BATON ROUGE – After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Louisiana’s congressional map unconstitutional for racial gerrymandering, candidates in the hotly contested but suddenly delayed 5th District race to replace U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow expressed varying degrees of confidence and exasperation.

One collateral effect of the suspended election timeline is the disruptive impact on low-profile candidates in both parties who have limited resources to get their message out to voters.

“It definitely hurts the little guys like me,” said Austin Magee, a Republican candidate and construction company owner from Franklinton.

Magee supports the Supreme Court’s Louisiana v. Callais ruling, but he said he has exhausted his already limited resources in his months-long efforts of campaigning, posting signs and talking to people around the district. Now, he said, these areas may not even be included in the redrawn district.

“It is frustrating that there’s been so much effort and energy and money expended,” Magee said. “It’s just more time for the people that have millions of dollars or hundreds of thousands of dollars in the bank to spend on this election. But for guys like me, it is a significant additional hill to climb.”

Democratic candidate Lindsay “Rubia” Garcia filed a lawsuit against Gov. Jeff Landry, Attorney General Liz Murrill and Secretary of State Nancy Landry Thursday evening over the decision to suspend the election. A primary for candidates in each major party had been scheduled for May 16, but now voters probably will not be able to weigh in until the fall.

The lawsuit argues that halting an election that is already underway could disenfranchise voters and violate election norms, and some legal experts dispute the claim by Landry and Murrill that the Supreme Court ruling required them to suspend the election and start over.

“At this point, this is in the judicial space,” state Rep. Michael Echols, a Republican candidate for the congressional seat, said Wednesday. “I assume whatever decision is made will be challenged in court short-term. A lawyer and a judge are going to be involved.”

Echols remains confident in his campaign, regardless of how the Legislature redraws the district. “I’ve got a very strong shot at winning in the current map based on polling and our efforts, and if they revert back to the old maps, I’ve got an even stronger chance of winning outright,” Echols said. “So, either way, I feel very confident based on where things stand.”

Other candidates are just trying to build name recognition, and they said the delay hurts.

Michael Mebruer, a self-funded Republican candidate from St. Francisville who works as a traveling medical professional, described the ruling as a major setback not only logistically but financially. Having already expended most of his campaign resources in preparation for the scheduled election, he now faces the extended campaign timeline and a potential reopening of candidate qualification.

Mebruer said he has been handing out pamphlets to voters with the May 16 election date printed on the back. But now those voters do not even know when they will get to vote. He warned that the confusion could discourage participation. 

“I think it’s going to negatively affect turnout, very much so,” Mebruer said. “To have the rug pulled out from under you at the last second like that, it ain’t right.”

Others have raised broader political concerns about the ruling and its implications.

Jessee Fleenor, a Democratic candidate from Loranger, criticized both the delay and the prospect of redrawing district maps so close to an election. He argued that the decision undermines voter confidence and could lead to confusion about representation, particularly if district boundaries change significantly.

He also expressed skepticism about the motivations behind the changes, suggesting that Landry was driven politically by the Republican Party’s efforts to try to hang onto its slim majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.

“He’s clearly under instruction to try to squeeze out a few more Republican seats here,” Fleenor said.

President Donald Trump has urged legislatures in politically red states to draw new congressional maps to switch Democratic-leaning districts to Republican ones. Texas and Florida have done that to create more Republican congressional seats, while Democrats have responded with similar moves in California and Virginia to try to offset the Republican gains.

Trump made clear in a social media post that he appreciates what Landry is doing in redrawing Louisiana’s congressional districts. Currently, two of the six members of the Louisiana House of Representatives come from districts with a majority Black population. Statewide, Blacks represent nearly one-third of the state’s electorate.

Even though Black residents comprise more than 30 percent of Louisiana’s population, the redistricting could eliminate one or both of the state’s majority-Black districts.

“Thank you to the Great Governor of Louisiana, Jeff Landry, for his leadership on the very important Callais case, and for moving so quickly to fix the Unconstitutionality of Louisiana’s Congressional Maps,” Trump’s post reads. “He has shown tremendous Vision, Strength, and Leadership. Thank you, Jeff, keep up the GREAT work!”

The uncertainty in election protocol extends to candidates themselves, with Fleenor noting he is unsure whether he will even remain in the district he is running for under a new map. He further cautioned that the confusion could be exploited.

“It’s going to be used by parties of bad faith to intentionally mislead voters,” Fleenor said.

Tania Nyman, another Democratic candidate from Baton Rouge, criticized the existing district map, but also questioned the timing of the ruling. A strong supporter of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, she expressed concern that the sudden delay could erode public trust in the electoral process.

“I think Gov. Landry’s decision to suspend the election two days before early voting starts is certainly a further erosion of integrity,” Nyman said.

While she acknowledged flaws in the current district boundaries, particularly the splintering of the Black population in the 6th District, Nyman emphasized that abrupt changes so close to an election risk undermining confidence in the system as a whole.

Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy has expressed disappointment that the state chose to suspend House primaries while leaving the Senate elections on the original timeline, creating an unusual split in the electoral calendar. The mismatch, he suggests, could further confuse voters and complicate turnout efforts.

Louisiana Board of Regents Chair Misti Cordell, state Sen. Rick Edmonds, R-Baton Rouge, and state Sen. Blake Miguez, R-New Iberia, did not respond to requests for interviews.

Sammy Wyatt, a Republican congressional candidate from Denham Springs, blamed Landry for pushing the gerrymandered map, which nixed former U.S. Rep. Garret Graves’ district in favor of adding the second Black-majority district. Landry reportedly pushed lawmakers to sacrifice

Graves’ district after he did not support his gubernatorial campaign.

“This is literally a mess that Gov. Landry created himself,” Wyatt said.

Gracie Thomas contributed reporting to this story