Rep. Cleo Fields (D-La) announced Tuesday (July 21) that he will not seek re-election to represent Louisiana’s 6th Congressional District.
Instead, Fields, 63, will seek to fill his former state Senate seat, which was left vacant after the unexpected death of Sen. Larry Selders (D-Baton Rouge) earlier this month.
“I feel my calling to serve the people is better put to use back home than here in D.C., and I intend to answer that call,” he said in a statement.
Robert Hogan, an LSU Political Science Professor, said the decision does not come as a shock after the state legislature redrew Fields' district to heavily favor a Republican candidate.
“This is not surprising given the fact that the redistricting process reconfigured his district in a way that probably would not be favorable for a Democrat to win reelection,” Hogan said. “So this is not a surprising development at all.”
Fields returned to D.C. last year after he previously represented the state’s 4th Congressional District from 1993 to 1997. In 1995, Fields ran unsuccessfully for governor.
“Given Fields' penchant for political life, it is not surprising he took an opportunity that would be very favorable for him to win,” Hogan said. “It seems like that's almost a natural thing for him to do, to take up the issues that he had been fighting for.”
Fields championed education and early childhood education when he previously served in the legislature. Since that time, Gov. Jeff Landry, through executive order, redirected public funding to pay for teacher stipends instead of pulling from the state budget as with prior years. The result is a 5% budget decrease for school systems across the state.
Hogan said the state legislature has undergone major changes since Fields last served.
“The state legislature is in a very different place than it was prior to all these redistricting battles,” he said. “It seems to me that there's going to be major partisan fights in the future and the role of African Americans as important voices in the state going forward.”
Fields will hold a press conference this Friday in Baton Rouge about his political future.
