Incumbent – Frank Hoffmann (R  – Term Limited in 2019)

District Map

House District 15

Vote History

Current District

District 15 is located in Northeast Louisiana and is centered on the suburb of West Monroe. It also contains most of Ouachita Parish west of the Ouachita River except for a handful of rural (but suburbanizing) precincts in its westernmost fringe around Calhoun.

Demographically, the district has a modest 11% black voter registration (up from 8% when the lines were last drawn) and is heavily Republican in just about every statewide race. However, this was one of several heavily conservative districts that did not vote Republican in legislative races until the GOP surge of the mid 1990s, even though Republicans were competitive in legislative elections in the 1980s. The change occurred in 1995, when Republican Mike Walsworth defeated a two term Democratic incumbent with 55% of the vote. Rep. Walsworth was then re-elected with 67% against a Democrat in 1999 and was unopposed in 2003.

Representative Walsworth was term-limited in 2007 and successfully ran for Robert Barham’s term-limited state senate seat, with 82% support in the areas he had represented in the state house. Three Republicans and two Democrats sought the open seat. As further confirmation of the Republican preference of the district’s voters, the three Republicans together got 88% of the vote. The Republican front runner was Frank Hoffmann, who received 44% of the vote and was automatically elected after his Republican runoff opponent (who received 24%) withdrew from the race after the primary. Representative Hoffmann is allowed to serve two more terms.

New District

Though redistricting was complicated by the need to draw another black majority district east in Monroe, redistricting was simple in this district. District 15 had 10% more people than necessary for the “ideal” district and had to contract some. It lost a portion of West Monroe close to the Ouachita River that was 29% black and picked up most of the suburbanizing precincts around Calhoun from District 13 (represented by Rep. Jim Fannin). The district also picked up a precinct north of West Monroe that was in District 16 (represented by Rep. Kay Katz). These changes made a heavily Republican district even more Republican: black voter registration plunged from 11 to 4%, and this district can now claim to be the most Republican House district in the state, as measured by its performance in recent statewide elections (John McCain received a near unanimous 89% of the vote in the redrawn district). This seat is safe for Rep. Hoffman or any other Republican.