BATON ROUGE — Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry has summoned the Louisiana Legislature for a three-week special session starting next week to address next year’s election plans.
The special session will begin Thursday, Oct. 23, and end no later than Nov. 13.
Lawmakers will be allowed to file bills related to “election code, election dates, election deadlines, and election plans for the 2026 election cycle” and funding bills related to those items.
MORE: U.S. Supreme Court rehearing on Louisiana redistricting case set
The governor’s call is broadly written and could allow for a wide variety of election bills.
Senate President Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, said that the governor told him that Landry’s priorities are to move back qualifying deadlines for next fall’s election to give the state an opportunity to react to a U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling expected sometime next spring. Justices heard arguments Wednesday in Callais v. Louisiana, a decision that could require or allow the adoption of new congressional maps.
Henry said no new maps would be drawn in this session.
Questions from justices during Wednesday’s hearing indicated they are open to limiting the consideration of race in the redistricting process. Depending on the outcome of the case, Louisiana could redraw its congressional boundaries to reduce or eliminate the number of majority Black districts. Currently, two of Louisiana’s six congressional districts are majority Black.
Louisiana will move to closed primaries starting with next year’s congressional elections, and the current election calendar for 2026 does not give lawmakers an opportunity to change district boundaries after a decision comes out.
Party primaries for the fall congressional election are currently scheduled for April 18, and the Supreme Court decision could come as late as the end of June.
Editor’s Note: The following article from author Piper Hutchinson was originally published by the Louisiana Illuminator, an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization with a mission to cast light on how decisions in Baton Rouge are made and how they affect the lives of everyday Louisianians.
Read more from The Louisiana Illuminator @ www.lailluminator.com
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