Louisiana's Republican-controlled legislature overrode Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards' veto of a new congressional map, ensuring the state will maintain only a single majority-Black district among its six seats.
Edwards rejected the map earlier this month, saying lawmakers should have created a second majority-Black district to account for the Southern state's large and growing minority population. One-third of the state's 4.7 million residents are Black.
"The Congressional map passed by the Louisiana legislature in February rejected basic principles of fairness and equity," NAACP Louisiana State Conference President Michael McClanahan said in a statement. Republicans have argued that a map with a second majority-minority district would break up other communities of interest and could result in districts with too narrow a Black majority to guarantee minority candidates would win.
Only four states, including heavily populated Florida, have not finalized new congressional maps ahead of November's midterm elections, when control of the U.S. Congress will be at stake. Democrats are considered underdogs to maintain their slight majority in the U.S. House of Representatives."Simple math and simple fairness means that two of those districts need to be minority districts," he said. "That's pretty easy to understand.
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