Democrat Chauna Banks, a former member of the East Baton Rouge Metro Council, and state Sen. Blake Miguez, a pro-Trump Republican who lives in Erath, have eked out spots in the December run-off to represent .
On Tuesday, they just managed to beat out state Sen. Rick Edmonds, a Republican from Baton Rouge who trailed Miguez by roughly 1,000 votes, according to unofficial results on the Louisiana Secretary of State’s website.
With Banks in first by about 600 votes, she and Miguez each received roughly 19% of the vote in the wide-open race, which featured 10 candidates.
The 6th District includes much of the greater Baton Rouge area and touches the parishes of East Baton Rouge, West Baton Rouge, Assumption, St. Martin, Iberville, St. John, Pointe Coupee, Ascension and LaFourche.
Banks faces an uphill battle if she wants to win the conservative district, which used to be majority-Black and is currently held by U.S. Rep. Cleo Fields, a Black Democrat. It was redrawn in the spring to favor a Republican after a Supreme Court decision found Louisiana’s congressional map unconstitutional.
That ruling gutted a key component of the Voting Rights Act that was previously used to ensure minority voters had proportional representation. A former court ruling had said two of Louisiana’s six U.S. House seats ought to elect candidates preferred by minority voters because one-third of Louisiana’s population is Black.
After his district was redrawn, Fields opted not to run for reelection, leaving the race wide open.
Edmonds and Miguez, both pro-Trump conservatives had been the most prominent candidates in the 6th Congressional District, but the meant that wins for them were far from guaranteed.
The two state senators throughout the campaign season. Edmonds criticized Miguez for living outside of the Sixth District; in response, Miguez noted Edmonds is a pastor for a Mississippi church.
Miguez and Edmonds also were the subject of attack ads paid for by groups supporting one or the other. Meanwhile, the Louisiana Republican Party endorsed both candidates.
Other Republicans competing in Tuesday’s primary were Stephen Wagley, Michael Mebruer, Monique Appeaning and Larry Davis III. Pat Forbes and Lindsay “Rubia” Garcia, both Democrats, also were in the running, with Garcia having won the party endorsement. And Rufus Craig ran as a Libertarian.
Louisiana was one of several Republican states that sought to flip Democratic seats by getting rid of majority-minority districts like Fields’. So far, only some of those gerrymandering efforts have proved successful: Democrats secured stunning wins in races across the country Tuesday night, managing to hold on to a House seat in Alabama drawn to favor a Republican.