Louisiana's U.S. House delegation dropped from seven to six because of slow population growth.
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - While Republicans in many states gained ground by carving out more safe GOP congressional districts after the 2010 Census, they lost a seat in Louisiana.
Louisiana's U.S. House delegation dropped from seven to six because of slow population growth.
When state lawmakers redrew the maps, they merged two Republican congressmen into one district to help preserve Louisiana's majority black district, the state's only district represented by a Democrat.
In the next election cycle in 2012, Republican incumbents Charles Boustany and Jeff Landry were forced to run against each other. Landry lost.
At the time, Louisiana's remapping required approval from the U.S. Department of Justice under the Voting Rights Act before taking effect, to guard against discrimination. Enforcement of that requirement since has been struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court.