INCUMBENT: Eugene Reynolds (Democrat)

DESCRIPTION: House District 10 is a rural district in northwest Louisiana that contains all of Webster Parish and a single precinct in southern Bossier Parish.

DISTRICT MAP:

District Map

RED/BLUE RATING (using 2008, 2012, and 2014 elections): 60% Republican

JMCEL’s SUMMARY: House District 10 for years has been the classic “swing district”: voting Republican most of the time in contested statewide races, while stubbornly supporting Democrats in legislative races. This is mostly due to the district’s 31% black voter registration, but also to some residual “solid (Democratic) south” sentiment. Curiously, the district actually did elect a Republican in a 1990 special election by 50 votes, although with increased black turnout brought about by the Edwards/Duke runoff in 1991, he arguably was a direct casualty of that Democratic landslide, as he lost his election to a full term by 71 votes. When the seat recently opened up in 2011, Republicans targeted this seat, and in fact, the three GOP candidates in the race received 61% of the primary vote. However, in the runoff, Democrat Eugene Reynolds was the beneficiary of increased black turnout and possibly from hard feelings from the “also ran” Republicans who didn’t make the runoff, and he defeated his Republican opponent 55-45%. He is allowed to serve two more terms. Given the size of his victory margin in 2011, he should be in decent shape for re-election, but the fact that Democrats have steadily lost their grip on legislative races in rural Louisiana means that he can’t take re-election for granted in a district that gave Mitt Romney 63% of the vote and Bill Cassidy 60%.