Louisiana sticks to existing congressional district for 2026 midterms
Louisiana’s existing six congressional districts will be used for the 2026 midterm election, after the U.S. Supreme Court did not rule in a case challenging their boundaries.https://thecurrentla.com/2026/louisiana-sticks-to-existing-congressional-district-for-2026-midterms/
LDH restores Aetna’s Medicaid contract
The Landry administration still plans to terminate its contract with UnitedHealthCare, which insures 330,700 Medicaid enrollees, at the end of month.https://thecurrentla.com/2025/ldh-restores-aetnas-medicaid-contract/
Legislators delay 2026 primary, buying time for midterm redistricting
This story was first reported by Louisiana Illuminator and republished with permission.
Republicans in the Louisiana Legislature gave final approval Wednesday to pushing back 2026 primary election dates, capping a one-week special session that sets the stage for revising the state’s U.S. House districts ahead of next year’s congressional midterms.
Their calendar adjustment banks on the U.S. Supreme bucking its pattern of issuing decisions in the spring and instead making a ruling in a key redistricting case before Christmas.
In the GOP’s preferred scenario, justices would issue a decision in the case by Dec. 20 that would clear the way for legislators to redraw the maps in an early January special session. The ruling might allow Republican lawmakers to remove one or both majority Black districts that Black Democrats currently hold out of the state’s six U.S. House seats.
The second district, represented by Baton Rouge Democrat Cleo Fields, includes a portion of north Lafayette.
In the case in question, Louisiana v. Callais, Attorney General Liz Murrill has argued that race was used illegally to draw boundaries of the 6th Congressional District that state lawmakers gave bipartisan approval to in early 2024. Specifically, she has called into question whether Section 2 the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 violates the U.S. Constitution.
The section of the landmark civil rights legislation prohibits voting laws or procedures that discriminate based on race, color or membership in a language minority group. Murrill contends Section 2 conflicts with the 14th and 15th amendments of the U.S. Constitution, which cover representation in Congress and racial discrimination in voting, respectively.
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Read MoreBlack Democrats in the Louisiana Legislature led opposition to pushing back qualifying and party primary elections dates a month to allow for a possible redistricting. They noted that Murrill and Republicans, including Gov. Jeff Landry, originally supported and called for the creation of a second majority-Black congressional district in Louisiana to avoid having a federal court drawing the lines.
After an initial hearing in March, the Supreme Court scheduled a rare second round of arguments for the parties in Callais for October, asking them to evaluate whether Louisiana’s current congressional map violates the 14th and 15th amendments to the U.S. Constitution. It was then that Murrill ended her defense of the map and joined the white plaintiffs who sued to block it.
The decision in the case could determine the degree to which race can be considered when drawing election maps after each decennial census, creating nationwide implications.
Justices could simply keep as is Louisiana’s challenged 6th Congressional District, which Rep. Cleo Fields, D-Baton Rouge, currently holds. But if Fields’ district is rejected without undermining the Voting Rights Act, state lawmakers would have to approve a new congressional map with two majority Black districts.
Justices could also overturn Fields’ district and scale back Section 2. Republicans would then have the opportunity to eliminate either or both of the state’s two majority Black districts.
Throughout the special session, Black lawmakers were pointed in their remarks toward Republican colleagues, saying that they are carrying out President Donald Trump’s orders to help preserve the GOP’s majority in Congress. Several Republican-led states have launched efforts to redraw their House districts, a process that typically takes place closer to the completion of the decennial U.S. census.
Rep. Candace Newell, a Black Democrat from New Orleans, noted the redistricting cycle based on the 2020 census was the first since the U.S. Department of Justice ended its preclearance of Louisiana’s election mapmaking process. A Supreme Court decision in 2013 determined the oversight was unconstitutional, weakening Section 4(b) of the Voting Rights Act.
“We are seeing now that the South is not far enough removed from racist practices where we can trust that the fundamentally correct thing will be done,” Newell said to House members.
Rep. Beau Beaullieu, who co-authored the bill to push back qualifying and primary dates next year, pushed back on this as well as suggestions that the changes would create confusion among voters.
He framed the special session as an opportunity to position the state to act quickly if the Supreme Court rules soon on Callias. The fact that justices held a second hearing in the Callais could lead to a ruling from the Supreme Court in the coming weeks, he said.
“I don’t think it’s out of the realm of possibilities that, because they’ve delayed us already, they wouldn’t provide us with a decision before the end of the year,” Beaullieu told lawmakers Wednesday.
Are two members of Congress better than one?Louisiana’s redrawn congressional map positions Lafayette to have two representatives in Congress, potentially a Republican and a Democrat.
Even if a Supreme Court ruling invalidates Louisiana’s current congressional map, the state would not be obligated to implement new maps for the 2026 election.
The date changes lawmakers approved in a 73-29 vote move next year’s primary election schedule back roughly one month. Instead of an April 18 party primary for Louisiana’s congressional races and some municipal elections, the new date would be May 16. Primary runoffs would be moved from May 30 to June 2.
The qualifying period for the election would be adjusted from Jan. 14-16 to Feb. 11-13.
A separate measure lawmakers approved moves five state constitutional amendments and local propositions on the March ballot to the new April date.
Beaullieu said the Secretary of State would need the legislature to provide a new congressional district map by Jan. 13 in order for her office to hold the qualifying period a month later.
Next year’s congressional midterm election will be the first Louisiana holds under a closed primary system since 1975. Lawmakers chose in 2024 to end the state’s open “jungle” primary process that places candidates from all parties in a weed-out election and sends the top two vote-getters to a runoff unless someone claims more than 50% of the primary vote. The implementation of closed primaries was delayed until 2026.
U.S. Supreme Court to hear arguments in case over La. congressional district
In Louisiana v. Callais, justices could set a standard for the degree to which race can be considered when drawing election maps.
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