Incumbent – Sherri Cheek (R – Term Limited in 2015)

District Map

Senate District 38

 Vote History

Current District

District 38 is located in northwest Louisiana and has remained relatively unchanged over the years. It contains portions of Caddo Parish south of Cross Lake and the Inner Loop, plus all of rural (but suburbanizing) DeSoto Parish to the south. It has a modest but increasing (from 26 to 32%) percentage of African-American voters. This is due to (in absolute numbers) white outmigration in the district’s portion of Caddo Parish that has resulted in the black percentage in those precincts increasing from 22 to 31% since the district lines were last drawn.

Though DeSoto Parish in the past tended to support Democrats in down ballot races due to its 37% black voter registration, the Democratic leanings of this portion of the district are generally offset by Republican margins in the Caddo Parish precincts. This results in a district that votes Republican, but not by overwhelming margins.

Unlike most Senate districts in North Louisiana, this seat has had competitive races for years, with the (currently) 22% of the vote in DeSoto Parish deciding the winner each time. Democrat Richard Neeson represented the district from 1980 to 1992, and nearly lost to Republican Ron Bean in 1987. When Neeson retired in 1991, Bean was elected, but he fought tough races in 1991 and 1995 against more outspoken conservative Republicans. Though he was comfortably re-elected in 1999, he retired in 2003, and endorsed his legislative assistant, Sherri Smith Cheek. Though she did not win in the 2003 primary outright, the 68% of the vote that went to the Republican candidates undoubtedly contributed to her Democratic opponent’s withdrawing from the runoff. In 2007, Sen. Cheek faced stiff competition, this time from Republican attorney (and now state representative) Alan Seabaugh, but she was re-elected by getting 60% of the vote in DeSoto Parish. She is allowed to seek another term.

Proposed District

Redistricting in northwest Louisiana was a simple process: the area already had a black majority district, and the population of the districts in the area were not far off the “ideal” district population. In fact, District 38 had a population 3% above the district ideal. Technically, this district could have been left alone, since a 5% population variance is permitted, but District 39 (a black majority district held by Lydia Jackson) was slightly under populated. So minor changes were made, with four Caddo precincts’ being removed from the district. Two of those precincts in southeast Caddo were put in District 37 (Buddy Shaw’s district), while two precincts north of the Inner Loop were given to District 39 (Lydia Jackson’s district). The end result is a district with identical demographics and a similar political complexion, although the Caddo portion of the district slightly decreased from 78 to 76%.

Given the competitive electoral history of the district, we have several questions: (1) Will Sen. Cheek again face stiff competition this fall from a more conservative candidate; (2) If so, will she need DeSoto Parish to pull her through; and (3) will the changing demographics of the district in Caddo Parish create an opening for a Democratic candidate in the 2015 or 2019 elections ?