Landry calls extraordinary session on election rules; Louisiana House suspends rules to refer bills

BATON ROUGE, La. — Gov. Jeff Landry on Thursday issued a proclamation calling the Louisiana Legislature into an extraordinary session limited to election-related matters, and the Louisiana House of Representatives moved quickly to suspend its internal rules and introduce a slate of bills addressing the 2026 election calendar and related requirements.

Landry’s proclamation, read on the House floor, said the extraordinary session would run for 22 calendar days beginning at 2 p.m. on a day in October and ending no later than 6 p.m. on a day in November and said the legislature’s power to act during the session is “limited under penalty of nullity” to items related to the election code: election dates, deadlines, plans for the 2026 election cycle and funding “if necessary.” The proclamation was signed by Gov. Jeff Landry in October 2025 and its contents were ordered spread upon the journal.

The House voted to suspend its rules to allow all bills introduced that day to be referred to committee. Representative Bowyer moved to suspend the rules; Representative Aaron Jordan objected and drew a procedural challenge that briefly triggered a “lockout” procedure on the voting machines. After the House clerk closed the machines, the vote showed 76 yays and 25 nays and the motion carried.

Why it matters: the governor-limited extraordinary session and the House’s rule suspension put election scheduling and related statutory details on an accelerated timetable ahead of the 2026 election cycle. Changes the Legislature adopts during this session would be limited to the subjects listed in the proclamation and could affect qualifying, primary dates, and campaign-reporting deadlines for statewide and congressional contests.

What the House introduced: Representatives on the floor read and filed several bills that the clerk announced as being numbered that day. Text as read on the floor described each bill’s general subject but did not include full bill language in the reading.

- House Bill 1, filed by Representative Beaulieu, was described as providing “relative to the conduct of elections in 2026,” including provisions on spring elections, qualifying for spring elections, nominating petitions, campaign-finance disclosure and filing deadlines and as authorizing certain actions by the secretary of state; the clerk announced, “that bill becomes House Bill 1.”

- House Bill 2, also by Representative Beaulieu, was described as providing for a statewide election to submit proposed constitutional amendments on May 16 (the read title identified changing the date for a statewide election to May 16); the clerk announced it becomes House Bill 2.

- A bill by Representative Baham was read regarding qualifying fees for congressional office in 2026 under “Title 18”; the clerk announced it becomes House Bill 3.

- A second bill by Representative Baham addressing party primary scheduling for certain 2026 offices was read and announced as becoming House Bill 4; the floor captioning tied these items to “Title 18” in the read titles but full statutory references and bill text were not provided on the floor.

Procedure and next steps: Chair Beaulieu announced that the House Governmental Affairs Committee will meet Friday, Oct. 24 at 9 a.m. in Committee Room 6 to hear House Bill 1 and House Bill 2. The House adjourned until 1 p.m. the following day.

Floor context and debate: the only substantive floor vote on a motion during the session day recorded in the transcript was the suspension-of-rules motion, which passed 76–25 after Representative Jordan lodged an objection that produced the voting-machine lockout; members and staff conducted routine quorum and procedural business otherwise. No roll-call vote on any introduced bill was recorded during this floor period and no bills were amended on the floor as read.

Quorum and attendance: the clerk announced 101 members present in the quorum during the session reading.

What was not specified on the floor: the proclamation text as read did not supply specific calendar start and end dates (the read text gave month names and total days but omitted exact dates), and the full text or numerical statutory citations for the bills filed were not read on the floor; the committee announcement supplied the committee room and time for the scheduled hearing of HB1 and HB2 but did not provide bill texts or fiscal notes on the floor.

A copy of Gov. Landry’s proclamation was ordered spread upon the journal and will be available in the legislative record and committee materials for members and the public ahead of the committee hearings.