Overview
- Rep. Cleo Fields announced he will not seek another term in Congress and will instead run for the unexpired state Senate seat left by the late Larry Selders.
- The Supreme Court found Louisiana’s 6th Congressional District to be an unconstitutional racial gerrymander, a decision that undercut a key application of the Voting Rights Act in the state.
- State lawmakers then adopted a new congressional map that eliminated Fields’s majority-Black 6th District and left the state with only one majority-Black seat.
- The National Republican Congressional Committee has publicly targeted the reconfigured seat as a flip opportunity, making the change likely to shift partisan balance toward Republicans.
- Fields says the map change raises broader questions about who can win in Louisiana and his move back to state politics could alter local representation and the balance of power to watch in upcoming elections.