Independent Louisiana journalism.
Troublemaking truthtellers.
Stories tagged 2026 elections.
Democrat Lauren Jewett raised at least $423,000 during the third quarter of 2026, according to newly announced campaign totals and previous federal filings, bringing her cumulative fundraising to more than $675,000 in her challenge to House Majority Leader Steve Scalise. The New Orleans special education teacher announced Thursday that her campaign had raised approximately $566,000…
Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Jamie Davis is making his first major move onto Louisiana’s airwaves, launching two new advertisements Wednesday that will run on television, connected TV and digital platforms through Election Day. The statewide campaign marks Davis’ first paid advertising of the election cycle and comes less than three weeks before voters choose between…
Four candidates for Louisiana’s newly redrawn 6th Congressional District took the stage Friday night at Baton Rouge’s Manship Theatre for what was billed as a debate but often felt more like a televised candidate forum. Democrats Chauna Banks, Pat Forbes and Lindsay “Rubia” Garcia were joined by Republican state Sen. Rick Edmonds for the hour-long…
Democratic congressional candidate Pat Forbes announced Thursday that his campaign has raised more than $100,000 from over 2,000 individual donors in its first eight weeks, marking an early fundraising milestone for the former state official ahead of Louisiana’s November 3 election. The figures, which have not yet been independently verified, are expected to be reflected…
Pat Forbes does not pretend that three Democrats competing in Louisiana’s newly redrawn 6th Congressional District is an ideal situation. “Obviously, it’s not good for us to have three Democrats in the race,” Forbes told The Bayou Progressive in a wide-ranging interview this week. “But here we are.” The question hanging over Forbes’ candidacy is…
A Baton Rouge construction company gave $100,000 to a super PAC supporting U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow’s Senate campaign while it was performing work under a federal contract with NASA, according to a new complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission. The Campaign Legal Center alleges MMR Constructors, Inc. violated federal campaign finance law when it…
For Omari Ho-Sang, the political challenge facing North Louisiana is not simply convincing more people to vote in November. It is building the kind of organizing infrastructure that can reach people long before an election, develop local leaders and continue holding public officials accountable after the votes are counted. That work will be at the…
Lauren Jewett knows the odds. The Metairie special education teacher is running for Congress in Louisiana’s 1st Congressional District, a reliably Republican seat represented for the past 18 years by House Majority Leader Steve Scalise. Scalise has more than $10 million flowing through his campaign operation this cycle. Jewett had raised just under $143,000 through…
Rep. Julia Letlow had until Thursday to file the annual financial disclosure that should provide Louisiana voters with their clearest accounting yet of her finances during a year already marked by hundreds of previously undisclosed stock and bond transactions. That deadline has passed. As of 3 PM on Friday afternoon, Letlow’s 2025 annual financial disclosure…
A four-point U.S. Senate race in Louisiana would be a political earthquake. Donald Trump carried the state by 22 points less than two years ago. Democrats have not won a Louisiana Senate election since Mary Landrieu’s last victory in 2008. The Cook Political Report continues to classify the seat as Safe Republican, while RealClearPolling’s page…
The number of Louisiana voters classified as inactive more than doubled during a matter of weeks last summer, according to a new analysis from the ACLU of Louisiana that also found the impact fell disproportionately on Black and Democratic voters across nearly every parish in the state. The report, released August 4 and authored by…
Louisiana lawmakers redrew the 6th Congressional District this spring to make it considerably easier for Republicans to win. Qualifying made deciding which Republican — or whether a Democrat can make the runoff — considerably more complicated. Ten candidates qualified for the newly configured district before Friday’s deadline, including two sitting Republican state senators with substantial…
Louisiana’s two Democratic members of Congress are lining up behind Jamie Davis in the final days of the Democratic runoff for U.S. Senate, giving Davis a clear show of party support ahead of Saturday’s election. U.S. Rep. Troy A. Carter Sr. publicly endorsed Davis this week, posting that Davis is “the voice we need” in…
Jamie Davis knows some voters do not see him as the polished, consultant-built version of a U.S. Senate candidate. He does not sound like one. He does not dress like one. He does not pretend to be a Washington policy technician waiting for his close-up. And as Davis tells it, some of the sharpest criticism…
Democratic lawmakers from Louisiana, Texas, Georgia and Mississippi gathered at the Louisiana State Capitol on Wednesday to warn that Louisiana’s latest congressional redistricting fight is not an isolated state issue, but part of a broader regional effort to roll back Black voting power and Democratic representation across the South. The press conference, led by Rep….
Jamie Davis did not win the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate outright Saturday night. But he did win the first round decisively. And the reason is not especially mysterious. Davis won because he was best positioned for the Democratic electorate that actually showed up: older, heavily Black, deeply rooted in the party’s most consistent voting…
Louisiana’s congressional election chaos is no longer theoretical. It is now moving through the Legislature. The Louisiana Senate voted Thursday to advance a Republican-backed congressional map that would likely return the state to a 5-1 Republican congressional delegation, eliminating one of Louisiana’s two majority-Black congressional districts after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the current…
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry has suspended the state’s May 16 U.S. House primaries days before early voting was set to begin, throwing the congressional elections into chaos after absentee and mail-in ballots had already gone out and some voters had already cast ballots. The order applies only to Louisiana’s U.S. House races. Other contests scheduled…
A new Emerson College Polling/KLFY News 10 survey, sponsored by KLFY/Nexstar Media, shows Louisiana’s Republican U.S. Senate primary locked in a tight three-way fight, with state Treasurer John Fleming narrowly leading U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow and incumbent U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy running third. The survey was conducted April 24-26 among 500 likely Republican primary voters….
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry is reportedly preparing to suspend next month’s U.S. House primaries so Republican lawmakers can redraw the state’s congressional map before voters cast ballots. Early voting is scheduled to begin Saturday, May 2. Landry’s announcement could come as early as Friday, according to the Washington Post, one day before voters were set…
For a party that has spent years struggling to build credible federal campaigns in Louisiana, the first-quarter fundraising reports offered something Democrats do not always get in this state: signs of life. Several Democratic candidates posted respectable numbers in reports covering Jan. 1 through March 31, enough to show that there is still donor interest,…
For many Louisiana voters, Nick Albares is still an introduction. He is not a former statewide officeholder. He is not a longtime elected official with a built-in political base. And unlike some of the more familiar names in Louisiana Democratic politics, Albares comes out of the world of policy and nonprofit leadership more than the…
Rev. Larry Foy is running for Congress with an argument Louisiana voters do not hear very often from a candidate shaped by the church: faith is not a detour from progressive politics. It is what brought him there. For Foy, a Democrat running in Louisiana’s 5th Congressional District, the through line from ministry to public…
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Nick Albares said Thursday that his brother, David Albares, has died, and that he will temporarily step away from the campaign trail to be with his family. “On Tuesday, March 24, 2026 I learned my brother died,” Albares said in a statement. “My brother and I were very close and we…
