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Election Day is Tuesday, November 3, 2026, and voting is already underway in Louisiana. This is the whole race — the records, the claims against each candidate, and what the sources actually show.
The setup — and how Louisiana voting works this year
Louisiana's map is new: the 2024 SB 8 map was struck down as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander, upheld by the Supreme Court in Louisiana v. Callais (April 29, 2026), and SB 121, signed May 29, 2026, governs this election (Ballotpedia). With the closed-party House primaries cancelled (Act 7), November 3 is an open ("jungle") primary — all candidates on one ballot; 50%-plus wins outright, otherwise the top two advance to a December 12, 2026 runoff (Louisiana Secretary of State). Our call below is the first-round recommendation.
LA-03 — Acadiana and the southwest — is held by Rep. Clay Higgins (R). The race is rated Solid Republican (several raters, compiled June 2026), and the district's Cook PVI in the sources retrieved was R+18. Six candidates are on the ballot (Secretary of State list; Shreveport Times).
Rep. Clay Higgins (Republican, incumbent)
The record: Higgins has been in Congress since 2017. Before Washington he was a deputy sheriff and deputy marshal in St. Landry Parish, and he was the public face of the Crime Stoppers video series that made him known statewide (Wikipedia compilation). He served as a House manager for the Mayorkas impeachment in 2024 (Wikipedia). He is endorsed by President Trump (Wikipedia nominee line).
Pros: A decade of congressional service built on a law-enforcement career — the enforcement mission in this district is not an abstraction to its voters, and he is its documented champion. Cons: No sourced failure in his service is in our file. The flaw, plainly: none documented.
Caleb Day (Democratic)
The record: Day is a former insurance-industry employee, endorsed by the Louisiana Democratic Party, and is Higgins's main Democratic opponent by fundraising (The Advocate; Wikipedia fundraising compilation).
Pros: The state party's chosen challenger, with the field's strongest Democratic fundraising. Cons: No elected office and no documented program detail beyond the candidacy in our file; no break toward our values. The flaw, plainly: insufficient record against a decade-long incumbent.
Priscilla Gonzales (Democratic — spelling conflict noted)
The record: The surname conflicts across sources — "Gonzales" in the Shreveport Times against "Gonzalez" on Wikipedia — printed here with the conflict flagged. She ran against Higgins in 2024, taking roughly 18% per a low-strength informal guide (labeled as such; the FEC-grade figure was not in the sources retrieved). No further record was located.
Nicholas Walker (Democratic)
The record: Walker is a student-government executive president at South Louisiana Community College (Wikipedia). A low-strength guide describes him as an Army veteran; that descriptor rests on the guide alone and is labeled as such. No elected office was located.
Phillip Cotten (Republican — spelling conflict noted)
The record: The surname is "Cotten" in Wikipedia's compilation and in a second compilation, against "Cotton" in one Lamplighter piece — Cotten carried on weight, variants flagged. Beyond the name, no record was located: no office, no occupation, no FEC fundraising line in the sources retrieved.
Anthony LeBrun (label conflict noted)
The record: LeBrun's party label conflicts across sources — "No party affiliation" (Shreveport Times, from the Secretary of State list) against "Independent" (Wikipedia results table) against a "(D)" tag in Wikipedia's fundraising table. He is a teacher and was the Democratic candidate for this district in 2022 (Wikipedia fundraising note). No further record was located.
OUR CALL — first-round recommendation
LiberalMind endorses Clay Higgins.
A law-enforcement incumbent of ten years, Trump-endorsed, in an R+18 district, against a six-name field whose challengers carry, between them, one party endorsement and a stack of unresolved name and label conflicts. In a jungle primary, the recommendation is the incumbent who can close it in the first round — and he is the aligned candidate besides.
This race is one of hundreds in LiberalMind's Election 2026 coverage. For the complete breakdown — every race, claim by claim — go to liberalmindhq.com.
Vote early. Research your candidates. Choose the best moderates, whatever their party — no extremism from either side. And encourage your friends and family to do the same.
Sources
- Louisiana Secretary of State candidate list (ballot brief) — the six-candidate field, SB 121 map, jungle-primary and Dec. 12 runoff mechanics: https://www.sos.la.gov/
- Shreveport Times qualifying report — candidate labels as filed (Gonzales spelling; LeBrun "No party affiliation"): https://www.shreveporttimes.com/
- Wikipedia — "2026 United States House of Representatives elections in Louisiana" (nominee lines, Higgins's record, fundraising compilations, the conflicting entries as found): https://en.wikipedia.org/
- The Advocate — Day's party endorsement and fundraising standing; Cook Political Report — PVI R+18 and Solid R rating; Ballotpedia — Louisiana v. Callais record.
Winner: Clay Higgins (Republican) — called by the Associated Press. This result was appended on November 4, 2026 (results wave 2); the original article above is unchanged, exactly as published before Election Day.
AI-assisted article — but the sources are human, and the facts are very real.