INCUMBENT: Steve Pylant (Republican)

DESCRIPTION: House District 20 is a rural district located in northeast Louisiana and contains all of Caldwell and Franklin Parishes. It also contains a small portion of Tensas and LaSalle Parishes, as well as most of Catahoula Parish.

DISTRICT MAP:

District Map

RED/BLUE RATING (using 2008, 2012, and 2014 elections): 70% Republican

JMCEL’s SUMMARY: For years, quite a few House districts in Louisiana routinely voted Republican at the top of the ticket and in contested statewide races, while at the legislative level, they re-elected Democratic legislators out of habit, and those legislators rarely faced much of a challenge. This “split personality” exemplified District 20, which was the launching ground for the late Secretary of State Fox McKeithen and former State Senator Noble Ellington. When the seat opened up in 2007 because of term limits, Ellington made a rare switch from the Senate to the House, and was narrowly successful. He then switched to the Republican party in the aftermath of David Vitter’s landslide 2010 re-election, but declined to run for re-election in 2011. In the open seat race to replace him, Franklin Parish Sheriff Steve Pylant, a Republican, ran for the seat and was victorious in the primary 56-44%. He is allowed to seek two more terms, and given the district’s history of stable representation and decided Republican preference (both Mitt Romney and Bill Cassidy got over 70% of the district vote), should not have problems with getting re-elected.