BATON ROUGE — State legislator Stewart Cathey Jr. has decided not to enter the race for Louisiana's 5th Congressional District following President Donald Trump's endorsement of Blake Miguez.

Cathey made the announcement on Wednesday, the opening day of the qualifying period for the May 16 party primary and municipal primary elections. 

Cathey said despite his support for the president, Trump "endorsed the wrong candidate in this race." 

"Our region deserves representation from someone who truly knows North Louisiana — someone who's been to Bastrop and Bogalusa, someone who knows the difference between Franklinton and Franklin Parish because he's been there and not just heard about them in the past two weeks," Cathey said.

Cathey was one of several Republican candidates who said they would enter the race after Trump endorsed former District 5 representative Julia Letlow for Senate, but dropped out after the Miguez endorsement. 

He currently represents the 33rd district in the Louisiana State Senate.