Three Democratic candidates for Louisiana’s 5th Congressional District met in Baton Rouge Saturday night for a debate-style forum shaped by one of the most chaotic congressional election fights in modern Louisiana politics.
Lindsay “Rubia” Garcia, Tania Nyman and Jessee Fleenor answered questions on voting rights, civil rights, immigration, labor, criminal justice reform, rural infrastructure, agriculture, environmental protection, foreign policy and coalition-building at the final scheduled stop of the To The People, For The People 2026 Democratic Roadshow.
Dan McKay and Larry Foy, who are also running in the primary, did not attend.
The forum, held at the Unitarian Church of Baton Rouge, was moderated by Robert Mann, the author of ten books on U.S. and Louisiana political history. Mann previously served as a senior aide to U.S. Sens. Russell Long and John Breaux and Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, and taught for 18 years at LSU’s Manship School of Mass Communication before retiring in 2024.
Mann opened the congressional portion by pointing to the unusual circumstances surrounding the race: the Supreme Court’s decision in Louisiana v. Callais, Gov. Jeff Landry’s suspension of congressional primaries, and the lawsuits that followed. The district, election calendar and basic question of whether voters would proceed under the original rules, he said, had all been thrown into uncertainty.
“The voters deserve to hear directly from the candidates, not just about the lawsuit, not just about the map and not just about the politics of the moment,” Mann said, “but about what kind of representative each candidate would be if elected to Congress.”
The candidates opened by grounding their campaigns in different experiences.
Nyman highlighted her work as a Baton Rouge community advocate on public education, fair maps, the St. George fight, ITEP applications and the dedicated public library tax. She also used her opening statement to criticize charter schools, arguing they erode voting rights because they are governed by unelected boards and divert public dollars from local communities.
Fleenor introduced himself as a vegetable farmer from Loranger who milks cows, makes cheese and yogurt, and raises three children on his farm. He said he entered the race because the country has deteriorated and “people of goodwill” need to push back.
Garcia introduced herself as a mother, former teacher, Southern University Law Center graduate and advocate whose activism intensified after the Hard Rock collapse in New Orleans. She said her campaign is centered on defending the rule of law and the Constitution while also focusing on affordability, education, health care and the daily pressures facing families.
The first major block focused on democracy, redistricting and Landry’s suspension of the congressional elections.
Fleenor called Landry’s action “totally illegal and unprecedented,” saying it threw the race into chaos after candidates had already spent time and money campaigning across the 22-parish district. He said absentee ballots had already been cast, including by his own parents, and argued that the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act would help restore protections that have been eroded since the civil rights era.
Garcia said she supports the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act but wants Congress to go further with a nationwide ban on gerrymandering — partisan and racial alike. Garcia, who focused on voting rights litigation in law school, said she filed suit after Landry issued the order suspending elections.
“I’m not going to wait for anybody else to come in and save you,” Garcia said. “Because the reality is, ladies and gentlemen, nobody is coming to save us. You must step up and save yourself.”
Nyman connected the issue to her own work fighting for a fair East Baton Rouge Parish School Board map after the 2020 census. She said the gutting of federal preclearance after Shelby County v. Holder made it easier for local governments to manipulate maps in ways that weaken fair representation. She also argued that congressional districts have grown too large and called for overturning Citizens United.
On immigration, Fleenor described working with the Southern Dignity Not Detention Coalition to deliver food to immigrant families in New Orleans who were afraid to leave their homes during immigration enforcement actions.
“These people were too afraid to leave their home because they may never see their children again,” Fleenor said.
Garcia pointed to her ties to Latino communities through family and organizing work, calling for a rollback of Department of Homeland Security funding and stronger civil rights remedies for families whose rights are violated by law enforcement. Nyman said due process protections are being violated and called for replacing ICE with a system that provides a clear pathway to citizenship.
On affordability, all three candidates leaned into economic populism.
Garcia called for taxing the wealthy, expanding child care and housing tax credits, raising the minimum wage and indexing it to inflation.
“I am not anti-capitalist,” Garcia said. “I’m actually okay with some people making more. What I am not okay with is certain people sitting at the table and starving at the same time.”
Nyman described herself as a “Newer Deal Democrat,” pointing to Social Security, minimum wage protections and progressive taxation as New Deal-era policies that helped build the middle class. She also called for a wealth tax and stronger antitrust enforcement.
Fleenor went further, saying Democrats should stop focusing on cuts and raise more revenue from the ultra-wealthy.
