After a brutal January and February, Republicans finally caught some critical redistricting breaks in March. In Maryland, a judge threw out Democrats' gerrymander. In Louisiana, GOP legislators overrode Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards' veto to pass a status quo, 5R-1D plan. Finally, Ohio Republicans appear to have run out the clock on legal challenges to their gerrymander, averting a more neutral court-drawn map.
LouisianaOn March 30, Louisiana's legislature overrode Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards' veto of a status quo congressional map that locks in the state's 5R-1D breakdown for another decade. It's a victory for Republicans because Edwards and Democrats had pushed to create a second Black majority district, arguing that Black voters make up 33 percent of Louisiana's residents and should be a majority in two of its six seats.
The state senate easily passed the override 27-11, but the choke point was always the state House, where Republicans are just shy of a supermajority. In the end, all three independents and one moderate Democrat, state Rep. Francis Thompson from rural northeastern Louisiana, voted with Republicans to override
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