BREAKING: Louisiana legislature passes new map to likely flip Dem seat to GOP in midterms

The Louisiana state legislature has passed a new map that is likely to flip a Democrat seat to the GOP in the upcoming midterm elections. The map carves up a Democrat-controlled district in an effort to help maintain the slim GOP majority in the House of Representatives.  

"I am confident that we have enacted a map that treats each region of the state fairly and that will likely put another Republican back in Congress as well as one which will easily pass constitutional muster," said the map author Sen. Jay Morris in an interview with reporters, per the Shreveport Times. 

The map is expected to be quickly signed into law by Governor Jeff Landry and state primaries were suspended in order to redraw the map. State lawmakers rushed to draw up the map after the Supreme Court ruled that the current map was unconstitutional because race had been a factor to draw the congressional map. 

After the ruling, Landry pushed for the map to be redrawn, which carves up a congressional seat that zigzagged from Baton Rouge to Shreveport and was created after a 2022 lawsuit that argued Louisiana lawmakers had diluted the voting power of the black population in the state. 

A judge agreed with the suit, and the current map was made, but it has now been overruled. The new map was passed with a vote of 28 to 10 in the state Senate. The new map will likely make the congressional seats go to five in the GOP and one for a Democrat in the upcoming midterm elections. Currently, the split is four GOP to two Democrat in Congress.