Rep. Cleo Fields (D-La.) has announced he will not seek reelection, choosing instead to run for state Senate in the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling gutting the Voting Rights Act.
In a statement late Tuesday afternoon, Fields said he came to the decision after “a great deal of prayer and reflection.”
“I feel my calling to serve the people is better put to use back home than here in D.C., and I intend to answer that call,” said Fields, whose majority-Black district encompasses parts of Shreveport, Baton Rouge and Lafayette.
Fields’ announcement comes after the Louisiana state legislature in May passed a new map that eliminated his district following the Supreme Court’s Louisiana v. Callais decision, which ruled that the state’s second majority-Black district was an illegal racial gerrymander.
Fields condemned the Supreme Court’s April decision as “a grave setback to voting rights” as he pointed out that “minority candidates are rarely, if ever, elected from districts where they are not the majority, underscoring why fair districting remains essential to ensuring equal representation.”
The National Republican Congressional Committee on Monday identified Fields’ seat as one of its 2026 targets, adding to a list of more than 30 districts the committee has set its sights on.
The Callais ruling was not the first time Fields’ district, which he was first elected to represent in 1992 at the age of 29, was ruled unconstitutional; his district, then the 4th congressional district, was first found to be a racial gerrymander in 1996. That three-judge panel then implemented a new map which included just one majority Black district, after which Fields was elected to the Louisiana Senate. He didn’t return to Congress again until after his election in 2024.
Fields will now seek to fill the seat of state Sen. Larry Selders (D), who died on July 7.
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