Incumbent U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond faces challenges from Baton Rouge Mayor Kip Holden and film industry worker Kenneth Cutno in the race for the second congressional district, which encompasses much of New Orleans and a portion of Jefferson Parish then meanders west through parts of St. Charles, St. John the Baptist, St. James, Assumption, Ascension and Iberville parishes before snaking north to capture part of Baton Rouge.
Three Black male Democrats are vying to represent the second congressional district, the state’s only predominantly Black congressional district. Home to both the Port of New Orleans and the Port of Baton Rouge, the district has the state’s highest unemployment rate at 12.5 percent, the second lowest median income at and the second lowest graduation rate at –making issues around jobs, economic development and parity, living wages and quality educational opportunities critical ones on which the its next representative must focus.
