Democratic Rep. Cleo Fields — whose Louisiana district was at the center of the Supreme Court decision gutting a key part of the Voting Rights Act — announced Tuesday that he will not seek reelection and will instead run for his old state Senate seat.
Fields represents the 6th Congressional District, a majority-Black district that encompasses part of Baton Rouge. After the Supreme Court declared the district’s existence an “unconstitutional racial gerrymander,” Louisiana lawmakers passed a new congressional map that redrew Fields’ district to heavily favor Republicans. The new lines left intact only one of the two majority-Black districts in the state ahead of the midterms.
“After a great deal of prayer and reflection, I have decided not to seek re-election to Congress, in the 6th District or any other district in Louisiana,” Fields said in a statement. “I feel my calling to serve the people is better put to use back home than here in D.C., and I intend to answer that call.”
The National Republican Congressional Committee announced earlier this week that it was targeting his district to flip from blue to red.
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“I tell people all the time, the issue is not whether or not I serve another day in Congress,” Fields told NOTUS in May. “The issue is whether or not a person like me will have the opportunity to serve in Congress. And that’s the big focus.”
He will now look to fill the unexpired term of the late state Sen. Larry Selders, a Democrat from Baton Rouge who died July 7.
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