House District 9
Henry Burns (R)
Term limited in 2019
District Map

2002 Senate Race (Runoff)
Mary Landrieu (D) 4,434 (45%)
Suzy Terrell (R) 5,377 (55%)

2003 Governors Race (Runoff)
Kathleen Blanco (D) 3,833 (42%)
“Bobby” Jindal (R) 5,340 (58%)

2004 Presidential Race
George W. Bush (R) 11,220 (68%)
John Kerry (D) 5,172 (31%)
Others 128 (1%)

2004 Senate Race
David Vitter (R) 9,283 (63%)
Chris John (D) 3,485 (24%)
Others 1,967 (13%)

2006 Secretary of State Race
Jay Dardenne (R) 755 (19%)
Francis Heitmeier (D) 861 (21%)
Mike Francis (R) 1,732 (42%)
Mary Chehardy (R) 270 (7%)
Others 447 (11%)

2007 Governors Race
“Bobby” Jindal (R) 5,761 (56%)
Walter Boasso (D) 1,104 (11%)
John Georges (I) 936 (9%)
Foster Campbell (D) 2,465 (24%)
Others 104 (1%)

2007 Agriculture Commissioner Race
“Bob” Odom (D) 3,074 (32%)
Mike Strain (R) 3,499 (36%)
Wayne Carter (R) 2,265 (23%)
Don Johnson (R) 906 (9%)

House District 9 is similar to House District 1 north/northwest of Shreveport in several ways: it has been represented by the same legislator (in this case Billy Montgomery) since 1987; the incumbent has had little opposition since then (he has been unopposed since 1991, when he was re-elected with 74% of the vote), his term-limited seat has a definite Republican lean to it, and the seat is a cinch for the Republicans to hold this year.

Like District 1, District 9 includes a mixture of Shreveport suburbs and rural areas with a significant black population, and it regularly votes Republican in contested statewide elections. In fact, the Republican voting performance and black population in this district are almost identical to District 1 across town.

District 9 is wholly contained within Bossier Parish and has three parts: the “inner suburbs” of Bossier City near Barksdale Air Force Base and the parish seat of Benton. These areas tend to be more Democratic. There is also a rural Democratic tendency in the north, east, and southern perimeter of Bossier Parish. The Democratic preference of these two sections is steadily being diluted, however, by Republican neighborhoods east of Bossier City in the Red Chute/Eastwood area. Bush received over 80% of the vote in this area, and overall the district voted 68-31% for Bush and 63-24% for Vitter.

This Republican trend will likely continue in the future. The number of registered voters increased at a rate more than twice as fast as it did statewide from 2003 to 2007. During that time, there has also been steady erosion in the Democratic voter registration edge from 44-31% to 40-34%.

Representative Montgomery recently switched to the Republican party, and his term-limited House seat was narrowly won by Republican Henry Burns, who defeated a fellow Republican by 87 votes. Rep. Montgomery himself is seeking Republican Max Malone’s term limited state senate seat.

We see this district as a likely Republican hold into the future due to its Republican voting history, relatively low (20%) and stable black population, and the fact that Bossier Parish has shown a willingness to support Republicans in national, state and local elections.