INCUMBENT: Valarie Hodges (Republican)

DESCRIPTION: House District 64 is the epitome of the changing socioeconomic complexion of the northern portion of East Baton Rouge Parish. What was once a blue collar, union friendly district north of the Metro Airport has seen substantial demographic changes, and as a result, the district has steadily moved westwards towards and into Livingston parish, and now, half of the district’s vote is now cast in the fast growing, generally white collar (and staunchly Republican) neighborhoods along LA 16 north of Denham Springs.

DISTRICT MAP:

District Map

RED/BLUE RATING (using 2008, 2012, and 2014 elections): 76% Republican

JMCEL’s SUMMARY: House District 64 exemplified the “split personality” of many legislative districts in Louisiana: voting Republican in Presidential and contested statewide races, while stubbornly voting for more populist Democrats at the legislative level. That changed in 1995, when a Republican wave that swept the state that year and made Republican legislators relevant for the first time (from a numbers perspective) also showed up here. Since then, it has only elected Republicans who have all moved onto other things, and Democrats haven’t even bothered competing here much anymore. The seat became vacant in 2011 when former state representative “Bodi” White was elected to a newly created state senate seat in the area, and in the race to succeed him, Republican Valerie Hodges was easily elected over a fellow Republican in the primary. She is allowed to serve two more terms, and shouldn’t have problems with re-election, given the strong Republican preference of the Livingston Parish precincts, as well as a strong conservative vote from the Central precincts in East Baton Rouge between the Comite and Amite Rivers – these Livingston/Central precincts in the aggregate gave Bill Cassidy a near unanimous 86% of the vote in last year’s Senate runoff.