Louisiana's 3rd congressional district

Infobox U.S. congressional district
state = Louisiana
district number = 3

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representative = Charlie Melancon
party = Democratic
english area =
metric area =
percent urban =
percent rural =
population = 638,322
population year = 2000
median income = 34,463
percent white = 70.9
percent black = 24.7
percent asian = 1.0
percent native american = 1.6
percent hispanic = 2.1
percent other race = 0.2
percent blue collar =
percent white collar =
percent gray collar =
cpvi = R+5

The 3rd Louisiana Congressional District is contained in Greater New Orleans. It contains all of Southeast and South Central Louisiana, including River Parishes and East Acadiana. It contains the cities of Houma, Chalmette, Gonzales, and New Iberia.

Louisiana gained its second and third congressional districts in 1823 as part of the 18th United States Congress. Since at least the 1870s, the district has been centered on Southern Louisiana's Acadian parishes. Throughout much of its history, the 3rd District has been Democratic, but has been more competitive in recent years, electing Dave Treen Louisiana's first Republican congressman since Reconstruction. Redistricting in the 1990s pushed the district out of the fast growing suburbs of Metairie and the city of Kenner, to help keep the seat in the hands of Treen's Democratic successor, Billy Tauzin. (Tauzin eventually switched to the Republican Party in 1995.) In 2006, Democrat Charlie Melancon won reelection.

Representatives