Louisiana Politicians: Landry, Congress, and Corruption Cases

Louisiana politicians in 2026 operate under complete Republican control of state government: every statewide constitutional office, supermajorities in both legislative chambers, and four of the six U.S. House seats belong to the GOP, and two of those House members — Mike Johnson and Steve Scalise — hold the top two positions in the Republican conference. That dominance has coincided with an aggressive expansion of gubernatorial power under Jeff Landry, a Supreme Court ruling that upended the state’s congressional map, and federal or state charges against the mayor of New Orleans and a former speaker of the state House.

Who Holds Statewide Office

Republicans swept every statewide constitutional office in November 2023, only the second time in modern history the GOP has held a complete monopoly on Louisiana’s executive branch. All current officeholders were inaugurated January 8, 2024, with terms running through January 2028.¹

Governor: Jeff Landry
Lieutenant Governor: Billy Nungesser
Attorney General: Liz Murrill
Secretary of State: Nancy Landry
Treasurer: John Fleming
Agriculture Commissioner: Mike Strain
Insurance Commissioner: Tim Temple

Murrill replaced Landry as attorney general when he moved into the governor’s mansion. Fleming, a former congressman who served in the Trump administration, succeeded John Schroder as treasurer.¹

Governor Jeff Landry

Since taking office in January 2024, Landry has pursued a conservative agenda that has expanded executive power, cut taxes, and placed the state at the center of national fights over education, immigration, and church-state separation.

His office attributes an improvement in Louisiana’s economic outlook from 31st to 18th nationally and nearly $100 billion in investment announcements to what it calls historic tax cuts. The administration has also pointed to a reported 43 percent drop in violent crime in New Orleans and launched a state-run detention facility for people who entered the country illegally, marketed as “Louisiana Lockup” or Camp 57.²

On education, Landry signed a June 2024 law requiring every public school classroom to display a poster-sized copy of the Ten Commandments.³ A federal district judge blocked it as unconstitutional in a 177-page opinion in November 2024,⁴ but the full Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in February 2026 that it was premature to decide the constitutional question, vacated the injunction, and cleared the law to take effect. Future challengers will need to sue over how individual districts implement the displays.⁵

Expanded Powers of the Governor’s Office

During the 2024 session, Landry signed a suite of laws that reshaped what the governor controls. One gave him authority to appoint leaders of nearly 150 state boards and commissions. Another expanded the Louisiana Board of Ethics from 11 to 15 members and let the governor appoint nine, cutting out the private university presidents who had previously handled nominations. A separate measure gave the governor full control over the Governor’s Mansion and made mansion commission meetings and records secret. Two other laws let the governor indefinitely withhold documents about his schedule and travel on security grounds, and limited public records requests to the governor’s office to Louisiana residents with state-issued identification.⁶

The Landry Ethics Case

Landry faced ethics charges tied to allegations that he failed to disclose flights on a political donor’s private plane to Hawaii in 2021, when he was attorney general. In September 2025 the Louisiana Board of Ethics dropped the formal charges. As part of the resolution Landry admitted to other failures to disclose free travel from business groups and political contributors, and paid a $900 fine.⁷

While those charges were still pending, the legislature passed House Bill 674 in May 2025, overhauling the ethics investigation process to give elected officials more tools to challenge probes. Ethics officials said the bill would blunt the board’s enforcement power and could let subjects run out the clock on investigations. The bill’s drafter was the attorney representing Landry in his own ethics case, though he said the changes would apply only to future complaints.⁸

The Congressional Delegation

Louisiana sends two senators and six representatives to Washington. As of mid-2026 the delegation includes two of the highest-ranking Republicans in Congress, two Black Democrats whose seats have been directly shaped by redistricting, and an open Senate race that has already toppled an incumbent.

Speaker Mike Johnson

Mike Johnson, who represents the 4th Congressional District, serves as the 56th Speaker of the U.S. House — the first Louisianan ever elected to the position and the highest-ranking government official in the state’s history. First elected to Congress in a 2016 special election, he is in his fifth term.⁹ In 2026 his public focus has been tax legislation and immigration enforcement, including remarks after passage of the Secure America Act in June 2026.¹⁰

Majority Leader Steve Scalise

Steve Scalise represents the 1st Congressional District and serves as House Majority Leader, the second-highest position in the Republican conference. Having both the Speaker and Majority Leader from the same state gives Louisiana unusual weight in Washington.¹¹

Senator John Kennedy

John Kennedy, 74, is serving his second Senate term and has confirmed he will seek reelection in 2028. He has not ruled out a run for president, telling an audience at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics in June 2026 that donors have approached him about a campaign. Before the Senate he served 17 years as state treasurer, and he switched from Democrat to Republican in 2007.¹²

