Incumbent – A.B. Franklin (D – Term Limited in 2019)

District Map

House District 34

Vote History

Current District

House District 34 is located in inner city Lake Charles and roughly includes the area between Wardline Road in the east, the Calcasieu River in the west, and Gauthier Road in the south. It has a solid 73% (up from 68% in 2003) black voting majority, although precincts near the lake and in the northernmost fringe of the district still have a solid white majority.

This black voting majority makes this a solidly Democratic district, and Democrats can count on getting 80% of the vote here. This is also a district that has re-elected its incumbents generally without incident. After it was drawn to be majority black in 1981, it has had three representatives, all black Democrats. Wilford Carter represented the district from 1983 to 1992, and he left to become district judge. In a 1993 special election, Elcie Guillory succeeded him and served until term limits forced him out in 2007.

In the open seat race to succeed Rep. Guillory, Lake Charles City Council member A.B Franklin was elected in the runoff, and is allowed to serve two more terms.

New District

Redistricting in southwest Louisiana was relatively simple, because the demographics only supported having one black house district (District 34), and District 34 was only 1% underpopulated. Therefore, only minor adjustments were made: District 35 (represented by Brett Geymann) and District 36 (represented by Chuck Kleckley) each contributed a precinct that stretched the district a little towards the southwest. The demographic impact of these changes was minor: the black voting majority decreased slightly from 73 to 71%. This is a district that will not have problems electing black Democrats in current or future elections.