black-majority district. Landry signed the bill on Monday and argued that the legislature was keeping the map in its control, rather than being drawn by a court.

Today, we began the process of necessary structural change to our election system, allowing for a cleaner and simpler final ballot, and we took the pen out of the hand of a non-elected judge and placed it in the hands of the people.

— GovJeffLandry (@LAGovJeffLandry) January 22, 2024

“Today, we began the process of necessary structural change to our election system, allowing for a cleaner and simpler final ballot, and we took the pen out of the hand of a non-elected judge and placed it in the hands of the people,” Landry said in a post on X.

Graves’s district is expected to be a loss for the GOP in November, given that black voters lean heavily Democratic, but the Louisiana Republican does not appear ready to back down. Graves told Shreveport Times that he is “running for reelection, period,” but did not say which district he would seek reelection in.

The court, which struck down the previous congressional map, gave the legislature until Jan. 30 to install a compliant congressional map for the 2024 election.

While Johnson’s district was protected under the new map, he expressed displeasure in the new district and argued that the struck-down map would eventually win in court.

“We’ve just seen, and are very concerned with, the proposed Congressional map presented in the Louisiana Legislature. It remains my position that the existing map is constitutional and that the legal challenge to it should be tried on merits so the State has adequate opportunity to defend its merits,” he said in a post on X about the new map when it was proposed last week.

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Republicans currently have a narrow 219-213 majority in the House of Representatives. Redistricting since the last election has helped Democrats in several key states, like New York, and could put the GOP’s hold on the chamber in jeopardy in November.

Despite several key losses, the GOP has had some wins in redistricting battles across the country. In North Carolina, Republicans are expected to gain seats, and in Georgia, they approved a map that maintains the same partisan breakdowns.

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