Bill Cassidy and the 2026 Senate Race

Bill Cassidy’s Senate tenure is likely ending. Despite being a well-funded incumbent, he has been politically weakened since voting to convict Donald Trump in the 2021 impeachment trial. In January 2026 Trump publicly urged Rep. Julia Letlow to challenge him, posting “RUN, JULIA, RUN!!!” on social media.¹³ Letlow entered the race and won the Republican primary runoff on June 27, 2026, defeating State Treasurer John Fleming after Cassidy finished third in the initial primary with 25 percent.¹⁴

Letlow, who represents the 5th Congressional District, first entered Congress in a 2021 special election after her husband, Luke Letlow, died of COVID-19 before he could be sworn in. She has pledged to support the “America First” agenda and backs eliminating the Senate filibuster to pass election reform legislation.¹⁴ She faces Democrat Jamie Davis in November and is considered the heavy favorite. If elected, she would be the first Republican woman to represent Louisiana in the Senate.¹³

Troy Carter

Troy Carter of the 2nd Congressional District is the state’s most prominent Democratic voice in Washington. Now in his third term, he sits on the Energy and Commerce Committee and the Homeland Security Committee, and holds the titles of Deputy Whip and First Vice Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus.¹⁵

Clay Higgins

Clay Higgins of the 3rd Congressional District has drawn repeated national controversy. In September 2024 the ACLU of Louisiana called for the House to censure him after he posted a since-deleted tweet calling Haitians “wild,” repeating the “eating pets” claim, and writing: “All these thugs better get their mind right and their ass out of our country before January 20th.” It was the second time the ACLU sought his censure; the first came in 2020 after Higgins posted on Facebook threatening to “shoot” Black protesters following the police killing of Trayford Pellerin.¹⁶

In November 2025, Higgins was the only House member to vote against a bill forcing the release of Jeffrey Epstein’s case files, even though he chaired the Oversight subcommittee that had subpoenaed the Department of Justice for those files. He argued that releasing broad criminal investigative records would harm thousands of innocent people, including witnesses and family members.¹⁷ Higgins voted against certifying the 2020 presidential election results and has made unsubstantiated claims about FBI involvement in the January 6 Capitol attack.¹⁸

Cleo Fields

Cleo Fields won the 6th Congressional District in 2024 with about 51 percent of the vote, giving Louisiana two Black Democrats in the House for the first time since 2011. That seat was created under a congressional map the Supreme Court struck down in April 2026, and the replacement map passed by the legislature on May 29, 2026, dismantles his majority-Black district. His first stint in Congress ended in 1997 after redistricting shifted his district to favor a Republican.¹⁹

The Redistricting Fight

In 2022, a federal court found that Louisiana’s original congressional map likely violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act by diluting Black voting power. The legislature responded with SB8, creating a second majority-Black district connecting Black communities in Baton Rouge, Lafayette, and Shreveport.²⁰

On April 29, 2026, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Louisiana v. Callais that SB8 was itself an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the majority, concluded that the Voting Rights Act did not actually require a second majority-minority district, so Louisiana lacked a compelling interest to justify race-conscious line-drawing. The ruling raised the bar for future VRA claims, requiring plaintiffs to prove intentional racial discrimination rather than discriminatory effect.²¹ Justice Elena Kagan’s dissent argued the decision rendered Section 2 of the VRA “all but a dead letter.”²²

Landry delayed the state’s House primary elections from May to November 3, 2026, to give the legislature time to redraw the lines.²³ The legislature approved Senate Bill 121 on May 29, 2026, and Landry signed it the same day. The new map keeps one majority-Black district (Carter’s New Orleans-based seat) but eliminates Fields’s district, splitting Baton Rouge’s Black population between two districts and folding Shreveport into the rest of northwest Louisiana. The state Senate approved it 28-10, and the House vote fell almost entirely along party lines. The map already faces litigation from opposite directions: a group of conservative white voters sued on May 26 arguing the remaining majority-Black district is itself a racial gerrymander, and the Louisiana Legislative Black Caucus announced plans to challenge the map as racist.²⁴

The State Legislature

Republicans hold commanding supermajorities in Baton Rouge. In the 105-seat House the GOP holds 70 seats to the Democrats’ 29, with six vacancies. In the 39-seat Senate, Republicans hold 28 seats to the Democrats’ 10, with one vacancy.²⁵ Combined with the governor’s office, that gives Louisiana a full Republican trifecta.

The state has also moved away from its traditional jungle primary, in which all candidates from all parties appeared on a single ballot, to closed party primaries for federal and state offices. Analysts expect the change to make ideologically motivated primary challenges against more moderate Republicans more viable.²⁶

Corruption and Criminal Cases

Louisiana has long been described as a haven for corrupt politicians, a reputation that has historically discouraged business investment and fed public distrust of government.²⁷ Two active cases keep the reputation current.

