Regular legislative session scores, 2026

As it has been verified that there will be no veto session, the Louisiana Legislature Log presents its 2026 Louisiana Legislature scorecard. Fourteen bills were selected and weighed for computation. These were chosen from the watch list compiled throughout the session. For a bill’s vote to be selected, in one chamber there had to be more than one legislator not voting for the winning or losing side.

Being that passage of bills depends upon the seated membership of a body, not voting is counted as a negative vote. However, if a legislator had a leave of absence granted for that day, his absent votes weren’t counted for bills voted on that day and the score adjusted to take that into account. In the case of constitutional amendments, the governor’s score would be adjusted similarly, although none featured in this year’s scorecard.

Here are the bills on which the scorecard was computed:

HB 181 – would reduce welfare fraud.

HB 294 – would decrease violence and disruption in places of worship.*

HB 578 – would correct and clarify state laws that indicate sex-based differences.

HB 691 – would increase election integrity.

HB 1137 – would protect employees from arbitrary adverse employment actions.

SB 194 – would prevent enrollment into Medicaid of nonqualifying noncitizens.*

SB 197 – would begin to reduce excess judicial positions.*

SB 207 – would remove the statute of limitations for official corruption.*

SB 217 – would begin to reduce excess judicial positions.*

SB 307 – would authorize the educational display of the Ten Commandments as a historical document and monument.

SB 312 – would create better transparency concerning professional dues in schools.

SB 425 – would expand options to remove from office misbehaving public officers.*

SB 479 – would increase accountability of public officials*

SB 157 – would create taxpayer-funded parental leave for school employees.*

Bills indicated with an asterisk (*) counted for 5 percent of the total score, while all others weighed in at 10 percent. In all instances but SB 157 the conservative/reform vote is in favor and the liberal/populist vote is against, where with SB 157 the conservative/reform vote is against and the liberal/populist vote is in favor.

Here are the House scores: 

Amedee	100	Republican
Beaullieu	100	Republican
Carlson	100	Republican
Deshotel	100	Republican
Henry, C	100	Republican
McCormick	100	Republican
Schamerhorn	100	Republican
Bacala	95	Republican
Bamburg	95	Republican
Berault	95	Republican
Billings	95	Republican
Borriaque	95	Republican
Broussard	95	Republican
Butler	95	Republican
Carrier	95	Republican
Carver	95	Republican
Chenevert	95	Republican
Coates	95	Republican
Dewitt	95	Republican
Dickerson	95	Republican
Egan	95	Republican
Farnum	95	Republican
Firment	95	Republican
Fontenot	95	Republican
Gadberry	95	Republican
Hebert	95	Republican
Horton	95	Republican
Kerner	95	Republican
Mack	95	Republican
McMahen	95	Republican
Melerine	95	Republican
Riser	95	Republican
Sawyer	95	Republican
Thomas	95	Republican
Turner	95	Republican
Ventrella	95	Republican
Villio	95	Republican
Wilder	95	Republican
Wright	95	Republican
Wyble	95	Republican
Landry, J	95	Republican
Echols	94	Republican
McMakin	94	Republican
Spell	94	Republican
Boudreaux, D	90	Republican
Boyer	90	Republican
Illg	90	Republican
McFarland	90	Republican
Muscarello	90	Republican
Orgeron	90	Republican
Owen, C	90	Republican
St. Blanc	90	Republican
Crews	85	Republican
Domangue	85	Republican
Edmonston	85	Republican
Galle'	85	Republican
Johnson, M	85	Republican
Tarver	85	Republican
Wiley	85	Republican
Braud	80	Republican
Cox	80	Republican
Schlegel	80	Republican
Freiberg	75	Republican
Zeringue	75	Republican
Stagni	71	Republican
Adams	70	Democrat
Carter, R	70	Democrat
Geymann	70	Republican
Bayham	67	Republican
DeVillier	65	Republican
Glorioso	65	Republican
Hilferty	60	Republican
Thompson	60	Republican
LaCombe	55	Republican
Martinez	55	Democrat
Bagley	25	Republican
Bryant	25	Democrat
Fisher	25	Democrat
Johnson, T	25	Democrat
Brass	15	Democrat
Jackson	15	Democrat
Taylor	15	Democrat
Carter, W	10	Democrat
Freeman	10	Democrat
Landry, M	10	Democrat
Lyons	10	Democrat
Miller, D	10	Democrat
Moore	10	Democrat
Carpenter	5	Democrat
Chassion	5	Democrat
Landry, T	5	Democrat
Boyd	0	Democrat
Green	0	Democrat
Henry, D	0	Democrat
Jordan	0	Democrat
Knox	0	Democrat
LaFleur	0	Democrat
Lavardain	0	Democrat
Marcelle	0	Democrat
Mena	0	Democrat
Murray	0	Democrat
Newell	0	Democrat
Phelps	0	Democrat
Walters	0	Democrat
Young	0	Democrat

