Qualifying recently closed for three open legislative seats. These are seats that were left open after the ones who formerly held those seats resigned for various reasons.

District 8

The seat opened up after Mike Johnson was elected to Congress. Replacing the conservative stalwart will be a very tough accomplishment. Here’s who is running:

Raymond Crews will likely have the backing of Mike Johnson and other conservatives. Duke Lowrie is the Tea Party guy in the race. Meanwhile, Robbie Gatti, the brother of State Senator Ryan Gatti, will be backed by John Bel Edwards.

A runoff is expected in this race.

District 42

This is going to be a net pickup for Republicans. Democrat State Rep. Jack Montoucet stepped down to take over as Secretary of Wildlife and Fisheries. However, no Democrats qualified for the race. Here’s who did:

Trial lawyer Jay Suire will have the backing of John Bel Edwards, but he doesn’t want you to think that. He probably doesn’t want you to know that he donated money to JBE in 2015 as well. He will be facing off against attorney John Stefanski.

District 92

Republican Tom Willmott decided to retire and leave this seat open. While a Democrat did qualify for this race, Republicans should easily retain it. Here’s who will be facing off:

The frontrunner in the race is Joe Stagni, who has attracted the backing of business groups. Stagni even has a chance of winning this race outright.

The results should have Republicans gaining a seat in the state House to expand their majority to a 20 seat majority with the makeup of 61-41-3. This is more proof that John Bel Edwards’s election in 2015 was just an anomaly, not the beginning of Louisiana becoming more blue.