SUN BELT TOURNAMENT: CAJUNS TO TAKE ON MARSHALL 1C SEC TOURNAMENT: LSU OPENS AGAINST OKLAHOMA 1C THE
ACADIANA
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T H E A C A D I A N A A D V O C AT E.C O M
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T u e s d ay, M ay 19, 2026
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Voter turnout for Saturday’s elections
Chart shows the voter turnout for the Republican and Democratic primary elections for U.S. Senate, along with turnout for the proposed constitutional amendment that saw the most votes.
“If our teachers don’t get a permanent raise this year, nobody in state government gets a pay raise. I mean nobody.”
745,869
GOV. JEFF LANDRy
Senate to remove planned pay raises
344,751
U.S. Senate, Democrat
811,200
401,118
U.S. Senate, Republican
Source: Louisiana Secretary of State
U.S. Senate, combined
Amendment 3 Staff graphic
High Black voter turnout affected election results
instead of the Republican More people voted primary, even though only on amendments about 1.5% of the money spent to elect Demothan in primaries was cratic candidates, and Re-
publican Senate candidates received most of the free media coverage. Staff writer The other development Inflamed by a recent U.S. is that more people voted Supreme Court ruling and on the five constitutional moves by Gov. Jeff Landry amendments than in the and Republican legislators Republican and Democratic to eliminate positions held Senate primaries combined, by Black elected officials, with many Democratic votBlack voters turned out in ers following the lead of proproportionally large num- gressive leaders to reject all of them. Typically, the bers on Saturday. That led to two unexpected marquee races get the most votes, and voting drops off developments. The first is that 46% of the on the down-ballot elections. voters chose to vote in the ä See TURNOUT, page 4A Democratic Senate primary,
BY TYLER BRIDGES
STAFF PHOTO By JAVIER GALLEGOS
Gov. Jeff Landry enters Park Elementary School in Baton Rouge before a presentation on Wednesday.
Defeat of teacher pay amendment prompts move BY MEGHAN FRIEDMANN Staff writer
Proposals to give raises to prosecutors, judges, legislators and other state employees are all in jeopardy after a constitutional amendment to turn a $2,000 stipend into a permanent pay raise for teachers failed at the ballot box Saturday, according to a legislative leader. The Louisiana Senate plans to nix those measures to protect budget-related legislation from vetoes by the governor, Senate President Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, said. On Monday morning, Landry declared that if teachers do not get a raise, nobody should. “If our teachers don’t get a permanent raise this year, nobody
2026 LEGISLATURE ä School districts scrounging for funds for raises. PAGE 4A
in state government gets a pay raise,” Landry wrote in a post on X. “I mean nobody.” Since it will have to approve any Senate amendments to budget bills, the House could temper efforts to slash the pay raises. A top House member expressed a desire to move forward with at least some of them. With the legislative session ending in two weeks, lawmakers
have little time left to decide. The budget is in the Senate’s hands after the House passed a preliminary version last month. Despite the teacher pay amendment failing, senators had planned to weigh various proposals to raise pay for workers such as assistant district attorneys, according to Henry. “That’s not an option now based on what the governor has tweeted out requiring a permanent teacher pay raise. That’s going to be very difficult to do, so the flip side of that is we have to make sure that we don’t pass bills that give pay raises that he would then veto,” Henry said. “We’ll address them all next year.”
ä See PAY, page 4A
$1.7B fund OK’d in IRS deal with Trump ecuted, an arrangement that Money would Democrats and government derided as “corcompensate allies watchdogs rupt” and unconstitutional. of the president The “Anti-Weaponization
BY FATIMA HUSSEIN, ERIC TUCKER and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration announced Monday the creation of a more than $1.7 billion fund to compensate allies of the Republican president who believe they have been unjustly investigated and pros-
Fund” of $1.776 billion is part of a settlement that resolves President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns. It will allow people who believe they were targeted for prosecution for political purposes, including by the Biden administration Justice Department, to
ä See TRUMP, page 7A
Slain Lafayette student’s family fights teen killer’s early release ‘We don’t get our son back’
nearly a year before his 21st birthday. Rendavian Warren, now 20, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the Jan. 18, 2020, killing of Carter, 17. Prosecutors said WarBY CLAIRE TAYLOR Staff writer ren shot Carter in the head and left him to die. Warren, who was 13 at the time A Lafayette teenager who admitted to fatally shooting Comeaux of the shooting, was sentenced to High School senior Matthew juvenile life and is scheduled to reCarter in 2020 is asking a judge to main in custody until April 6, 2027, release him from custody early, when he turns 21. But his attorneys
WEATHER HIGH 88 LOW 72 PAGE 8A
argue he should now receive credit for the time he spent in juvenile detention before sentencing. For Carter’s family, the request reopens wounds from the loss of a teenager they described as caring, ambitious and deeply loved. Carter never graduated with his Comeaux High classmates, completed a National Merit internship at Johns Hopkins University or pursued his dream of becoming a radiologist. “We have been given a life sen-
tence,” Carter’s mother, Chelline Carter, said at Warren’s sentencing hearing in 2021, court records show. “We don’t get our son back in six years.” Matthew Carter’s sister, Nichole Carter, said on social media last week that she struggles with the feeling that “our judicial system treats my brother’s life as though it was only worth a few years of
Matthew Carter was shot and killed in 2020 during an attempted carjacking. FILE PHOTO
ä See RELEASE, page 7A
Business ...................10C Commentary ................3B Nation-World ................2A Classified .....................6A Deaths .........................4B Opinion ........................2B Comics-Puzzles .....7C-9C Living............................5C Sports ..........................1C
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