Louisiana House of Representatives

The Louisiana House of Representatives entered its current era on January 8, 2024, when the newly elected members of the 73rd Louisiana Legislature were sworn in at 10:00 a.m., as the State Constitution requires, and named Phillip DeVillier Speaker of the House (Louisiana Legislature). DeVillier — a house mover from Eunice who was first elected in 2015 — is the chamber’s 70th speaker, and he wields the gavel over 105 representatives in a chamber that stood at 73 Republicans and 32 Democrats, with no vacancies, as of July 2026 (LSU Eunice; Ballotpedia). That majority, combined with Republican control of the state Senate and the governor’s mansion, gives Louisiana a Republican trifecta — one party holding both legislative chambers and the governor’s office (Ballotpedia).

A house mover holds the gavel

DeVillier is an Eunice native representing District 41, which encompasses Acadia, Evangeline, and St. Landry parishes in south Louisiana (LSU Eunice). Before becoming speaker, he chaired the House Retirement Committee and sat on Ways and Means, Natural Resources, Agriculture, and Capital Outlay; he is a member of the Acadiana Delegation, the Rural Caucus, and the Republican Legislative Delegation. The Louisiana Association of Business and Industry has honored him as an All-State Legislator and a Most Valuable Policy Maker, and in 2023 the Chamber of Southwest Louisiana named him a Business Champion (LSU Eunice). A graduate of Louisiana State University’s main campus in Baton Rouge, he is a small-business owner — of Louisiana Structural Movers, Inc. and Savannah Claire, Inc. — and lives with his family in Eunice (LSU Eunice).

The officers chosen alongside him at the 2024 organizational session tell the rest of the leadership story: Mike Johnson, a Republican from Pineville, was named Speaker Pro-Tempore; Michelle Fontenot was reelected Clerk of the House; and Jaubert Ambeau, a House employee of more than 38 years, was selected Sergeant at Arms (Louisiana Legislature). One name on that list invites confusion, and the legislature’s own release resolves it: Speaker Pro-Tempore Mike Johnson of Pineville is not the U.S. House speaker of the same name. The American speaker gave the inauguration’s invocation, and the release notes that he and Senate President Cameron Henry served together in the Louisiana House for two years, from 2015 to 2017 — meaning the current U.S. Speaker Mike Johnson is himself a former member of this chamber (Louisiana Legislature).

How the chamber is built

The House’s 105 members serve four-year terms and are limited to three terms — twelve years — making Louisiana one of the five state legislative lower houses whose members are elected to four-year terms rather than the near-universal two-year term (Ballotpedia). Legislators take office at noon on the second Monday in January following their election (Ballotpedia). The term limits date to Amendment 2, approved by voters in 1995 as a constitutional amendment; 2007 was the first election in which the limits blocked incumbents from running again (Ballotpedia).

Louisiana’s majority-vote system shapes every race. All candidates compete in the same primary, and anyone who clears 50 percent wins the seat outright; if no one does, the top two finishers — regardless of party — advance to the general election (Ballotpedia). To run, a candidate must be a qualified elector, at least 18 years old, a Louisiana resident for the preceding two years, and domiciled in the district for the preceding year, per Article III, Section 4 of the Louisiana Constitution (Ballotpedia). When a seat opens mid-term, the vacancy must be filled by special election if six months or more remain in the unexpired term; the presiding officer of the affected chamber must call the election within ten days of the vacancy (Ballotpedia).

The legislature draws its own district maps, subject to the governor’s veto. After the 2020 census, lawmakers passed new House and Senate maps in a February 2022 special session; Governor John Bel Edwards neither signed nor vetoed them, letting them become law. In February 2024, a federal judge for the Middle District of Louisiana struck the legislative maps down as a violation of the Voting Rights Act, finding that the maps diluted Black voters’ opportunity to elect candidates of their choice; the state appealed on February 19, 2024 (Ballotpedia).

The 73–32 supermajority at work

The current Republican supermajority — 73 of 105 seats — governs alongside a Republican Senate (led by President Cameron Henry of Metairie) and Republican Governor Jeff Landry, giving the state both a trifecta and a triplex, the latter meaning the party also holds the secretary of state and attorney general offices (Ballotpedia; Ballotpedia).

What that majority is doing can be read in the legislature’s own account of the 2025 regular session, which convened April 14 at noon as the Constitution requires. Speaker DeVillier said constituents’ overwhelming concern was the cost of auto insurance, while Senate President Henry pointed to the budget — fiscal sessions, held in odd-numbered years, are limited by law to money matters, though members may also introduce up to five bills outside those restrictions (Louisiana House of Representatives). More than 860 bills were filed by opening morning. The session also showed the chamber’s ordinary turnover: Annie Spell of Lafayette was sworn in that day to represent District 45 and was assigned to the Transportation, Health and Welfare, and Retirement committees (Louisiana House of Representatives). The session had to adjourn no later than 6:00 p.m. on June 12 unless extended under Article III, Section 2 of the Constitution (Louisiana House of Representatives). Members of the public can follow sessions through live streams and bill search at legis.la.gov and through the legislature’s LALEGE mobile app (Louisiana House of Representatives).

Service in the House pays $16,800 a year, with an additional $6,000 a year in unvouchered expenses and a $166-per-day per diem during sessions (Ballotpedia). The House’s Baton Rouge offices sit at 900 North Third Street, and its public website carries the journals, roll-call votes, meeting schedules, and committee assignments that document its daily work (Louisiana House of Representatives).

What this profile does not claim

• Leadership and composition facts are current through July 2026. Any leadership changes, special-election results, or vacancy fillings after that date fall outside the coverage window of the sources read and are not stated here.
• It does not list all 105 members or assign a party to any individual representative beyond the chamber-wide totals.
• It does not state the next election dates; the sources read confirm the four-year cycle and the majority-vote mechanics but not the calendar for the next statewide House elections.
• It does not trace the chamber’s history before the 1995 term-limit amendment; the chamber’s original establishment is not described in any source read in full.