Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry has called a special session that starts today.
Lawmakers are considering an adjustment to the calendar for the 2026 election cycle.
The session can last 22 days.
It comes amid the U.S. Supreme Court case on the state’s second majority Black congressional district.
Jeremy Alford, the publisher of LaPolitics.com, says the governor set the length to be on the safe side.
“I think the governor maybe built in some wiggle room case any other issues might crop up, either during those three weeks or in the form of additional proposals from lawmakers,” Alford said.
The plan is to move the calendar back 30 days – qualifying to mid-February, the primary to May 16th and a runoff, if necessary, to June 27th. Alford says even though there’s a Republican supermajority in both houses of the legislature, getting everyone on the same page is not a slam-dunk.
“Moving back an entire election calendar isn’t an easy thing to do. And it’s not known to me whether there’s widespread support for that,” Alford said.
All this comes as the Supreme Court considers its ruling on the constitutionality of the creation of the state’s second majority Black congressional district. Alford notes that if the calendar is not altered, the state would be forced to use the current map for the 2026 election cycle even if the Supreme Court strikes down the current map.
“What the governor and his supporters are trying to do is to buy some time to stop folks from being able to qualify for the next election cycle before this issue of the maps is settled,” Alford explained.
A redrawing of the map will not be part of this special session.