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Qualifying period opens Wednesday for US House, local races across Capital Region
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BATON ROUGE — Candidates seeking seats ranging from the U.S. House to small-town offices could begin filing for this November's election on Wednesday.
A full list of qualifying candidates can be found here.
The mid-summer three-day filing period, which expires Friday, typically attracts candidates for local offices, but congressional seats were thrown into the mix this year after state leaders canceled House primaries that had been set for May 16. Two weeks earlier, on the eve of early voting, the U.S. Supreme Court said the map in place was based too much on race.
The district do-over set for Nov. 3 will use maps that state lawmakers adopted after justices ruled in Louisiana v. Callais. Legislators reduced the number of Black-majority districts from two to one, two years after a panel of district court judges said the previous map was more fair to Louisiana's minority population.
The previous map included a district that stretched from Baton Rouge to Shreveport, similar to district outlines struck down in the 1990s.
Municipalities and parishes across the region have seats up for grabs, with mayors, council members, school boards and police chiefs in line to qualify.
In East Baton Rouge Parish, all 15 district judgeships are set for new races after state lawmakers created two new election subdistricts with seven judges each. An additional judgeship will be elected on a parishwide ballot. Three local judges have sued over the new maps, saying they violate a federal court order filed in the 1990s.
District Attorney Hillar Moore III is seeking a fourth term; well before qualifying, his campaign signs stood throughout many parts of the parish.
Ahead of qualifying, four Republicans indicated they would seek to replace Rep. Julia Letlow from the 5th Congressional District, which stretches across the Feliciana parishes north of Baton Rouge. Letlow has won the GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate, while James Davis of Tensas Parish has the Democratic Party nod.
State Sen. Stewart Cathey joins state Rep. Michael Echols, Board of Regents chair Misti Cordell and state Rep. Gabe Firment. Cathey, Echols and Cordell are from Monroe and Firment is from Pollock. The L-shaped district runs from the Arkansas border in the north to the Mississippi border east of Bogalusa.
The 6th District seat, which Democratic Rep. Cleo Fields now holds, forms a horseshoe around Baton Rouge, largely encompassing conservative rural areas. He has opted not to seek re-election from the redrawn district.
The 2nd District, which snakes from Baton Rouge to New Orleans, is represented by Rep. Troy Carter.
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