On October 30, Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry signed SB 1. It changes the 2026 congressional primary from April 18 to May 16. It also changes the rules for signatures for congress for independent and minor party candidates, for 2026 only. Before the bill was signed, U.S. Senate candidates needed 2,500 signatures, with 250 signatures from each U.S House district. But now there is no distribution requirement, and the 2,500 signatures can come from anywhere in the state. U.S. House candidates needed 750 signatures from within the district, but now they can collect signatures from anywhere in the state. They don’t need to be from any particular district.

Here is the bill. It was introduced October 22, passed the Senate on October 25, and passed the House on October 29.

The bill passed on a party-line vote, with all Republicans supporting it, and all Democrats voting against it. The reason for the bill is that the legislature believes that the U.S. Supreme Court will invalidate the current U.S. House districts, in the pending lawsuit Louisiana v Callais, 24-109. If the Court does that, the legislature will want to draw new districts. No one knows when the Court will announce its decision, and it is quite possible the decision won’t come out until the late spring of 2026, in which case the new primary date still would be too early.