Louisiana is a red state. Republicans control the governor’s office, hold supermajorities in both chambers of the state legislature, and hold both U.S. Senate seats along with four of the state’s six U.S. House seats. So if you are asking whether Louisiana is a red or blue state, the short answer is red, and by a wide margin in most statewide races. Democrats still win in a handful of places, but they have not carried Louisiana in a presidential election since 1996.
Presidential Voting Since 2000
Louisiana has voted Republican in every presidential election since 2000. Republican nominees have taken between 53 and 60 percent of the vote in each of those cycles.1270toWin. Louisiana Presidential Election Voting History In 2024, Donald Trump won 60.2 percent to Kamala Harris’s 38.2 percent, a gap of roughly 22 points.
The state was not always this lopsided. George W. Bush won Louisiana by about 8 points in 2000, and before that Jimmy Carter carried it in 1976 and Bill Clinton carried it in both 1992 and 1996.1270toWin. Louisiana Presidential Election Voting History Since 2008, no Democratic presidential candidate has come within 15 points of the Republican nominee, and Louisiana is no longer considered competitive at the presidential level.
State Government
Republican Jeff Landry was inaugurated as Louisiana’s 57th governor in January 2024, replacing Democrat John Bel Edwards, who had served two terms starting in 2016.2KLFY. Jeff Landry Sworn In as 57th Governor of Louisiana Edwards was unusual: a Democrat who won and held the governorship in a deep-red state by running as a social conservative who happened to support Medicaid expansion. His exit gave Republicans a government trifecta, meaning single-party control of the governorship and both legislative chambers.3270toWin. State Government Trifectas
The legislative numbers are not close. As of 2025, the State Senate has 27 Republicans and 10 Democrats. The House has 73 Republicans and 32 Democrats. Those are supermajority margins, large enough for Republicans to override vetoes and pass legislation without needing Democratic votes.
Congressional Delegation
Louisiana sends two U.S. Senators and six U.S. Representatives to Congress. Both senators, Bill Cassidy and John Kennedy, are Republicans. Four of the six House seats are held by Republicans. The two Democratic representatives are Troy Carter, who represents the 2nd District centered on New Orleans, and Cleo Fields, who represents the 6th District, a majority-Black district that runs from Baton Rouge to Shreveport.4GovTrack.us. Louisiana Senators, Representatives, and Congressional District Maps
The 6th District map is currently the subject of litigation. The legislature drew the district after being ordered to create a second majority-Black seat under the Voting Rights Act, and opponents challenged the map as a racial gerrymander. The U.S. Supreme Court took up the case in 2025 as Louisiana v. Callais. The map was used in the 2024 election, which Fields won, but future elections in the district could look different depending on how the Court rules.
Where Democrats Still Win
Louisiana is not uniformly red. New Orleans, which makes up Orleans Parish, is the most Democratic area in the state and routinely delivers 75 percent or more of its vote to Democratic candidates. Baton Rouge (East Baton Rouge Parish) also leans Democratic, driven by a large Black population and the presence of Louisiana State University. Shreveport, in Caddo Parish, leans Democratic as well, though by smaller margins.
The map tracks closely with race. Black voters in Louisiana back Democratic candidates at rates above 90 percent, and the parishes with the largest Black populations are the ones that show up blue on election night. White voters, especially in rural and suburban parishes, vote Republican at similarly high rates. That polarization concentrates Democratic strength geographically: a candidate can win New Orleans by 60 points and still lose the state by 20.
How Louisiana Turned Red
Louisiana’s Republican dominance is more recent than many people assume. As late as 1991, only a single Republican held statewide office, and Democrats controlled the legislature, the governorship, and most local offices. Republicans did not win a U.S. Senate seat in Louisiana from the end of Reconstruction until 2004.
The shift built over the 1990s and 2000s. The collapse of oil and gas prices in the 1980s weakened the populist economic message that had held working-class white voters to the Democratic Party. Corruption scandals under Democratic Governor Edwin Edwards fed anti-government sentiment. Term limits passed in 1995 forced out longtime Democratic lawmakers. Hurricane Katrina in 2005 displaced hundreds of thousands of New Orleans residents, many of them reliable Democratic voters, and the political backlash landed on Democratic Governor Kathleen Blanco. Between 2001 and 2019, roughly 30 Louisiana legislators and officeholders switched from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party.
Religion, the energy industry, and a heavily rural population outside a few metro areas all reinforce the state’s conservative lean. Large evangelical Protestant and conservative Catholic populations tend to prioritize social issues, and jobs in oil, gas, refining, and petrochemicals make environmental regulation a politically difficult topic in most of the state.
The Jungle Primary
One thing worth knowing if you are trying to read Louisiana elections: the state does not use a traditional partisan primary. Instead, all candidates for an office, regardless of party, appear on a single ballot and all registered voters can participate. A candidate who takes more than 50 percent wins outright. If no one clears that bar, the top two finishers advance to a runoff, even if they belong to the same party.5Louisiana Secretary of State. Review Types of Elections
This system can produce two Republicans in a runoff for the same seat, shutting Democrats out entirely. In the current environment, it mostly reinforces Republican dominance rather than opening the door for Democrats, because a state this red tends to produce either first-round Republican winners or all-Republican runoffs.