Republican State Senator Blake Miguez and Democrat Chauna Banks are headed to a runoff election for Louisiana's 6th Congressional District, setting up a Dec. 12 race to fill the seat left open by Cleo Fields. Miguez and Banks emerged ahead of a field that also included Republicans Rick Edmonds, Larry Davis III, Monique Appeaning, Michael Mebruer and Stephen Wagley, Democrats Lindsay Garcia and Pat Forbes, and Libertarian Rufus Craig.
That makes the contest simple now: one Republican, one Democrat, one seat, and one return trip to the polls on Saturday, Dec. 12. Banks, who served on the Metro Council from 2013 to 2024, is trying to turn her local record into a districtwide win, while Miguez is seeking to move from State Senate District 22, which includes parts of Iberia, Lafayette and New Iberia, to Congress.
The runoff matters because the seat became vacant after Fields said he would not seek re-election at the end of a redistricting fight that left Louisiana with a single majority-minority congressional district. That reshaped map is the backdrop for a race that now has to settle who will represent Louisiana's 6th Congressional District in Washington.
Miguez's campaign has also carried an extra layer of scrutiny. A formal complaint was lodged against him over whether he lived outside the district during the race, but the attorney general's office said after its review that his primary residence is in New Iberia, even though he has a home in East Baton Rouge Parish. The issue did not stop him from advancing, but it left a question hovering over the runoff that Banks does not have to answer.
For voters, the next step is fixed: they go back to the polls on Dec. 12. By then, the choice will be narrowed to whether the district sends Miguez or Banks to Congress, and the answer will come from the runoff election itself, not from the crowded first round that put them there.
