Louisiana Democratic Representative Cleo Fields announced on Tuesday that he will not run for reelection to Congress. This decision follows a recent Supreme Court ruling and the introduction of a new congressional map in Louisiana that appears to favor Republican candidates.
In his statement, Fields expressed his intention to seek the unexpired term for the Louisiana Senate, specifically for the 14th District, indicating that he believes his “mission to serve our people is better served in my hometown than here in D.C.” He added, “I’m going to answer that call.”
Fields is looking to reclaim a state Senate seat he previously held before he won the Assembly election in 2024. After he left that position, State Senator Larry Selders won a special election in 2025 to take over Fields’ seat. Sadly, Selders passed away earlier this month, leaving the position open once more.
The National Republican Congressional Committee responded to Fields’ announcement, suggesting he “jumped ship” just after the committee included Louisiana’s 6th Congressional District on its radar. They noted that President Donald Trump seems to have a significant edge—over 32 percentage points—against newly elected districts in 2024, and LA-06 is among several Democratic-held seats in their sights.
Fields has a long history in public office, first being elected to the Louisiana State Senate in 1987. Though he initially sought a congressional seat in 1990 without success, he eventually won a spot in Congress in 1992 after a few attempts. He did take a break from Congress after two terms, returning to the state Senate for a decade. Following a redistricting that created a second majority-Black district, he made his way back to Congress in 2024.
This redistricting issue isn’t new; it relates back to the state’s map following the 2020 Census. That map included only one majority-Black congressional district, which a federal court deemed potentially in violation of the Voting Rights Act, thus requiring the state to establish a second one.
After that ruling, Louisiana’s lawmakers enacted a new map in 2024 that aimed to make Fields’ 6th Congressional District a second majority-Black seat, favoring Democrats. However, a subsequent Supreme Court ruling in Louisiana v. Calais found that this district constituted an unconstitutional racial gerrymander, leading legislators to redraw the lines again, reverting to only one majority-Black district and increasing the number of Republican-leaning districts to five.
