Incumbent – Roy Burrell (D – Term Limited in 2015)

District Map

House District 2

Vote History

Current District

The advent of single member districts in 1971 was the catalyst that enabled blacks to get elected to the legislature. One of those black majority districts that was created that year was District 2. This is a Shreveport based district that includes precincts along I-20 between Cross Lake and the Red River. It then crosses the Red River into Bossier City to include a handful of precincts across the Red River from downtown Shreveport.

This is a district with a solid 76% black majority, which is a slight uptick from 74% when the lines were last drawn. Incidentally, the racial change was entirely due to demographic changes in the Bossier City precincts, where the black voter registration increased from 53 to 60%. This is a solidly Democratic district that typically gives about 85% support to Democratic candidates.

For the first 20 years after the district was created, black Democrat Alphonse Jackson represented the district in the state House until his defeat in the 1991 runoff by Danny Mitchell. Rep. Mitchell served two terms before retiring in 1999, and was replaced by Lydia Jackson (the daughter of Rep. Jackson). Lydia Jackson served for one term, as there was a vacant state senate seat she got herself elected to. (UPDATED 10/1/2011) She was succeeded by Roy Burrell, who has served since then and is eligible for one more term – he was re-elected without opposition in 2011 when his only opponent was disqualified because the courts ruled that he didn’t meet the residency requirements.

New District

In Northwest Louisiana, the main issue with redistricting was whether another black majority district could be drawn in Shreveport, at the expense of Republican Alan Seabaugh. For District 2, the issue was that the district was 19% under the population of an “ideal” House district. Five precincts (two in Bossier and three in Caddo) had to be added to the district: the Bossier precincts were along US 71 south of downtown, while the Caddo precincts added were along Kings Highway near downtown. These changes diluted the black voter registration from 76 to 70%, but Rep. Burrell (or another black Democrat) shouldn’t have much trouble getting elected here.