After a debate that lasted about eight hours, the Louisiana House approved a Congressional map that eliminates one of the state’s majority Black districts. The vote was 66-35 in the House, and the map was given final passage by a 28-10 vote in the Senate. The Republican-led legislature is drawing a new map because the U.S. Supreme Court says race played too much of a factor in the current map, which resulted in two majority-minority districts. Democrats say race should still be a factor in the drawing of a new map, but House Governmental Affairs Chairman Beau Beaullieu said that would lead to more litigation.
“If we were to even have peeked at race, we would have opened up the argument that could have been utilized to challenge our efforts with the question: how much consideration is too much?”
The approved map results in Republicans representing five of the state’s six Congressional districts.
Democrats allege the map drawn by the Republican-led Legislature is solely based on party politics, but Beaullieu disagreed.
“We are not doing it just on political party,” he said. “It’s one of the primary objectives that we had, and that came from Callais. We also have all the other traditional redistricting principles that come into play, and there’s nothing that says that we have to have two democrat districts.”
Every Black member of the Louisiana House spoke in opposition to the legislation, including Opelousas Representative Dustin Miller.
“We can either choose today to maximize inclusion, or we can diminish it,” said Miller. “Just because you can reduce the representation today, it doesn’t mean we should.”
Black lawmakers have opposed this map every step of the way, but they did not have the votes to stop it from going to the governor’s desk. It’s likely the Legislative Black Caucus or a voting rights group will file a lawsuit to prevent it from going into effect after Landry signs it into law.
New Orleans Representative Candace Newell said they also have other tools, like the grassroots effort that led to the voting down of the five constitutional amendments on the May 16th ballot.
“This country, especially the South, was built on the backs of black people, and if black people don’t get what they are owed, what is due to them, white folks won’t have it either, because we’re going to tear it all up,” said Newell.
Democrats have said that since Blacks make up a third of the voting population, Blacks should represent two of the state’s six Congressional districts for it to be a fair Congressional map. Beaullieu argued this is not the case across the country.
“30% of Massachusetts residents vote Republican, and out of nine congressional seats, Massachusetts does not have a single republican in the House of Representatives,” he said. Is it only in the Democrat states that this notion of fairness doesn’t have to apply?”
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