Of all the nation’s 435 congressional districts, it’s no surprise that the one with the largest French population is located in Louisiana. Eighteen percent of the population of Louisiana’s 1st District identifies its ancestry as French, and the seats with the second and third-largest French populations are also in Louisiana.
Louisiana’s 1st District is centered around New Orleans’ conservative suburbs. The seat includes all of St. Tammany Parish north of Lake Pontchartrain, as well as most of Jefferson Parish south of the lake. Jefferson includes Metairie, a large unincorporated suburb where former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke won a 1989 special election to the legislature. The seat also includes some smaller parishes south of New Orleans. Most of the city of New Orleans is located in the nearby 2nd District, but the 1st is home to Audubon Park, City Park, Tulane University, and Loyola University.
The 1st is safely Republican, backing Romney 71-27. The seat’s last few Republican congressmen all achieved prominence, though not always in a good way. Bob Livingston was selected to be speaker of the House in 1998 after Newt Gingrich resigned. However, Livingston resigned from the House before he could take the gavel after he admitted to having an affair. Republicans were impeaching President Bill Clinton at the time and Livingston encouraged Clinton to follow his example and resign as well: The president did not take him up on it.
The seat next went to David Vitter, who represented it until his election to the Senate in 2004. In 2007, Vitter admitted to a “serious sin” after his name was found in client records of Deborah Jeane Palfrey, aka the “D.C. Madam.” Vitter easily won re-election in 2010 and it looked like he’d put his scandal behind him. However, Vitter ran for governor in 2015 and badly lost after Democrat John Bel Edwards and his allies hit Vitter over the story, and Vitter announced that he would retire after the end of his Senate term in 2016.
Bobby Jindal won LA-01 next, but only served for three years. Jindal easily won the governorship and for a time, he was a GOP rising star. However, Jindal’s numerous budget cuts made him unpopular in Louisiana and took the shine off his national image. Jindal ran for president but attracted little support, and he bowed out of the race after a few months.
The seat’s current representative is Republican Rep. Steve Scalise, who serves as House majority whip. Scalise was a state legislator and he originally planned to run for Congress in 2004, but he deferred to Jindal. However, Scalise got his chance in a 2008 special election. Scalise faced state Rep. Tim Burns in the primary in a contest that pitted Scalise’s Jefferson Parish base against Burn’s St. Tammany. Scalise won 58-42: While Burns carried St. Tammany 67-33, Scalise’s 83-17 domination in Jefferson more than offset it.
Scalise became close to the House’s more conservative elements, and he led the influential Republican Study Committee. Scalise used that post as a springboard to bigger things in 2014 after House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy was elected majority leader. Scalise decisively won the contest to succeed McCarthy, but attracted some very negative attention at the end of the year. The blog Cen Lamar broke the news that when Scalise was a state representative in 2002, he addressed a group connected to David Duke.
Scalise confirmed he had addressed the European-American Unity and Rights Organization, but insisted he had no idea they had any ties to Duke. Scalise’s friend Cedric Richmond, an African-American Democrat who represents the neighboring 2nd District, vigorously came to his defense, which probably helped him keep his position. Speaker John Boehner soon announced that Scalise would remain majority whip.
For now, it seems that Scalise has put the story behind him. In 2015 when McCarthy was seeking the speakership, Scalise announced that he would run for majority leader. Scalise said he had the majority of votes he needed to beat Georgia Rep. Tom Price in the leadership race, but we never got to find out if he was telling the truth. McCarthy ended up dropping his bid for speaker, and Scalise remains the majority whip today.
“The Most District” is an ongoing series devoted to highlighting congressional district superlatives around the nation. Click here for all posts in this series.