In contrast to recent years, there was greater disruption of the near-perfect partisan sorting. For Democrats, three crested above the halfway mark, representing the only three still from majority-white non-urban districts. However, among the lower-scoring Republicans, Bayham, DeVillier, and especially Bagley had lower scores because they missed a number of votes without asking for leave (DeVillier as speaker likely had other business), and as 13 of the 14 bills were for conservative/reform measures, an unexcused absent vote counted against. Thus, on the GOP side the relaxing of partisan sorting might appear somewhat exaggerated. Still, Bagley aside, this would mean no Republican scored below 55, and only two Democrats scored above that.

In fact, it could be argued that had those three not missed votes and voted with virtually all of their colleagues on those, the House GOP could have crested its record high in 2022 of 90.84 and nearly matched last year, since the Log started to keep scores in 2004. For their parts, Democrats did set a new low despite their three 50+ scorers. As it was, the 88.42 of the GOP and 12.19 of the Democrats set a new partisan gap record of 76.23. Sorting may have become a little more imperfect, but in aggregate the two parties are farther apart than ever.

A propensity for senators to take leave that accounted for most absences during votes made for even more extremes: 

Bass	100	Republican
Cloud	100	Republican
Miguez	100	Republican
Talbot	100	Republican
Allain	95	Republican
Cathey	95	Republican
Fesi	95	Republican
Henry	95	Republican
Hodges	95	Republican
Kleinpeter	95	Republican
Miller, G	95	Republican
Morris	95	Republican
Wheat	95	Republican
Womack	95	Republican
Pressly	95	Republican
Foil	94	Republican
Mizell	94	Republican
McMath	94	Republican
Myers	94	Republican
Abraham	90	Republican
Lambert	90	Republican
Seabaugh	90	Republican
Reese	88	Republican
Edmonds	85	Republican
Hensgens	85	Republican
Owen, R	85	Republican
Stine	85	Republican
Connick	83	Republican
Jackson-Andrews	25	Democrat
Barrow	5	Democrat
Harris	5	Democrat
Barthelemy	0	Democrat
Boudreaux, G	0	Democrat
Carter, G.	0	Democrat
Duplessis	0	Democrat
Jenkins	0	Democrat
Luneau	0	Democrat
Price	0	Democrat
Selders	0	Democrat

The Senate GOP average was only third highest of all time, but notably the party’s lowest score was 83. Democrats’ mean score, with only three not scoring perfectly liberal/populist and just one in double digits at 25, was the lowest historically. This incredibly pure partisan sorting, with a GOP average of 92.98 and Democrat average of 3.21 and the gap from the lowest of the former to the highest of the latter of 58 led to the all-time highest partisan gap of 89.77.

Viewing the entire legislature, the GOP average came in just under 90 while Democrats’ was just above 10. Given the separate chambers’ historical rankings, not surprisingly the Republicans had their third highest historically with Democrats having obviously their lowest and almost as obviously the partisan gap was the highest ever. The Senate, despite the extreme sorting, opened up its slight conservatism/reform lead over the House a small amount, a lead it repeated after being the reverse for the previous 9 of 11 years.

Finally, GOP Gov. Jeff Landry stayed around the same place, scoring 95. The Log signs off, barring significant special session, until next spring in an election year.