Following the Supreme Court ruling in the Callais case, the Republican-led legislature redrew the state’s congressional map with the purpose of flipping district six back to GOP control. But that didn’t stop Democrats Pat Forbes and Rubia Garcia from taking a stab at the seat that Cleo Fields is vacating as a direct result of the redistricting. Forbes was an aide to former Governor John Bel Edwards and says the Republicans vying for the sixth district seat seem to have lost their focus.
“They seem to have gotten more focused on national politics and all these other issues that don’t matter to most people,” Forbes said.
Forbes says the people of the sixth district have serious issues that need to be addressed, and he feels that Republicans aren’t addressing them.
“Gas and diesel prices and everything else with them are going through the roof. They passed a law that gives tax breaks to rich people while we’re cutting funding for education and health care,” Forbes noted.
Garcia previously qualified in the fifth district and has shifted her focus to the sixth district, since she lives within that district’s boundaries. She echoes Forbes’ sentiment that affordability is one of the biggest issues facing the people of her district.
“All of us are having struggles with paying our bills under these wages; with the inflation, with the tariffs, with the gas prices, with groceries,” Garcia said.
Garcia says the issues facing the people of the sixth district do not have an “R” or a “D” next to them.
“Even the way that they drew the lines; the way that they are, I don’t think that it genuinely makes that much of a difference, in the sense that these are non-partisan issues that cross all parties and lines,” Garcia noted.
Going into the third and final day of qualifying, Forbes and Garcia will so far appear on the open primary ballot with four Republicans. Of course, everyone in the sixth district – and the fifth district – is waiting to see what Blake Miguez decides to do.