Louisiana Democrat Cleo Fields Declines Reelection Bid After District Redrawn by GOP Legislature

Louisiana Democratic Representative Cleo Fields announced Tuesday that he will not run for another term in his reconfigured 6th Congressional District, a seat that became the subject of a landmark Supreme Court decision addressing race and redistricting practices. The state legislature restructured the previously majority-Black district in May ahead of the midterm elections to benefit Republican candidates. The high court had invalidated the original configuration a month prior, determining it constituted an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.

“After considerable prayer and contemplation, I have concluded I will not pursue reelection to Congress in the 6th District or elsewhere in Louisiana,” Fields said in a statement. Instead, the veteran lawmaker indicated his intention to campaign for a Louisiana state Senate position. The 73-year-old politician has long been prominent in state political circles.

The Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the original map intensified nationwide partisan battles over redistricting, driven substantially by former President Donald Trump’s push to secure Republican advantages in the midterm contest. In a separate June ruling, the court authorized Alabama to implement a map favoring Republicans in the same election cycle. The redrawn Louisiana map now aligns Fields’ former district with predominantly white neighborhoods spanning the Baton Rouge region and southern Louisiana.

Fields previously represented Louisiana in Congress during two nonconsecutive terms from 1993 through 1997, becoming the state’s second African American member of the House delegation at that time.