{"id":13427,"date":"2026-07-22T09:24:01","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T04:24:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=13427"},"modified":"2026-07-22T09:24:01","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T04:24:01","slug":"louisiana-rep-cleo-fields-wont-seek-reelection-after-democrats-seat-was-redrawn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=13427","title":{"rendered":"Louisiana Rep. Cleo Fields won&#8217;t seek reelection after Democrat&#8217;s seat was redrawn"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"prism-article-body\">\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \">Democratic U.S. Rep. Cleo Fields said Tuesday he would not seek reelection to his redrawn Louisiana congressional district that was at the center of a <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/supreme-court-voting-rights-congressional-redistricting-louisiana-aa5d7dbde7c13654f341d152c2ad5229\">major U.S. Supreme Court ruling<\/a> on race and redistricting.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The majority Black congressional district <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/congress-redistricting-voting-rights-louisiana-de8084df5f9c96ce90c4a7aa0a45e902\">was redrawn by the state legislature<\/a> in May to favor Republicans in November&#8217;s midterm elections. A month earlier, the Supreme Court ruled that <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/democrat-cleo-fields-louisiana-congressional-district-01cbab22601bef1cd8f4463a1ad395ef\">Fields&#8217; district<\/a> relied too heavily on race and was an \u201cunconstitutional gerrymander.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cAfter a great deal of prayer and reflection, I have decided not to seek reelection, to Congress, in the 6th District or any other district in Louisiana,&#8221; Fields said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Fields, who a longtime fixture in Louisiana politics, said he would instead seek a seat in the state Senate.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The Supreme Court\u2019s decision to strike down the map favoring Fields&#8217; district escalated <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/redistricting-house-congress-gerrymander-voting-rights-f78310aed323bfeec3430f236f7b6e03\">a nationwide redistricting battle<\/a>, largely fueled by President Donald Trump\u2019s efforts to protect Republicans in the midterm elections. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">In June, the Supreme Court <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/supreme-court-alabama-redistricting-racial-discrimination-trump-3ec1bbe2999ab1cc23d4adb34a068af2\">ruled that Alabama<\/a> could use a map that favored Republicans in this year\u2019s elections. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Louisiana Republicans <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/congress-redistricting-voting-rights-louisiana-1b02199b18bad2efe259a24f5e3278bf\">had considered<\/a> drawing a map this year that would have given the party a shot at winning all six of the state\u2019s U.S. House seats. But that would have required adding more registered Democrats to Republican-held districts, potentially backfiring with GOP losses.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The new map renews Fields\u2019 district to cluster it around predominantly white communities in the Baton Rouge area and southern Louisiana. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Fields had previously served two terms in the U.S. House from 1993 to 1997 and was the state&#8217;s second Black member of Congress in Louisiana.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">___ Wilder is a corps member for The Associated Press\/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reportforamerica.org\/\">Report for America<\/a> is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Democratic U.S. Rep. Cleo Fields said Tuesday he would not seek reelection to his redrawn Louisiana congressional district that was at the center of a major U.S. Supreme Court ruling on race and redistricting. The majority Black congressional district was redrawn by the state legislature in May to favor Republicans in November&#8217;s midterm elections. A&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.abcnewsfe.com\/a\/f00b0c18-d37b-44bc-8bf8-57932345977c\/wirestory_12c0197a85a0c8b67678bfed9ab2f6f2_16x9.jpg?w=1600","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13427\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}