With House primary delay, Louisiana thrust into election chaos

Sen. Bill Cassidy, who is facing off against Fleming and Rep. Julia Letlow in a contentious, close Senate GOP primary, called Landry’s decision to proceed with other races as scheduled “disappointing.”

“Now, it’s up to all of us to help people understand what’s happening and make sure voters know how to cast their votes over the next two weeks,” Cassidy said in a statement.

Louisiana had already changed its election process this year by throwing out its jungle primary for a closed primary process to give parties more control over their nominees. Now, with the House primaries on hold, some Republicans are tossing around returning to the open primary system just for those races.

“It's crazy and it's confusing,” said Bryan Kelley, the Winn Parish registrar, who said he has been informing the community about the change and posting information flyers in voting locations. “Whatever the legislature and the legal people decide, we’ll figure out how to make it work in practice so that people can voice their opinions.”

“Everybody just take a deep breath, be calm and just wait and see how that plays out,” he said.

Democrats are warning that Louisiana previews how other GOP states will approach the midterms, given the last-minute opportunity to reshape their maps and scramble election timelines.

“What is happening in Louisiana right now is both a redistricting power grab and a dry run for authoritarian election subversion this fall,” said voting rights attorney Mark Elias.

Before the Court’s ruling, Louisiana Republicans were planning to draw out Democratic Rep. Cleo Fields from his district, shifting the delegation to consist of five Republicans and one Democrat. Now, Republicans are considering being even more aggressive. At least one map has been submitted to be reviewed by the state legislature that would create lines giving the GOP an edge in all six districts, though some of those seats would still likely be in play for Democrats. At risk is the elimination of all majority-minority districts in Louisiana, a state with a population that is one-third Black.

“I believe the district lines should be and will be drawn based on shared interests and regional commonalities,” said GOP Rep. Thomas Pressly. “I look forward to working with my colleagues to ensure that happens.”

In the meantime, House candidates are stuck in limbo, stretching their campaign cash further than expected and extending some brutal match-ups, like in Louisiana’s 5th District where seven Republicans are competing to replace Letlow as she runs for Senate.

At a press conference with the Congressional Black Caucus following the Court’s decision, Fields acknowledged that Louisiana GOP state lawmakers are targeting his district. “If you tell me that I got to jump a certain height, I could probably do that,” he said. “Tell me [if] I got to run a certain distance, I could probably do that too. But if you tell me I have to be white to serve in Congress from Louisiana, I can’t do nothing about that.”

Alec Hernández contributed reporting.