“We need to eliminate the concept of billionaires in this country,” Fleenor said. “We do not need a single billionaire living in America.”
The candidates also aligned closely on labor rights. Fleenor called for federal protections for collective bargaining. Garcia connected the issue to the Hard Rock collapse, saying stronger OSHA enforcement and union protections could have helped prevent worker deaths. Nyman said her father helped organize a teachers union in New Orleans and said she strongly supports labor, while acknowledging she wants to learn more about the most effective federal tools to protect unions.
On health care, the candidates focused heavily on rural hospitals, Medicaid, broadband and the long distances many 5th District residents must travel for care.
“Health care is a human right, period,” Garcia said, arguing that rural health care cannot be separated from infrastructure, roads and telehealth access.
Nyman warned that Medicaid cuts could threaten public hospitals across the district and argued that the country should move toward universal health care. Fleenor said the 5th District is among the poorest districts in the country and criticized current Rep. Julia Letlow for voting for Medicaid cuts.
“Health care should never be a for-profit industry,” Fleenor said. “You should not make money off of sick people.”
The civil rights and criminal justice portions produced some of the sharpest answers of the night.
Garcia said her entire platform is rooted in civil rights and argued that the country has an empathy problem. On criminal justice reform, she said crime prevention requires addressing poverty, housing, jobs and health care.
“In order to deter crime, you have to address the issues that lead to crime,” Garcia said.
Nyman pointed to historical examples of government violence and neglect, including the 1921 destruction of Black Wall Street in Tulsa and the use of federal highways to decimate Black business districts. She said federal dollars should be tied to ending privatized prisons in Louisiana.
Fleenor said government exists to solve problems collectively and should not privatize prisons, schools or roads. He also criticized the militarization of police, saying law enforcement needs more training in mental health rather than military equipment.
The rural infrastructure and agriculture sections brought the debate back to the material needs of the district.
Nyman said protecting public hospitals should be a top infrastructure priority, while also crediting the Biden infrastructure bill for broadband investment. Fleenor said the lack of high-speed internet remains one of rural Louisiana’s biggest barriers to economic development and said he would support nationalizing Elon Musk’s Starlink if necessary to provide free internet access. Garcia said infrastructure projects are not just about roads and bridges, but also jobs, telehealth and whether rural businesses can function.
On agriculture, Fleenor said the Farm Bill has been skewed for generations toward large industrial farms and should be refocused on small and medium-sized family farms. Garcia said many farmers she met did not want bailouts, but work and stable programs such as USAID and SNAP that support their businesses. Nyman said she would work with groups like the Rural Urban Bridge Project to better understand and advance small-farm policy.
On the environment, Garcia said economic development should not come at the expense of air, water, land or community consent.
“We should not be privatizing profit while creating public harm,” Garcia said.
Nyman called for a moratorium on carbon injection wells and data centers, arguing that carbon capture is “bunk science” and criticizing the 45Q tax credit for subsidizing the petrochemical industry. Fleenor, speaking as a farmer, said climate change is already visible in Louisiana’s heat, storms and shifting growing conditions, and called for replacing polluting industries with green jobs in solar, wind and wave energy.
The final questions turned to foreign policy and coalition-building.
Nyman said she supports Ukraine but does not believe the U.S. should be involved in Iran or funding weapons for Israel’s war in Gaza. Fleenor criticized the dismantling of USAID, calling it one of the country’s greatest sources of soft power. Garcia said Congress must restore checks and balances and rein in executive power, particularly through enforcement of the War Powers Act.
Asked how Democrats can build a coalition that includes independents, frustrated nonvoters, rural voters, Black voters, working-class voters and people who distrust both parties, Fleenor said Democrats will need to win back some voters who supported the current administration. Garcia said she is willing to challenge the DNC, the state party or anyone else if necessary, and asked voters to judge whether they trust her advocacy. Nyman said the closed Democratic primary created a chance to have conversations framed by Democrats instead of Republicans.
“I’m pushing the economic progressive ideal,” Nyman said. “I think that’s what most people want, is help with the economy.”
The candidates left Baton Rouge with different theories of how Democrats can compete in the 5th District, but a shared premise ran through the debate: representation cannot stop at redistricting.
Whoever emerges from the Democratic primary will have to argue not only that voters deserve a lawful election, but that rural Louisiana deserves a federal government willing to invest in its people, protect its rights and confront the industries and political systems that have treated the district as an afterthought.
