Louisiana
| Redistricting Process: Legislative | Population Change (since 2000): 64,396 |
| Legislature: Republican | Seats: 6 |
| Governor: Bobby Jindal (R) | Members of Congress: 5R, 1D |
| Party Control: Republican | 2012: 40.6% Obama, 57.8% Romney |
Map Instructions:
Three maps are available for each state. Each has new district outlines in bold.
Click on each district on the map to see more information.
Click the arrow button to switch between districts that are close together.
New Districts by Party Representation
2010 Redistricting Changes:
Redistricting Analysis: Slow Growth, Louisiana Loses One Seat
Old Districts by Partisan Voting Index with New District Outlines
Old Districts by Party Representation with New District Outlines
Although the South saw population growth of about 14%, Louisiana only grew 1.4% in population (now at 4,533,372 people), making it the third slowest-growing state in the country. [1] As a result, Louisiana has eliminated the 7th district, giving it only six seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. Due to Hurricane Katrina in August of 2005, a large number of Louisiana residents were displaced to neighboring states, and in the long-term, many Spanish-speaking, foreign-born laborers were attracted to the area by the promise of construction work. Before the hurricane, the top national origin for foreign-born populations in Louisiana was Vietnam, with 14.5% of foreign-born residents having roots there.[2] Now, those with roots in Vietnam make up 2% of the total population while South and Central American Hispanics are an equally large foreign-born minority.[3]
In Louisiana, the state legislature has full control over congressional redistricting, subject to approval by the governor. This redistricting cycle, meetings began on March 20, 2011. Louisianan lawmakers set the target size of each district at 755,562 people.[4]
Louisiana’s new redistricting plan, HB 6, came just at the end of the special session convened after the release of the census, and was signed off by Governor Bobby Jindal (R) a few days later. Being under constraint of the Voting Rights Act, and having to apportion a majority Black district, the state’s redistricting plans have to be approved by the U.S. Justice Department. The Department of Justice gave clearance to Louisiana’s plans, but made clear that this does not mean that the plans couldn’t be legally opposed before the November elections.[5] Congressional elections in Louisiana differ from most other states’ elections in that candidates of all parties run in the same primary, called a blanket primary, and can either win by garnering over 50% of the vote in the primary, or by winning a run off in the general election.
With the African Americans making up 32% of the total population, majority-Black districts have been created in the past. Recently, a group of White voters protested being put into a majority-Black district, and demanded that the lines be drawn to include them elsewhere. The GOP-controlled state legislature obliged, drawing a line around the protestors’ community, sparking a long debate regarding the implementation of the Voting Rights Act in redistricting.[6] In the approved plan, legislators made sure that there was one majority Black district, but that no other district had more than 30% Black population.[7] Other complaints included protests from residents of the St. Landry, Terrebone, and Lafourche parishes, with claims that the communities had been partitioned unfairly.[8]
First District
The redrawn map of the First District merges what used to be the Seventh district with parts of the old Third. Governor Bobby Jindal, was formerly the representative for this district when it covered the northeastern corner of the panhandle nearest the Gulf of Mexico. The First District has a Cook PVI R+24 and has not elected a Democrat since the mid-70s. After redistricting in 2001, the district was 76.5% White and 15.5% Black. After the recent changes, the district is 79% White and 13.8% Black, with a Hispanic population of 7.6%.[10][11]
Second District
The New Orleans-based Second District is the majority-minority district of Louisiana, and did not see much alteration in the 2011 redistricting cycle. After the 2000 census, 26.1% of were White and 66.9% were Black. Now, 31.3% are White and 62.9% are Black. [10][11] The decrease in the Black population stems from the massive loss of population after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which hit New Orleans harder than most other areas of the state.
The Louisiana Second has a Cook PVI of D+25.
Since the Voting Rights Act was such an important constraint in drafting the district, the district remained mostly unchanged surrounding New Orleans, but was stretched out to Baton Rouge in order to include the urban community. The district now stretches through the northernmost parishes of the old third district and ends in East Baton Rouge.[13]
![[13]](http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/images/Louisiana_April_2011_Redistricting_Map.png){kind=link}
Third District
The old Third District was largely overtaken by the new lines of the First, leaving freshman Rep. Jeff Landry (R) to compete in an entirely new area as he runs for re-election in the 3rd. Landry’s 3rd was combined with the 7th district, another large rural conservative district on the coast.
The former Third District had a White population of 66% in 2006, a Black population of 27.6%, and a Hispanic population of 2.5%. Now the district has a White population of 70.5%, Black 25.7% and Hispanic 3.05%.[10][11]
Fourth District
Governor Bobby Jindal made it clear during the redistricting process that his office would veto any plan that included two horizontal districts in the north of Louisiana rather than having two vertical districts. So the Fourth District remained essentially unchanged except for taking on some extra population from the Fifth and Sixth districts. The district has a PVI of R+11. The demographics have remained exactly the same, so the trend of having elected Republicans since the late-90s looks rock-steady
Fifth District
The 5th district of Louisiana was rated Solid Republican by the New York Times’ election tracker during the 2010 Congressional elections, and the demographic changes in the latest redistricting cycle were not substantial The new 5th district will also take some of the land that remained from the dissolution of the now defunct 7th. [13]
Sixth District
The Sixth District covers the capital city of Baton Rouge. The Sixth district now loops around the Second, making contact with the Fifth all along its north edge, then bordering the Third and First along the south border. [13] The district saw almost a ten-point decrease in the Black population and a ten-point increase in the White population from before and after redistricting. [10] It has a Cook PVI of R+10.