Republican will become the Baton Rouge region’s second congressional representative, easily winning reelection Tuesday night.
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"While the lines of our district may have changed, my commitment to delivering results for every single community I represent remains the same," Letlow said Tuesday night. "I look forward to returning to work on Capitol Hill soon and continuing the critical fight for our families and our future.”
Letlow outpaced Democrat Michael Vallien Jr., of Baton Rouge, and Republican M.V. “Vinny” Mendoza, of Ponchatoula. Neither raised enough campaign money to report to the Federal Election Commission.
The only woman in the Louisiana delegation, Letlow, a 43-year-old from the northeast Louisiana village of Start, was first elected in 2021 and sits on the important House Appropriations Committee.
Her previously rural 5th Congressional District was redrawn by Louisiana legislators in January to include LSU, much of south Baton Rouge, and parts of Livingston and Ascension parishes. In 2022, Letlow ran in a 24-parish district based in Monroe, where 21% of the registered voters lived.
Legislators chose to redraw the 6th Congressional District so it has enough African American voters for a Black candidate to succeed. But to make that happen, lawmakers needed to dramatically redraw Letlow’s fast depopulating district to make it 67% White voters.
In the new 5th District, 47% of the registered voters are in Baton Rouge and its suburbs.
Her political goals had been to run for the school board in Richland Parish when her husband, Luke Letlow, won the 5th Congressional District seat in 2020. But he died from COVID before taking the oath of office.
His political allies rallied around her for a special election in March 2021, which she won handily. She won reelection in 2022 without a runoff.
House leader Rep. , R-Jefferson, helped the administrative educator land a seat on the House Appropriations Committee, a rare get for a new lawmaker. Appropriations is the first stop in deciding how the federal government will spend taxpayer dollars.
