Francis Thompson (D)
Term limited in 2019
District Map

2002 Senate Race (Runoff)
Mary Landrieu (D) 17,486 (68%)
Suzy Terrell (R) 8,134 (32%)

2003 Governors Race (Runoff)
Kathleen Blanco (D) 20,687 (74%)
“Bobby” Jindal (R) 7,158 (26%)

2004 Presidential Race
George W. Bush (R) 13,762 (37%)
John Kerry (D) 23,284 (62%)
Others 473 (1%)

2004 Senate Race
David Vitter (R) 11,539 (33%)
Chris John (D) 11,872 (34%)
Others 11,932 (33%)

2006 Secretary of State Race
Jay Dardenne (R) 2,240 (16%)
Francis Heitmeier (D) 5,741 (40%)
Mike Francis (R) 4,294 (30%)
Mary Chehardy (R) 890 (6%)
Others 1,094 (8%)

2007 Governors Race
“Bobby” Jindal (R) 8,459 (31%)
Walter Boasso (D) 7,205 (26%)
John Georges (I) 3,089 (12%)
Foster Campbell (D) 6,685 (25%)
Others 1,008 (4%)

2007 Agriculture Commissioner Race
“Bob” Odom (D) 16,073 (66%)
Mike Strain (R) 5,630 (23%)
Wayne Carter (R) 1,385 (6%)
Don Johnson (R) 1,426 (6%)

Before 1991, African-American representation in the state Senate consisted almost entirely of a handful of lawmakers from Baton Rouge and New Orleans. That changed starting in 1991, with Senate District 34 being one of the newly created African-American majority Senate districts outside of Baton Rouge and New Orleans.

District 34 contains all or part of six northeast Louisiana parishes, and is almost evenly split between urban and rural areas. Its rural portions include all of the delta parishes of East Carroll, Madison, and Tensas, as well as the African-American parts of Ferriday in Concordia Parish. Its urban area is African-American neighborhoods in southern Monroe. Connecting these two areas is a section of Richland Parish roughly north of I-20 which is largely rural and about 60% white. The Monroe precincts currently cast 52% of the district’s vote and are 73% African-American. The rural precincts are 55% African-American. Overall, the district has lost 1% of its voters since 2003 due to a continued population exodus from the Delta parishes, while the Monroe precincts have seen a slight uptick in its voter count.

This district was created in 1991 from parts of three northeast Louisiana Senate districts and was designed in 1991 to elect an African-American. It has a 65% African-American voter base (up slightly from 63% in 2003), and consistently supports Democratic candidates with 62-74% of the vote. Even Chris John managed to edge out David Vitter with a 34-33% lead, thanks to a 37-23% margin in Monroe. And Congressman Alexander ran behind 43-49% here in his re-election race as a Republican – his 55-35% lead in the rural areas was canceled by a 30-62% deficit in Monroe. And while “Bobby” Jindal “carried” the district with 32% of the vote against divided Democratic opposition, he surely would have lost the district against unified opposition.

This “urban/rural split” of the district initially led to some lively contests here. C. D. Jones, after 12 years in the House representing an inner-city Monroe district, ran for this newly created seat in 1991, and was held to a 50-45% lead over Democrat “Mike” Thompson. In 1995, Republican John Hogue held him to a 59-41% lead. Since then, Senator Jones has been unopposed. What is noteworthy about Senator Jones’ first two races was that he was clearly helped by solid margins in Monroe (67-30% in 1991, and 75-25% in 1995). In the rural areas, he apparently ran behind the racial percentages, losing both times, 38-56% in 1991 and 48-52% in 1995 against a Republican.

C.D. Jones was term-limited in 2007. Though the candidates running (a white and two African-American Democrats) were similar to those in the 1991 race, this time, the rural white candidate, term-limited state representative Francis Thompson, won. His 32 year House incumbency obviously was an asset and enabled him to eat into the African-American vote. Not only did he get 35% of the vote in Monroe (the white candidate only received 30% in 1991), but he swept all of the rural parishes to lead there with 64% of the vote. In the end, Rep. Thompson won 52-40%.