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Louisiana suspended its congressional primaries Thursday as early voting was about to get underway while pressure mounted on Republican officials in other states to also redraw their U.S. House maps in light of a Supreme Court ruling that significantly weakened the Voting Rights Act.<\/p>\n
Early voting had been scheduled to begin Saturday for Louisiana\u2019s May 16 primaries. But Republican Gov. Jeff Landry issued an executive order postponing the U.S. House primary in response to a ruling Wednesday by the court that struck down a majority Black congressional district.<\/p>\n
\u201cAllowing elections to proceed under an unconstitutional map would undermine the integrity of our system and violate the rights of our voters,\u201d Landry stated. \u201cThis executive order ensures we uphold the rule of law while giving the Legislature the time it needs to pass a fair and lawful congressional map.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Republican-controlled secretary of state\u2019s office, which declared an electoral emergency allowing for Landry\u2019s order, said it would post notices at early voting sites alerting the public about the suspended congressional primary. All other races on the ballot will proceed as scheduled.<\/p>\n
The governor\u2019s order postponed the congressional primary until either July 15 or a date to be set by the Legislature. The state\u2019s Republican House and Senate leaders said they are prepared to pass new congressional voting districts \u2014 and set a new election date \u2014 before their regular session ends in a month.<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump, in a series of social media posts Thursday, praised Landry for moving quickly to revise the state\u2019s congressional districts and urged Republicans in Tennessee to do likewise in response to the Supreme Court\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n
Democrats say the delay could cause confusion<\/p>\n
While civil rights activists denounced the potential for\u00a0diminished minority representation\u00a0in Congress, top Republicans cited the Supreme Court\u2019s decision as justification to spur an already intense\u00a0national redistricting battle\u00a0among states before the November elections.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think all states who have unconstitutional maps should look at that very carefully, and I think they should do it before the midterm,\u201d House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters in Washington.<\/p>\n
The election suspension in Louisiana was denounced by some Democrats.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is going to cause mass confusion among voters \u2014 Democrats, Republicans, white, Black, everybody,\u201d said Louisiana state Sen. Royce Duplessis, a Democrat who represents the New Orleans area. \u201cWhat they\u2019re effectively doing is changing the rules of the game in the middle of the game. It\u2019s rigging the system.\u201d<\/p>\n
Delaying an election is unusual but not unprecedented.<\/p>\n
During the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, several states pushed back elections because of health concerns. Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards, who led Louisiana at the time, postponed Louisiana\u2019s April 4 presidential primary three weeks before it was supposed to occur \u2014 then delayed it again until July 11.<\/p>\n
More states could join a national redistricting wave<\/p>\n
Louisiana currently is represented in the U.S. House by four Republicans and two Democrats. A revised map could give Republicans a chance to pick up at least one more seat in the November midterms \u2014 adding to Republican gains elsewhere from redistricting.<\/p>\n
Voting districts typically are redrawn once a decade, after each census. But Trump last year\u00a0urged Texas Republicans\u00a0to redraw House districts to give the GOP an edge in the midterms. California Democrats reciprocated, and redistricting efforts soon cascaded across states.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday,\u00a0Florida lawmakers became the latest\u00a0to redraw U.S. House districts, adopting a new map backed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis that could give the GOP a chance at winning several additional seats.<\/p>\n
The Florida vote occurred just hours after the U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s conservative majority issued a ruling that significantly weakened minority protections under the federal Voting Rights Act. The court said Louisiana officials had relied too heavily on race when drawing a congressional district that is represented by\u00a0Democrat Cleo Fields.<\/p>\n
Trump wants Tennessee to also take up redistricting in response to the court\u2019s ruling. The president posted on social media that he had spoken with Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, who he said would work hard for a new map that could help Republicans gain an additional seat. Democrats currently hold only one of the state\u2019s nine House seats \u2014 a district centered in Memphis, which is majority Black.<\/p>\n
Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton, a Republican, said he is in conversations with the White House and others while reviewing the court\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n
Louisiana has a history of redistricting challenges<\/p>\n
After the 2020 census, Louisiana officials had drawn House voting district boundaries that\u00a0maintained one Black majority district\u00a0and five mostly white districts, in a state with a population that is about one-third Black.<\/p>\n
A federal judge later\u00a0struck down the map\u00a0for violating the Voting Rights Act. And the following year\u00a0the Supreme Court found\u00a0that Alabama had to create its own second majority Black congressional district.<\/p>\n
In response, Louisiana\u2019s legislature and governor\u00a0adopted a new House map\u00a0in 2024 that created a second Black majority district. But that map also was subsequently challenged in court, leading to the most recent Supreme Court ruling.<\/p>\n
After the ruling, Landry called U.S. House candidates on Wednesday and told them that primaries would most likely be stalled, according to Misti Cordell, a Republican running in a crowded race to fill U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow\u2019s vacated seat.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an inconvenience for a candidate for sure, but you know they want to do it right versus having to go through all this again,\u201d Cordell said. She added that she appreciated the heads up before she and other candidates began \u201cspending their war chest\u201d during the final weeks leading up to Election Day.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Brook reported from New Orleans and Lieb reported from Jefferson City, Missouri. AP reporter Travis Loller contributed from Nashville.<\/p>\n
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