A higher percentage of Black residents voted in Louisiana’s new majority-Black 6th Congressional District in the November 2024 election than those who were redistricted into majority-white districts, a new report shows.
The report from the Brennan Center for Justice, a nonpartisan political and legal think tank that’s part of New York University Law School, was released last week. In it, researchers analyzed voter turnout in three newly-formed majority-Black congressional districts — in Louisiana, Alabama and Georgia. They found similar trends across all three states — that Black residents turned out to vote more when they were in majority-Black districts.
Although there was only a two-percent difference in turnout between Black voters who were and weren’t drawn into majority-Black districts in Louisiana, that difference represents thousands of people, the report said.
Kareem Clayton, the vice president for the Brennan Center’s Washington, D.C. office, said there is a growing difference in turnout between Black and white voters, especially in the South. White voters show out at higher numbers than Black voters, but Clayton said that voting rights enforcement helps increase turnout among Black voters by giving them the opportunity to vote for their desired candidate. Louisiana’s racial turnout gap is among the highest in the country, according to data published in a separate Brennan Center report from March 2024.
“Having this district around is better than not having this district around with respect to turnout, boosting turnout among African Americans,” Clayton said.
Robert Collins, a professor of urban studies and public policy at Dillard University, said the report wasn’t surprising.
“Black majority districts turn out more voters simply because Black voters feel that they have the opportunity to actually elect a Black public official to that particular office,” Collins said.
Last November, the new majority-Black 6th district voted in U.S. Rep. Cleo Fields. The district, in its previous, majority-white configuration, was previously held by Garret Graves, who chose not to run for reelection after it was redrawn.
Ashley Shelton, the executive director of the voter engagement organization Power Coalition for Equity and Justice, told Verite News that the report reinforces trends her organization saw during the last election cycle. Shelton said the organization tripled its planned events across the state, but much of the outreach was concentrated in the 6th district where the group noticed heightened engagement in the election from residents.
“This district being created was a really powerful moment to honor the reality that 30% plus of this state is African American, and deserve to be able to elect a candidate of choice, just like everyone else in the state,” Shelton said.
But Shelton said that increased interest in November probably resulted from a number of factors, not the least of which was the presidential election. The novelty of the district may have also played a role, she said.
The new map was signed into law in January 2024, after years of court battles and advocacy from civil rights groups. Redistricting efforts began after the 2020 census, which marked a 5 percent decrease in Louisiana’s white population, and initially, the Republican-majority Louisiana State Legislature drawing a map that only had one majority-Black district out of six, the same number there were prior to redistricting.
In response, a group of residents and civil rights organizations sued the state in 2022 for “minimizing the voting strength of Black Louisianans,” citing Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits racial and ethnic discrimination in the election process. Plaintiffs in the case argued that two of Louisiana’s six congressional districts should be majority-Black, given that about one-third of the state is Black. A federal appeals court found that the map likely violated the Voting Rights Act, ultimately leading to the creation of two majority-Black congressional districts.
But a group of non-Black voters have been rallying against the new map since it was drawn in January, saying in their lawsuit against Secretary of State Nancy Landry that the map is an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. Race can be a factor, but not the deciding factor, behind drawing districts under the 14th amendment, Collins said. A panel of three federal judges last year ruled that the map improperly prioritized race, but an emergency decision by the U.S. Supreme Court allowed its use for last November’s election.
The Supreme Court still plans a full review of the case, however. In November, the court announced that it will take up the case against the map and will hear oral arguments on March 24.
Both Collins and Shelton said they believe the Supreme Court will vote to keep two majority-Black districts in Louisiana. Unlike racial gerrymanders, political gerrymanders are legal, and both claim the reasons for drawing the map were political.
As a congressman, Graves had become isolated from other Louisiana Republicans when he chose not to endorse then-Attorney General Jeff Landry in his successful 2023 gubernatorial run. During testimony in federal court last April, State Rep. Mandie Landry, D-New Orleans, said the governor wanted the map drawn in such a way as to ensure that Graves couldn’t be reelected.
Clayton said the Brennan Center will need to conduct additional studies over time to see how the turnout changes within the district should the Supreme Court rule the current map is constitutional.
Asked how the results stack up against past elections, he said that comparing Black voter turnout in 2024 to previous election years is difficult because the new district has different geographic boundaries than the old one. He said that enforcement of the Voting Rights Act is working positively toward increasing participation among Black voters.
“It’s just an indication that there’s still work to be done, but also that when you actually receive the work and get remedies that are responsive to communities of color, you can see marked differences in their level of turnout.” Clayton said. “And that’s hopeful news as we’re thinking about ways of again, closing that still growing turnout gap.”