Regina Barrow (D)
Term limited in 2015
District Map

2002 Senate Race (Runoff)
Mary Landrieu (D) 9,061 (85%)
Suzy Terrell (R) 1,593 (15%)

2003 Governors Race (Runoff)
Kathleen Blanco (D) 8,656 (81%)
“Bobby” Jindal (R) 2,032 (19%)

2004 Presidential Race
George W. Bush (R) 2,914 (19%)
John Kerry (D) 12,108 (80%)
Others 114 (1%)

2004 Senate Race
David Vitter (R) 2,257 (16%)
Chris John (D) 7,189 (50%)
Others 5,065 (34%)

2006 Secretary of State Race
Jay Dardenne (R) 934 (30%)
Francis Heitmeier (D) 1,721 (56%)
Mike Francis (R) 188 (6%)
Mary Chehardy (R) 97 (3%)
Others 138 (5%)

2007 Governors Race
“Bobby” Jindal (R) 1,487 (15%)
Walter Boasso (D) 3,217 (33%)
John Georges (I) 1,594 (17%)
Foster Campbell (D) 3,080 (32%)
Others 237 (3%)

2007 Agriculture Commissioner Race
“Bob” Odom (D) 6,849 (75%)
Mike Strain (R) 1,109 (12%)
Wayne Carter (R) 650 (7%)
Don Johnson (R) 543 (6%)

The 1991 reapportionment was an event that significantly impacted the partisan and racial makeup of the Louisiana Legislature. As new African-American majority districts were created, the remaining districts became more winnable for Republicans. House District 29 is one of about 10 African-American majority districts which were created in 1991. Its semi-circular shape starts in the African-American section of Port Allen in West Baton Rouge Parish (about 10% of the total vote). As the district crosses the Mississippi River just north of the Capitol, it travels up Scenic Highway to Airline to include the petrochemical plants which employ a lot of Baton Rougeans. Once it reaches Airline, it then travels down Airline all the way to Choctaw, picking up blue-collar neighborhoods along the way. At Choctaw, the district travels down Choctaw to include middle-class neighborhoods and industrial areas between Airline and Flannery Road.

The demographics of the district are an example of the racial change that has occurred in areas of Baton Rouge north of Florida Boulevard in recent years. The blue collar whites who worked at the nearby plants left the area in the 1970s. In the late 1980s and 1990s, the middle class neighborhoods along Choctaw also changed racially. Today, the district is 82% African-American, which is up from 77% three years ago, with most of that change occurring in the middle class neighborhoods along Choctaw – their African American percentage increased nearly 10% in four years. Population growth-wise, the number of voters has remained flat since 2003.

The significant racial change has also made this district solidly Democratic. In the 1970s and 1980s, most of these precincts elected conservative (then) Democrat Woody Jenkins to the state House. However, after the 1991 reapportionment, his original district was pushed further south into more conservative and affluent neighborhoods. A new state House district was then created from most of the areas he represented in the 1970s and 1980s. In these original precincts, Democrats can currently count on receiving at least 80% of the vote in contested elections. Even with split Democratic opposition in the 2004 Senate race, David Vitter’s still received only 16% of the vote here.

The district has had steady representation since its 1991 creation. African-American Democrat Sharon Weston Broome (who was first elected as Sharon Weston) was victorious in the 1991 runoff with 59% of the vote. She was unopposed in 1995 and 1999 and received 80% of the vote in 2003. However, a political opportunity presented itself to her after state Senator Kip Holden was elected East Baton Rouge Parish’s first African-American Mayor-President in 2004. Rep. Broome sought Holden’s state Senate seat and was elected without opposition. Upon Broome’s departure, African-American Democrat Regina Barrow was elected in the runoff with 59% of the vote. She was then re-elected in 2007 in the primary with 65% of the vote.