The Secretary of State, Nancy Landry, has announced the suspension of the primary election for the House of Representatives races.
This decision is part of the state government’s effort to redraw district boundaries, a move that could result in a black Democrat being unseated.
Former President Donald Trump has applauded the governor for this action, as it is expected to provide Republicans with an additional seat in Congress.
“Kudos to the great Governor of Louisiana, Jeff Landry, for his leadership on the crucial Callais case and for swiftly addressing the unconstitutional nature of Louisiana’s Congressional maps,” Trump stated on Truth Social.
He went on to commend Governor Landry for his “remarkable vision, strength, and leadership.”
It should be noted that Jeff Landry and Nancy Landry are not related.
In Louisiana, like in many US states, state politicians draw the electoral maps, usually to benefit their own party.
A redrawing of the Louisiana map could make for an all-white delegation in Congress in a state where black voters account for 31 per cent of the population.
Trump said he was now pushing for a redraw of the map in Tennessee.
“I had a very good conversation with Governor Bill Lee, of Tennessee, this morning, wherein he stated that he would work hard to correct the unconstitutional flaw in the Congressional Maps of the Great State of Tennessee,” he said.
“This should give us one extra seat, and help Save our Country from the Radical Left Democrats, and their Country destroying Policies of High Tax, Open Borders, Transgender Mutilization (sic), Defunding the Police, ICE, and Border Patrol, No Voter ID, Soft on Crime, and so much more.”
In response to southern states deliberately drawing maps designed to deny black politicians being elected, a 1965 law required districts to be drawn to ensure minority representation.
But much of that law was struck down in a 6-3 decision yesterday.
As a consequence, a series of southern states are redrawing their maps to ensure as few districts as possible have a majority of non-white voters in them.
In Alabama, senior Republicans are today pushing to draw the state’s two black representatives out of their seats.
And in Florida, a map was passed yesterday that would deliberately split a heavily Puerto Rican district into several white-majority districts.
Before the Voting Rights Act, no black person had been elected to Congress for close to a century in the Deep South, despite black people accounting for a majority of the population in many of those states.
In the US south, white voters overwhelmingly vote for Republicans and black voters overwhelmingly back Democrats.
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