In a shakeup for Louisiana’s congressional delegation, Rep. Garret Graves, R-L.A., announced unexpectedly Friday he will not seek re-election in 2024, resigning his position after the state’s new congressional maps carved up his existing district and will likely hand the House seat to a Democrat.
Graves, who had initially insisted he planned to run again, ultimately decided that a campaign in the overhauled districts would do “permanent damage to Louisiana’s great representation in Congress” if he ran in a Republican-friendly district, because it would have forced him to campaign against another Republican.
“Campaigning in any of these districts now is not fair to any of the Louisianans who will inevitably be tossed into yet another district next year,” he said.
The five-term congressman was considered a key ally of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and other establishment Republican leaders, and played an instrumental role in last year’s negotiations on the national debt that ultimately led to McCarthy’s ouster.
“After much input from constituents, consultation with supporters, consensus from family, and guidance from the Almighty, it is clear that running for Congress this year does not make sense,” Graves said in a statement confirming his resignation.
The Louisiana maps were redrawn after the Supreme Court ruled that the state’s previous congressional boundaries likely violated the Voting Rights Act. The new lines establish a second majority-Black district, the 6th, which was effectively carved from Graves’ existing Baton Rouge-area seat.
Had he opted to run for that redrawn 6th District, the Republican would have faced an unwinnable challenge from a Democrat, likely newly announced candidate Cleo Fields, a state senator.
Graves’ departure also cements an easier path to re-election for Republican Rep. Julia Letlow, who will run in the reconfigured 5th District after her existing seat was also impacted by the court-ordered remapping. Graves was considering running a primary campaign against her, but opted to resign out of party unity.
For Republican insiders, the longtime lawmaker’s exit marks another blow to McCarthy’s once-formidable bloc of establishment supporters in the House Republican conference. Graves was one of the key negotiators credited with helping McCarthy resolve the controversial debt ceiling standoff with President Biden’s White House, before McCarthy was ultimately ousted as Speaker in a stunning vote on the House floor in October.
In all, Graves becomes the 25th House Republican to announce plans to depart Congress at the conclusion of this term, either through retirement or by seeking another office. That wave of departures has exacerbated some of the turmoil on Capitol Hill amid its very public GOP power struggles.
As Louisiana’s districts are overhauled, the fallout has handed Democrats a legitimate shot at flipping one of the state’s six seats in 2024.