Louisiana sticks to existing congressional district for 2026 midterms

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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 by the end of 2025.

State lawmakers convened for a special session in October to push back election deadlines one month, with Republicans hoping justices would issue a ruling before the year ended.

Had they made a decision on that timeline, the legislature was expected to hold another special session to redraw the districts, possibly eliminating one or both of Louisiana’s majority-Black seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Instead, the Supreme Court is expected to hand down a ruling during its usual late-spring release period.

State Sen. Caleb Kleinpeter, R-Port Allen, who co-sponsored legislation to change the 2026 election calendar to allow for a new round of redistricting, said in an interview Friday there were no plans to hold another special session or deviate from the existing map.

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The case in question, Louisiana v. Callais, challenges the legality of a second majority-Black U.S. House district Republicans state lawmakers drew in 2024 in response to a federal court finding a 2022 version of the state’s congressional maps was unconstitutional. Louisiana has six seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, but just one favored a Black candidate before the redistricting process in a state where nearly a third of the population is Black.

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State Attorney General Liz Murrill, who originally defended the 2024 version of the map, now argues race-conscious redistricting under Section 2 is no longer necessary to ensure fair racial representation and now violates the 14th and 15th amendments of the U.S. Constitution.

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Beaullieu testified during a committee hearing there was no official forecast for when the decision would be issued. He also acknowledged to a reporter the election calendar changes he backed would become pointless if the Supreme Court doesn’t rule in time.

Qualifying for closed party primaries in the congressional races, scheduled for May 16, will take place Feb. 11-13. Any party runoffs that are needed will be held June 27, and the general election is set for Nov. 3.

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