Life comes at you fast. Less than a year ago, Republican Rep. Garret Graves (LA-06) had become such a top confidant of newly-elected Speaker Kevin McCarthy that McCarthy elevated him to a specially created House GOP leadership slot. Now, Graves' own party back home has dismantled his seat in court-ordered redistricting, leaving the five-term pragmatist from Baton Rouge with dismal reelection prospects in 2024.
On Monday, GOP Gov. Jeff Landry signed into law a new congressional map creating a second Black-majority district, complying with a federal court order that the current plan featuring just one — the New Orleans-based 2nd District — violates the Voting Rights Act.
The new map won't win awards for aesthetics. The revamped 6th District machetes its way from Baton Rouge to Shreveport, picking up heavily Black portions of Alexandria and Lafayette along the way, morphing Graves's seat from Trump +34 to Biden +20 — a solid Democratic seat. Most of Graves's base in the Baton Rouge suburbs is folded into GOP Rep. Julia Letlow's 5th District, where Letlow would have a significant advantage in
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