Less-known 5th District candidates for U.S. House express dismay about election shakeup

Published: May 1, 2026

By: Sheridan White and Courtney Bell, LSU Manship School News Service

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.”