Election day is less than two months away in Louisiana. On October 14, the Pelican State will vote in a myriad of elections that will decide the state’s political identity for the next 4 years.
These elections include the two chambers of the legislatures and the governorship.
Louisiana’s current governor is Democrat John Bel Edwards, who ran on a pro-life platform to appeal to Republican voters. Edwards has served two terms since his first election.
Secretary of Transportation and Development Shawn Wilson, the main Democratic candidate for the 2023 gubernatorial election, has not made abortion a central issue in his campaign, declaring it a private decision.
However, the government is likely to flip into Republican hands in 2023. Attorney General Jeff Landry leads the polls by an almost 10-20% margin against his closest opponent, Democrat Shawn Wilson.
Fundraising is another lead that Landry holds over his opponents. The Landry campaign has fundraised over $8 million, according to his campaign site. Republican treasurer John Schroder is the closest with $2.2 million in July, according to New Orleans City Business.
The 2023 Louisiana elections are an opportunity to learn more about Louisiana politics. It is notably an occasion to get more familiar with the newly drawn legislative districts. Following the 2020 census, Louisiana redrew its congressional and legislative districts in order to account for population changes across the state. For students living in or around the campus, it could be interesting to get to know their new districts’ lines and political identity. Let’s start with the basics.
The Senate has 39 districts and the House 105, with the average Senate district population being 119,000 while the average House district’s population is 44,000, according to the census.
These differences in population size make the Senate and House districts’ boundaries very different from each other, resulting in a difference of representation in the House and the Senate for the same place. It is the case of students registered to vote on campus. Loyola University is located in Senate district 9, which encompasses Metairie and a significant part of Uptown New Orleans.
Donald Trump carried the district by double-digits in the 2020 presidential election. When it comes to the House, however, the smaller size of the district’s required population stopped Uptown New Orleans from being merged into a redder area.
House district 98 is a deep blue district that Joe Biden carried by double-digits in 2020. Voters of the 98th district will only have one choice, though, as incumbent Rep. Aimee Adatto Freeman is running unopposed.
