April 29 (Reuters) – Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry told Republican House candidates on Wednesday that he planned to suspend next month’s primary elections to allow state lawmakers to pass a new congressional map, the Washington Post reported, citing two people with knowledge of the calls.
The Republican governor’s announcement to suspend the May 16 primary could come as early as Friday, a day before early voting is set to start, the Washington Post report said.
Reuters could not immediately verify the report. Landry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Landry’s move follows a 6-3 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that blocked an electoral map that had given Louisiana a second Black-majority U.S. congressional district. Black people make up roughly a third of the population of Louisiana, which has six U.S. House districts.
The Supreme Court ruling gutted a key provision of the Voting Rights Act making it harder for minorities to challenge electoral maps as racially discriminatory under the landmark civil rights law.
With November congressional elections looming, the decision could encourage Republican-led states to seek to redraw electoral maps in an effort that could put at risk U.S. House of Representatives seats considered safely Democratic. Black voters tend to support Democratic candidates.
The Supreme Court issued its ruling as Republican-governed and Democratic-led states around the country battle over the redrawing of electoral maps to change the composition of U.S. House districts for partisan advantage ahead of the November elections.
U.S. President Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans hope to retain the party’s razor-thin majorities in the House and Senate.
(Reporting by Chandni Shah in Bengaluru; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Kate Mayberry)
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