Louisiana House Races 2026: Congressional Districts
Speaker Mike Johnson (LA-4) · Majority Leader Steve Scalise (LA-1) · Troy Carter (D, LA-2 New Orleans)
Louisiana House 2026 — Key Numbers
Louisiana House Delegation — National Power
Louisiana Punches Above Its Weight
Louisiana’s House delegation has extraordinary national power by virtue of holding two of the top three positions in House Republican leadership. Speaker Mike Johnson (LA-4) controls the House floor schedule, committee assignments, and the overall legislative agenda. Majority Leader Steve Scalise (LA-1) manages day-to-day floor operations and is responsible for whipping votes. Together, two Louisiana members occupy the #1 and #2 positions in the Republican House hierarchy — an extraordinary concentration of power for a state with only six House seats.
Troy Carter: New Orleans Voice in Congress
Troy Carter (D, LA-2) represents the New Orleans district created as a majority-Black constituency to comply with the Voting Rights Act. The district is drawn to give Black voters in New Orleans and surrounding parishes fair representation. Carter focuses on disaster preparedness and recovery (critical after Katrina, Ida, and recurring Gulf storms), port and shipping interests in the Port of New Orleans, environmental justice, and federal investment in Louisiana’s disappearing coastal land. He is not threatened electorally but wields influence as the sole Democratic voice from Louisiana in Congress.
Energy, Disaster, and Coastal Loss
Louisiana’s congressional delegation is unified on energy policy: the state is a major oil and gas producer, home to refineries, LNG export terminals, and the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The delegation fights federal restrictions on offshore drilling and pipeline construction. On coastal land loss — Louisiana is losing a football field of coast every 100 minutes to subsidence and erosion — the delegation seeks federal flood control and coastal restoration funding. Disaster preparedness and FEMA funding are perennial concerns in a state regularly hit by Gulf hurricanes.
