High prices for gas and groceries, , President Donald Trump and the accusation that radical socialists have taken over the Democratic Party will be top of mind for Louisiana voters Tuesday as they head to the polls on Election Day.
The state has plenty at stake in this year’s midterms.
Speaker Mike Johnson and Majority Leader Steve Scalise, both from Louisiana, have been to stave off forecasts that Democrats will retake control of the House and oust the two men from their powerful posts.
In Louisiana, the marquee race pits U.S. , a Republican from Baton Rouge, against farmer , a Democrat from Tensas Parish.
Davis has made it a surprisingly close election by tapping into voter dissatisfaction with Trump and affordability.
Voters will also choose which candidates will advance in two congressional races with open seats. One is the 6th Congressional District and is centered in Baton Rouge. The other is the 5th Congressional District and includes Monroe, Alexandria, St. Francisville and Bogalusa.
The top two finishers in each congressional open primary will advance to a runoff election on Dec. 12. Polling shows
Voters will decide whether to add
They will also elect mayors, judges, police jurors, district attorneys, sheriffs and police chiefs throughout the state. Two of the five seats on the Public Service Commission are also up for grabs.
The polls open at 6 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. If anyone has problems voting, they can call the Secretary of State’s Office at (800) 883-2805.
Voters can find their polling location and view their sample ballot through the Secretary of State’s website at or the GeauxVote mobile app.
About 1.65 million people are expected to vote in the election, with an overall projected turnout of 48% to 52%, according to the Secretary of State’s Office. An estimated 35% of registered voters — 522,000 people in all — have already cast a ballot during the seven-day early voting period. It was the biggest early vote during a midterm election in Louisiana.
Senate race goes down to the wire
Most of the attention Tuesday night will focus on whether Letlow can fend off Davis’ strong challenge.
She has run a low-key campaign, granting few interviews, refusing to debate Davis and holding small meetings with select audiences behind closed doors. In recent weeks, in a sign of the president’s unpopularity, Letlow has rarely mentioned Trump on the campaign trail.
He took center stage in her campaign Monday night, however, when she held a tele-rally with him.
Letlow made a slew of appearances on TV and radio stations on Monday.
On Moon Griffon’s program, she described the election as “the difference between freedom and socialism.”
In a phone interview, she said she’s grateful to be in the position to win.
“I want people to know that from day one I’ve known that this hasn’t been my seat,” she said. “It’s been the people’s seat. I’ll never turn my backs on them.”
Letlow is holding her election night party in Monroe, where she grew up and lived when she was first elected to the House in 2021.
Davis has been touring the state relentlessly, now that he and his family have completed the harvest of corn, cotton and soybeans on the 3,200 acres they farm in the Louisiana Delta.
The surge of ballots cast during early voting — especially by African American voters — has buoyed Davis and his team. It has led several national forecasting firms to give him better odds of winning, even if they still expect him to lose.
After holding a rally with teachers in Baton Rouge on Sunday night, Davis campaigned on Monday in the northeast Louisiana towns of Winnsboro, Ouachita, West Monroe, Jackson Parish and Farmerville.
Following his stop in West Monroe, Davis said by phone that several Republicans had told him they were voting for him.
He noted that no one had given him “a snowball’s chance” of winning when he started the race 11 months ago.
Asked how he felt now, Davis sang several lines from a classic gospel song:
“May the works I’ve done speak for me. May the works I've done speak for me.
When I'm resting in my grave. May the works I’ve done speak for me.”
Davis is holding his election night party in Baton Rouge.
Davis is likely to win if he receives at least 28% of the White vote if Black voters turn out in big numbers Tuesday as they did during early voting.
Competitive House races
In the congressional races, Johnson, Scalise, Rep. Clay Higgins and Rep. Troy Carter, the lone Democrat in the group, are expected to win their primaries outright on Tuesday.
It will be a different story in the 6th Congressional District, which includes East Baton Rouge and 10 other parishes.
Ten candidates are competing to succeed Rep. Cleo Fields, a Democrat who is yielding the seat rather than run for reelection in a district that the Legislature redrew in May to elect a Republican, a month after the Supreme Court’s Callais decision diluted the voting rights of Black voters.
The favorites are two Republican state senators: Rick Edmonds, who lives in Baton Rouge, and Blake Miguez, who lives in Erath, outside of the 6th Congressional District.
Four other Republican candidates are Stephen Wagley from Baton Rouge, Larry Davis III from Livingston, Monique Appeaning from St. George and Michael Mebruer from St. Francisville.
The three Democrats are Pat Forbes from Baton Rouge, Chauna Banks from Baton Rouge and Lindsay “Rubia” Garcia from Denham Springs.
Rufus Craig from Baton Rouge is a no-party candidate in the race.
Wagley, Davis, Appeaning, Mebruer, Forbes, Banks and Craig appeared at a forum sponsored Monday by the Press Club of Baton Rouge, while the three others skipped the event.
Polls show that no candidate will win the race outright Tuesday, so the top two finishers will advance to next month’s runoff.
The same result is expected in the 5th Congressional District, which Letlow has represented since 2021.
The six Republican candidates are: state Rep. Gabe Firment of Pollock, state Rep. Michael Echols of Monroe, Misti Cordell of Monroe, state Sen. Stewart Cathey of Monroe, Austin Magee from Franklinton and Omar Dantzler from Hammond.
The Democrats are Rep. Pat Moore of Monroe, Dan McKay from Bunkie and Antonio Wilson from Talullah.
Of the constitutional amendments, the one that has received the most attention is No. 4, which would limit governors to no more than two lifetime terms. Democratic critics say the amendment is an attempt to prevent John Bel Edwards, who served two terms as governor, from being able to run again.
Among the many local races, Shreveport Mayor Tom Arceneaux and Alexandria Mayor Jacques Roy are running for reelection.
Staff writer Meghan Friedmann contributed to this article.