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell was indicted on August 15, 2025, in what prosecutors described as a yearslong scheme to defraud the city. The superseding indictment charged her with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, six counts of wire fraud, conspiracy to obstruct justice, obstruction of justice, and two counts of lying to a grand jury. Prosecutors allege Cantrell used her authority to pay former New Orleans police officer Jeffrey Vappie for on-duty hours spent on personal activities, spending more than $70,000 in city funds on his travel. Evidence cited in the indictment includes more than 15,000 WhatsApp messages.²⁸

Cantrell pleaded not guilty on September 10, 2025, and remains in office. She is the first sitting mayor of New Orleans to be indicted while serving. She was released without bail but must surrender her passport and is restricted to travel within the 13 parishes under the jurisdiction of the New Orleans federal court.²⁹

Former House Speaker Clay Schexnayder

A state grand jury indicted former Louisiana House Speaker Clay Schexnayder on November 12, 2025, on charges of felony theft and malfeasance in office. The charges stem from the disappearance of an ancient cypress board, a 20-foot-by-6-foot slab valued at more than $25,000, that had been displayed in the State Capitol for decades. The felony theft charge carries up to 20 years in prison.³⁰ Schexnayder surrendered to agents from the attorney general’s office in November 2025 and entered a not guilty plea on January 8, 2026. He has denied wrongdoing, saying he left the artifact in his legislative office when he left and does not know what happened to it. Attorney General Murrill said publicly: “You don’t get to keep State property, it doesn’t belong to you.” The board had not been recovered as of the indictment.³¹

Other Recent Matters

A January 2025 U.S. Department of Justice investigation found a “pattern of unlawful conduct” within the Louisiana State Police, including excessive force and lack of accountability.⁷ In February 2025, the Louisiana Public Service Commission voted 3-2 along party lines to remove Commissioner Davante Lewis as vice chair after he called Landry an “a–hole” on social media in response to a post by the governor. The ACLU of Louisiana called the removal retaliatory.³²

Historical Backdrop

Today’s cases sit inside a long line of them. Four-term Governor Edwin Edwards was convicted in 2000 of racketeering, extortion, and money laundering tied to the state’s riverboat casino industry, and sentenced to 10 years in federal prison.²⁷ Former U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, who represented Louisiana’s 2nd District from 1991 to 2009, was convicted in 2009 of bribery, racketeering, and money laundering and sentenced to 13 years. FBI agents found $90,000 in cash hidden in a pie crust box in his freezer.³³

1
Shreveport Times. Louisiana Republicans Secure Monopoly on Statewide Offices After Sweeping Elections
2
Office of the Governor of Louisiana. Governor Jeff Landry
3
NPR. Louisiana Requires Ten Commandments Displays in Public School Classrooms
4
National Constitution Center. The Newest Debate Over the Ten Commandments in Public Schools
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Education Week. Appeals Court Allows Louisiana Ten Commandments Displays to Proceed
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Louisiana Illuminator. 6 New Laws That Will Increase Jeff Landry’s Power as Louisiana Governor
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Louisiana Illuminator. Louisiana 2025
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WRKF. As Charges Linger Over Landry, Louisiana House Votes to Overhaul Ethics Investigations
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Office of Speaker Mike Johnson. Speaker Mike Johnson
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Office of Speaker Mike Johnson. Speaker Mike Johnson Videos
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Office of the Majority Leader. Majority Leader Steve Scalise
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Louisiana Radio Network. Kennedy Hints at Presidential Campaign
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New York Times. Louisiana Senate Republican Runoff Results
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NBC News. Trump-Backed Rep. Julia Letlow Wins Louisiana Senate Primary Runoff
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Office of Rep. Troy Carter. Rep. Troy Carter
16
ACLU of Louisiana. ACLU Louisiana Urges Censure of Rep. Clay Higgins
17
ABC7 News. Clay Higgins Sole House Member to Vote No on Releasing Epstein Files
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Louisiana Illuminator. Higgins Censure
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Verite News. a href=”https://veritenews.org/2024/11/06/cleo-fields-wins-6th-district/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>Cleo Fields Wins 6th District
20
U.S. Supreme Court. Louisiana v. Callais, No. 24-109
21
NPR. Supreme Court Louisiana Redistricting
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SCOTUSblog. In Major Voting Rights Act Case, Supreme Court Strikes Down Redistricting Map
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NPR. Louisiana New Congressional Map Redistricting
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Louisiana Illuminator. Litigation Looms as Louisiana Legislature Approves New Congressional Map
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National Conference of State Legislatures. State Partisan Composition
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Louisiana Illuminator. State Sen. Blake Miguez Announces Campaign for Cassidy’s U.S. Senate Seat
27
EBSCO Research Starters. Former Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards Convicted on Corruption Charges
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U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Louisiana. New Orleans Mayor Latoya Cantrell and Former NOPD Officer Jeffrey Vappie Indicted
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WWNO. Latoya Cantrell Enters Not Guilty Plea in Federal Corruption Case
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U.S. News. Grand Jury Indicts Former Louisiana House Speaker for Allegedly Stealing Rare State Artifact
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WAFB. Former Louisiana House Speaker Accused of Stealing Rare State Artifact Enters Plea
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E&E News. Louisiana Regulator Stripped of Vice Chair Role for Insulting Governor
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FBI. William Jefferson