Landry signs bills creating second Black Congressional district; changes election primary system

BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) – Gov. Jeff Landry has signed a bill into law that changes Louisiana to a closed primary system.

“Today, we began the process of necessary structural change to our election system, allowing for a cleaner and simpler final ballot, and we took the pen out of the hand of a non-elected judge and placed it in the hands of the people,” Landry said on social media.

Louisiana House advances bill to change to a closed party primary system

House Bill 17 makes it so only registered Republicans and Democrats can vote in the primary election. The state parties could vote to allow independents and no-party voters to be in the primary, but at their discretion. It also moves up the election day earlier in the year.

Landry also signed off on Senate Bill 8, a legislation that created a second majority Black congressional district. The new 6th Congressional District will stretch from Shreveport to Baton Rouge.

Federal Chief Judge Shelly Dick, who still needs to approve the new map, had given Louisiana lawmakers until the end of the month to create the new map.

Under the new map, 54% of the voting-age population in the district currently held by Republican U.S. Rep. Garret Graves would be Black — up from the current 23%.

It’s expected the new map will be in place for the November election.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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