Cleo Fields raises over $600,000 for Louisiana congressional race

This story has been updated to reflect that another Democrat, Quentin Anthony Anderson, has announced that he will run for Congress in the 6th district. 

State Sen. Cleo Fields, D-Baton Rouge, has raised more than $600,000 for his congressional bid since announcing his campaign in late January, according to a federal campaign finance report filed Thursday. 

Fields is running in Louisiana’s newly-redrawn 6th Congressional district, which stretches from Baton Rouge to Shreveport, picking up portions of Alexandria and Lafayette. It’s the second and newest majority-Black seat on the state’s Congressional map, which Fields and his colleagues in the state Legislature approved in January. 

A campaign finance report shows most of Fields’ donations come from individuals ($564,000) with a smaller portion coming from political action committees ($39,000). It covers the period from January through March 31.

Quentin Anthony Anderson, the head of a Baton Rouge-based social justice organization, also intends to run for the Congressional seat as a Democrat, but hasn’t submitted a campaign finance report yet.

The current 6th District congressman, Republican Garret Graves, may have a difficult time winning reelection because the lines of the district now favor a Democratic candidate.

Fields, as a Democrat, benefited from a confluence of factors that put him in the right place to run a strong campaign.

A federal judge ordered Louisiana to create a second majority-Black congressional district to better reflect the demographics of the state. To comply with the ruling, one of Louisiana’s five Republican U.S. members’ districts had to be converted into a Democratic-leaning seat. 

Graves, who is based in Baton Rouge, became the obvious target. He doesn’t see eye to eye with Gov. Jeff Landry and appears to have a strained relationship with U.S. House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, two of the most powerful Republicans in the state.

Fields and Landry created an unusual political alliance, and the governor was willing to go along with creating a map that ousted Graves. 

Fields, Anderson and any other Democrat who runs for this office may still face hurdles, however. Voters have challenged the Louisiana congressional map in a case that goes to trial early next week. If their challenge is successful, the current lines of the 6th district would be moved again. 

That’s what Graves is hoping for. He has said he will run for Congress again, but he also appears to assume the latest congressional map will be thrown out and the lines may be drawn more favorably for him.

There’s also been some speculation that Graves could run against U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow, R-Start, whose Monroe-based district now stretches within a few blocks of Graves’ house in Baton Rouge. 

Graves’ has not filed his first quarter campaign finance report yet, but he ended 2023 with $3.8 million cash on hand in his campaign account, according to a federal election report. Letlow had $1.4 million at the end of 2023.