6 takeaways from Louisiana’s 6th District candidates forum

State Sen. Rick Edmonds, R-Baton Rouge, was the sole defender of some of President Donald Trump’s more controversial policies as the only Republican taking part in a candidates’ forum Friday night for Louisiana’s 6th Congressional District candidates.

Democrats Pat Forbes, Chauna Banks and Lindsay “Rubia” Garcia participated along with Edmonds in the hour-long, televised event sponsored by WBRZ-TV and the Greater Baton Rouge Economic Partnership at the Manship Theatre in downtown Baton Rouge.

The candidates are running to replace U.S. Rep. Cleo Fields, D-Baton Rouge, who decided not to seek another term after the Louisiana Legislature redrew his district lines to favor a Republican over a Democrat. The new 6th District includes large swaths of the Baton Rouge metropolitan area but also extends to include parts of the River Parishes and sections of upper Bayou Lafourche.

Edmonds found himself at odds with the other candidates on stage over immigration enforcement, policing and the Iran war, though as a Republican, he has a better chance of winning the seat than his Democratic opponents.

The primary election will take place Nov. 4, with a Dec. 12 runoff between the top two candidates if necessary.

1. State Sen. Blake Miguez, R-New Iberia, was a no-show.

Edmonds and Miguez are the two strongest Republican candidates in the race, but Miguez declined the invitation to participate in Friday’s candidates forum. WBRZ anchor Sylvia Weatherspoon, who moderated the event, said Miguez told the television station he had a schedule conflict.

Voter Guide: Election 2026

Miguez has also declined several news media interviews since signing up to run for Congress.

WBRZ invited candidates to participate in the forum based on a poll of almost 800 likely voters conducted from Sept. 19-21. Its results showed Edmonds (13.8%) had the most support of any candidate followed by Banks (13.2%), Miguez (9.7%), Garcia (7.7%) and Forbes (7.6%).

All other candidates in the race polled 4% or lower, according to Weatherspoon.

2. Edmonds, Democrats disagree on immigration enforcement. 

The candidates agreed it’s necessary for the United States to have “secure borders,” but the Democrats condemned the Trump administration’s aggressive approach to immigration enforcement.

Edmonds said immigrants should be treated in a “humane” manner, but the senator also characterized the president’s immigration enforcement tactics as part of a broader crackdown on violent crime.

“If I’m going to err on the side, it’s going to err on the side of people that have lost their lives,” Edmonds said, suggesting that immigrants detained and deported in recent enforcement sweeps are murderers.

The Democratic candidates pushed back strongly on that narrative, saying many immigrants who have been punished are not criminals.
“I find it rather crazy that we’re talking about getting the worst of the worst, except the worst of the worst aren’t the ones that are being deported,” Garcia said while looking at Edmonds.

“Do we need to put our neighbors out of church or out of court when they’re trying to comply with court orders? And deport them to a country they’ve never heard of? No, I don’t think so,” Forbes said.

3. Edmonds, Democrats disagree on Iran war. 

Edmonds was the only candidate on stage to indicate he supported the Iran war Trump started in February. The three Democratic candidates said they opposed the war, with Forbes and Banks blaming it for high prices on consumer goods in the U.S.

“The war on Iran and the war, with tariffs, on just about everybody else, that is what raised the prices. That is what caused inflation. That is the problem,” Banks said. “We must stop the war in Iran, and we have to do something about the tariffs.”

4. Edmonds, Democrats disagree on using the National Guard for local policing. 

Edmonds said he supports sometimes using the Louisiana National Guard as a supplement to local law enforcement to address crime. Trump and Gov. Jeff Landry supported a National Guard deployment in New Orleans for several months. The city has seen a drop in its violent crime rate, though critics and criminologists point to FBI statistics that show an overall national trend of less crime since the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We have to, in certain cases, we have to support even the National Guard” being used for local policing, Edmonds said. “If it comes to that point, our people must be safe.”

6 takeaways from the 5th Congressional District candidates’ forum

The Democrats disagreed. Forbes said local law enforcement agencies need more resources to fight crime instead, and Banks said National Guard members aren’t trained to handle local policing duties.
“They are not trained to go in arresting people and running down folks and all of that,” Banks said.

5. Forbes, Garcia criticize Mike Johnson and Steve Scalise. 

Forbes and Garcia said they hope Democrats will take over leadership in Congress after the November election.

Louisiana representatives hold the top leadership positions in the U.S. House, in Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Benton, and Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson. But Forbes and Garcia said the state doesn’t seem to be better off for all of the power it supposedly has in Congress.

“What does it say that we have the speaker of the House, as well as Steve Scalise … What does Louisiana have to show for it when we are last in almost every major metric collectively?” Garcia asked.

6. All 4 candidates support term limits and stock trading restrictions for Congress.

Every candidate agreed there should be more restrictions on the ability of members of Congress to trade stocks, given the confidential information they can access.

All four candidates also indicated they would support a limit on the number of terms someone can serve in Congress. Currently, there is no limit.