INCUMBENT: Greg Miller (Republican)

DESCRIPTION: House District 56 includes most of Saint Charles and a portion of St John Parish. There is a political reason for its convoluted shape: because the massive population displacement that was an after effect of Hurricane Katrina, new black majority districts had to be drawn throughout the state. One of those places was in and around LaPlace in St John Parish, where there has been a steady transformation to a black majority parish. And in building a black majority district centered around the black majority precincts of St Charles (Hahnville and Boutte) and St John (LaPlace), the remaining white majority neighborhoods in those two parishes then became House District 56 (which had long been centered in St Charles Parish)

DISTRICT MAP:

District Map

RED/BLUE RATING (using 2008, 2012, and 2014 elections): 66% Republican

JMCEL’s SUMMARY: This is a district that logically should be a Republican seat, as the removal of most of its existing black precincts in 2011 and steady suburbanization from New Orleans has created a Republican suburban constituency. However, the presence of the petrochemical industry (particularly the giant Shell refinery at Norco that is visible from I-10) and a Democratic heritage common to the all of the River Parishes kept this seat in Democratic hands until Gary Smith left to run successfully for the state senate. Republican Greg Miller (whose father once held the seat – as a Democrat) won the seat fairly easily in the 2011 runoff, and is allowed to serve two more terms.