INCUMBENT: Jonathan Perry (Republican)

DESCRIPTION: Senate District 22 is located in Acadiana and includes all of Vermillion Parish, as well as the western fringe of Lafayette Parish, the eastern fringe of Acadia Parish, and part of southern Saint Landry Parish.

DISTRICT MAP:

District Map

RED/BLUE RATING (using 2008, 2012, and 2014 elections): 69% Republican

JMCEL’s SUMMARY: Senate District 26 is in the heart of Acadiana, and perfectly exemplifies the changing demographics and political preferences of this region of the state, as you have a rural, agricultural area that also has seen some suburbanization from the Lafayette metropolitan area.

Politically, this is a district that moved strongly towards the Republicans in Presidential races in the last decade, as it has a relatively low (17%) black voter registration. In statewide and legislative races, Republicans have only recently been competitive here, and it’s worth noting that this district’s supporting Republicans in legislative races coincided with both houses of the state legislature’s gaining Republican majorities.

For years, Democrats were securely in control here in legislative races: the one time in recent memory a Republican attempted to compete here was in 1996, and he only got 44% of the vote. The last senator elected here was a Democrat named Nick Gautreaux, who himself defeated a Democratic incumbent in 2003, and served without incident until he resigned in 2010 to take a position with the Department of Motor Vehicles.

This resignation, and a similar resignation of a once Democratic state senator in an adjacent district created open seat races in 2011 that enabled Republicans to win a numerical majority in the state senate. In this district, there was a two candidate race. The Republican candidate was recently elected state representative Jonathan Perry. He was running against a Democratic businessman/police juror named Nathan Granger. While Granger was well funded, he suffered from a fallout in popularity that voters had with Democrats in this part of the state after the 2010 drilling moratorium, plus it was revealed at the last minute that a Granger campaign staffer had worked for the Obama campaign. In a once Democratic district that gave both Barack Obama and unsuccessful Democratic US Senate candidate Charlie Melancon 27% of the vote, this revelation obviously had an electoral impact, and then Rep. Perry was elected with 52% of the vote.

Redistricting had a negligible impact on the district’s politics, and with 49% of the vote coming from Vermilion Parish (Sen. Perry’s home base), he was in good electoral shape, and was unopposed in 2011. He is allowed to serve two more terms, and is likely in good shape for re-election, as this district has moved further to the right since the 2011 special election – not only did Mitt Romney get 74% of the vote here, but former US Senator Mary Landrieu saw her share of the vote tumble from 50% in 2002 to 45% in 2008, then again to 27% in last year’s race.