Last week’s midterm election renewed concerns about the lack of racial diversity in Louisiana politics.
Of the six congressional districts in Louisiana, four elected white Republican men. The 5th District Election will be decided in a runoff between Mayor Jamie Mayo, an African-American Democrat, and Ralph Lee Abraham, a white Republican.
However, African-American Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-New Orleans, won his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives with 69 percent of the vote in the 2nd Congressional District. Political science professor Robert Hogan attributes Richmond’s election in the 2nd Congressional District to the only majority minority district in the state.
Hogan said he expects Abraham to win the 5th District given its historical trend of voting Republican.
Rep. Katrina Jackson, D-Monroe, chairwoman of the Louisiana Legislative Black Caucus, disagreed with Hogan. She said Mayo has a great chance considering the district is 33 percent minority and nearly 50 percent Democrat.
But if Hogan’s prediction proves true, Louisiana’s congressional delegation will be composed of five white men and one African-American.
“The African-American will make up 20 percent of the congressional delegation in a state that is over 30 percent African-American,” Hogan said.
Hogan said the political racial disparity can be caused by the state’s district drawing. Jackson agreed, saying African-Americans are running for office, but the districts are limiting their successes.
Jackson said the LLBC worked to establish another majority minority district during the last redistricting period.
“We made it a point to voice our opinions, and not only did we voice our opinions, but we hired experts who came in and showed this administration that there was an issue with redistricting,” Jackson said.
Congressional districts are drawn according to partisanship and race, but Hogan said race cannot be the predominant factor weighing in on redistricting decisions. Political parties play a large role in carving districts to allow their partisan candidates a better chance of victory.
Federal courts do take notice of highly contorted districts and determine if the districts are drawn based on race. Hogan referenced two cases in North Carolina and Georgia where the federal courts ruled redistricting unconstitutional.
Hogan said drawing another minority majority district in Louisiana would be difficult because the state is hemmed in by Supreme Court mandates based on the Voting Rights Act passed in 1965.
A few years ago, the Supreme Court struck down the preclearance provision of the Voting Rights Act. Preclearance required the Justice Department to approve the redrawing of district lines in states with a history of racial discrimination, especially Louisiana.
Now, Hogan said, people who feel harmed by a state’s redistricting can take the state to court, but they don’t have the Justice Department to back them as they once did.
“It’s harder for these plans to be challenged,” Hogan said. “And if it’s harder for these plans to be challenged, I suspect those that don’t like drawing majority minority districts will be less inclined to do so.”
But racial disparity in politics is not confined to just Louisiana.
“Frankly, racism is still a big thing in the southern part of America,” said fashion merchandising freshman Claire Plauche. “It’s still very strong, especially with the ‘Old South’ kind of people.”
Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., echoed this sentiment when she spoke with NBC News’ Chuck Todd.
“I’ll be very, very honest with you. The South has not always been the friendliest place for African-Americans,” Landrieu said.
Jackson said she does not believe the lack of racial diversity is a Southern issue; instead, it’s a power problem.
“I think it’s an issue of who’s in power because when you create new districts, you have to reconfigure old ones,” Jackson said. “It’s the people who are currently in power who are drawing these districts [who] don’t want to lose them.”
However, Jackson said living in the South makes it harder for minorities to raise money for their campaigns.
Hogan said he would not directly attribute the diversity issue to Louisiana being in the south, but overall, the number of African-Americans in Congress are not representative of general population numbers. African-Americans make up 13 percent of the population, Hogan said. The same is true for Hispanics.
“The U.S. Congress does not represent descriptively the racial or gender demographics in large,” Hogan said.