The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee spent all night debating a new Congressional district map for Louisiana, and after nearly 10 hours the panel approved a map at around 4:30 this morning that has one majority Black district. The committee heard hours of testimony from the public who urged Senators to pass a six-district map with two majority Black districts. New Orleans Senator Royce Duplessis explained why opponents to a 5-1 map waited hours to testify.
“People feel like something’s being taken from them. People feel like they’re being violated. People feel like your bill is rolling this state back at least six decades,” Duplessis said.
Duplessis directed those comments towards Republican West Monroe Senator Jay Morris, who is the author of the map that favors Republicans to represent five of the six districts.
“They’re entitled to their opinion, but we are a democracy; so majority rules. That’s the rule of democracy. The Greeks invented it,” Morris said.
Duplessis told West Monroe Republican Jay Morris that Blacks would be underrepresented with a 5-1 map.
Duplessis: “You’re making it harder for Democrats, and people who want to elect Democrats, harder for them to have representation that represents their interests.”
Morris: ” I think they probably do represent their interests. Like, for example, Mike Johnson is in the fourth district. He works with Democrats and Republicans.”
Before approving a 5-1 Congressional map, Senate Governmental Affairs rejected a 4-2 map, where two districts in southeast Louisiana would give Black voters an opportunity to elect the candidate of their choice. The measure failed on 4-3 party line vote as all four Republicans voted against the measure. The vote angered many who spent the night at the capitol.
“Reconsider your decisions. Because not only is everybody watching, but we are going to feel the decisions; not just my children, your children. And you are negligent to the needs of the people that are actually in your District,” a member of the public said.
Another member of the public told the committee she thought the passionate testimony in support of a Congressional map with Black majority districts would sway the Republican lawmakers on the panel, but it did not.
“And I thought it would make a difference. But I see that it really doesn’t. It’s a 4-3 vote,” the observer said.
The full Senate is expected to vote Thursday on a 5-1 Congressional map that Republicans support.
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