State Sen. Sharon Hewitt, R-Slidell, speaks at the Senate Select Committee on Women and Children at the Louisiana State Capitol in Baton Rouge, La. on April 8, 2021. Members of Louisiana’s Republican-dominated House and Senate agreed Friday, Feb. 18, 2022, on a plan to redraw boundary lines for the state's congressional districts to account for population shifts — without creating a second majority-Black district sought by voting rights advocates. Hewitt, a leader in the remap effort, defended the plans, insisting that trying to include the state's widely dispersed Black population in two separate congressional districts would result in two districts with very narrow Black majorities that could result in diminishing Black voter power. (Scott Clause/The Daily Advertiser via AP, File)
