WASHINGTON — Republican Julia Letlow has won a special election Saturday in Louisiana, NBC News projected, while Democratic state Sens. Troy Carter and Karen Carter Peterson advanced to a runoff election in another district.
Voters in the state are filling two vacant House seats in the first special congressional elections of the year.
Letlow ran to replace her late husband, Luke, who was first elected to the seat in November but died of complications from Covid-19 in December.
Endorsed by former President Donald Trump, Letlow was favored to win Louisiana’s heavily Republican 5th Congressional District, but she managed to avoid a runoff election by surpassing the 50 percent threshold.
Trump, through his PAC, released a statement Saturday afternoon urging voters to turn out for Letlow, saying “she will never disappoint” and “is outstanding and so necessary to help save our Second Amendment, at the Border, and for our Military and Vets.”
The other race, in Louisiana’s majority Black 2nd Congressional District which stretches from New Orleans to Baton Rouge, is headed to an April 24 runoff.
The contest could offer clues about the mood inside the Democratic Party, and especially among Black Democrats a few months into President Joe Biden’s term.
Fifteen candidates were running to replace former Rep. Cedric Richmond, a Democrat who left Congress in January to take a senior role in Biden’s White House, so none were expected to cross the 50 percent threshold needed in the first round to avoid next month’s runoff.
Richmond and other Democratic Party power brokers are backing moderate Carter, but he’s facing stiff competition from Carter Peterson, who is running as a progressive.
Carter Peterson, who was until last year chairwoman of the Louisiana Democratic Party, has been endorsed by the women’s group Emily’s List, former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams and Our Revolution, which spun off of Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign.
Carter and Carter Peterson — who are not related — had both raised about half a million dollars for the race as of the end of February, according to campaign finance reports, while activist Gary Chambers has raised over $300,000, with the rest of the field far behind.
The district is more than two-thirds Black and heavily Democratic, with Richmond winning re-election last year by nearly 50 percentage points over his closest Republican rival.
The next special congressional election is currently scheduled to take place on June 1 in a safe Democratic district in New Mexico, where candidates are vying to replace former Rep. Debra Haaland, who on Monday was confirmed as interior secretary.
