State Sen. Cathey “seriously looking” at congressional run

MONROE, La. (KNOE) - The new filing period for Louisiana’s congressional races is still months away, but it already looks to be a crowded field for the open 5th Congressional District — that is, if several people who announced runs in February will continue to run.

“I would say that absolutely I am very seriously looking at running for Congress now that the map has changed,” State Sen. Stewart Cathey Jr., R-Monroe, told KNOE Monday. “I think that you’re probably going to see significant changes to the field in August when everybody qualifies.”

Gov. Jeff Landry postponed and canceled the state’s congressional races after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the state’s congressional map unconstitutional. The map that was struck down had two majority-minority districts.

The new map covers most of northeast Louisiana except for Union Parish, some of the Florida Parishes and the Alexandria area down to St. Landry Parish.

“I think that the map is certainly much more different today than it was back in February. The concern back then was making sure that we had a northeast Louisiana candidate, northeast Louisiana congressman going to D.C. to represent us. Now that the map has changed, it is certainly favored for somebody from Northeast Louisiana,” Cathey said.

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The new congressional election will be held in November as a jungle primary during the midterm general elections. Qualifying for the congressional races will be Aug. 5-7.

A total of 11 people qualified for the 5th Congressional District race before the election was canceled.

State Rep. Gabe Firment also announced Monday that he is considering a run for the open congressional seat.