Troy Carter for Congress/Melinda Deslatte/AP Photo
Troy Carter, left, and Karen Carter Peterson, candidates in Louisiana’s Second Congressional District
On April 24, voters in Louisiana’s Second Congressional District, which encompasses New Orleans and Baton Rouge, will vote in a special election to select a replacement for Cedric Richmond, who left Congress to become director of the Office of Public Engagement for the Biden administration. It’s a Democrat-on-Democrat showdown in a safely blue district between two former state senators who have served for decades in Louisiana politics and even share similar names: Troy Carter and Karen Carter Peterson. They finished first and second, respectively, in March’s open primary.
But Carter and Peterson are two very different candidates. They represent the first electoral contest between the Biden administration and progressives in Congress who, in the first few months of the Biden presidency, have presented overwhelmingly as a united front on COVID relief, judicial appointments, and infrastructure. Carter has been endorsed by Richmond himself, whose approval serves as a proxy endorsement from the Biden administration. Carter has openly sold it as such. “As a new congressman, I would have the ear of the guy who has the ear of the President of the United States of America,” he said in January.
Peterson, meanwhile, has the endorsement of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, one of the largest and most influential caucuses in the House. The CPC’s political action committee has made ad buys on her behalf since the conclusion of March’s primary, committing $200,000 to television and digital ads that will run through April 9. They’re joined in their support of Peterson by both mainstream Democratic and progressive groups alike, like the League of Conservation Voters Action Fund, Democracy for America, and Our Revolution. EMILY’s List has spent some $600,000 on Peterson’s behalf, while the Republican-aligned American Jobs and Growth PAC has spent $61,000 opposing her, according to FEC filings.
Carter would bring another moderate with ties to the oil and gas industry to Capitol Hill. Peterson would likely add to the ranks of the growing Progressive Caucus, now the largest voting bloc in the House’s Democratic majority, and be another vocal supporter of the Green New Deal.
It’s easy to understand Richmond’s affinity for Carter. A former member of the moderate New Democrat Coalition, Richmond spent his decade in the House as one of the most oil and gas–friendly members of the Democratic Party. He voted in favor of the Keystone XL pipeline and frequently joined with Republicans to vote against Democratic priorities on energy. He voted to exempt cross-border pipelines from environmental review, to end the oil-export ban, and to expand offshore drilling, all GOP-authored proposals. And the oil industry paid back the favor in kind. Richmond received $340,750 from them during his House tenure, including contributions from Exxon, Valero, Chevron, and more. He was rewarded by being tapped to serve as Biden’s campaign co-chair.
Carter, meanwhile, voted with Bayou State Republicans for a 2018 infrastructure bill that helped enshrine harsh criminal penalties for protesters who even set foot on land owned by oil and gas companies, a standard that was used to go after journalists in the wake of the Bayou Bridge pipeline protests. That legislation was supported by Energy Transfer Partners, the firm behind the Dakota Access Pipeline and others. Peterson, meanwhile, voted against the bill.
According to Sludge, Carter, like Richmond, received donations from various oil and gas companies and executives at the end of 2020, ahead of his congressional run. He got $2,800 from Infinity Fuels, and donations from the CEOs of both Entergy Louisiana and Taylor Energy. He then signed the No Fossil Fuel Money Pledge in early March, two weeks before the primary (money taken before the pledge is signed is not considered a violation).
Peterson is also a No Fossil Fuel Money Pledge signee and Green New Deal backer, which Carter has refused to support. She’s a Medicare for All supporter and backed by Stacey Abrams. Carter, of course, is backed by Bidenworld. But his record is further to the right than the president on many issues. While the president has vocalized some soft support for police reform, Carter authored a resolution in the wake of the George Floyd protests to “prohibit any notion to defund law enforcement or police departments in the state,” taking formal action against even the thought of supporting an activist slogan in a manner similar to national Republicans.
The race is likely to be very close. Third-place finisher activist Gary Chambers Jr. has endorsed Peterson. Chambers, who had an environmental record better than both Peterson’s and Carter’s according to Sunrise New Orleans, banked over 20,000 votes in the primary, more than the 13,000 that separated Carter and Peterson in the top two slots.
Louisiana’s Second District is the product of some astonishing gerrymandering, stretching from New Orleans all the way up to Baton Rouge, spanning over 80 miles. It’s also home to Cancer Alley, a stretch of the Mississippi River with seven of the ten most-polluted census tracts in the United States, thanks to the more than 150 oil and chemical refineries that call the area home. It’s a safe blue district, though, like many blue districts in the South, its contours could change drastically and unfavorably with redistricting looming (though that won’t happen before this month’s election).
The involvement of the CPC in elections is a relatively new development. In a handful of House races in 2020, both Dem-on-Dem and interparty contests, the CPC PAC, its political spending arm, endorsed and put up money to support favored candidates, members, and those who might become members if elected. The results were mixed, with some candidates like New York’s Mondaire Jones winning big, and others, like Washington’s Beth Doglio, losing.
With House Democrats enjoying an exceedingly thin majority (one that just got even smaller with the death of Alcee Hastings), it becomes all the more important for the Biden agenda that the seats opened up in these special elections are filled by reliable Democrats, who can be counted on to vote on that agenda’s behalf. Why, then, the Biden administration is supporting a candidate with a track record of voting with Republicans on things like climate, supposedly a top priority of the president, becomes a critical question. The margin for error on the legislative agenda could not be smaller. A key piece of the American Jobs Plan’s revenue offsets would eliminate fossil fuel subsidies in the tax code; would Carter be expected to vote for such a policy?
In an ironic twist, it will take progressives prevailing over the Biden administration in this election to ensure that Biden’s ability to legislate remains viable. And with the daunting 2022 midterms approaching quickly, one of the few legislative packages that may get through will be something on climate. The moment will call for more vocal climate advocates, not fewer, as progressives gear up to fight for a larger commitment, something more in line with what Biden pledged on the campaign trail than what he introduced the other day. If the midterms cause Democrats to lose their majority, as many suspect, it will be their one and only shot on the issue.
