When hurricanes Laura, Delta and Zeta struck Louisiana in 2020, Devin Davis was still in graduate school at Prescott College earning a master’s degree in social justice and community organizing. But by the time Hurricane Ida blew ashore as a Category 4 in 2021, he was back in New Orleans working as director of political operations for Voters Organized to Educate (VOTE), a nonprofit organization dedicated to building collective power while reforming the criminal legal system.

One of the toughest results of those tumultuous back-to-back storms was the loss of a dozen home insurance companies willing or able to serve residents in Louisiana. By 2022 even the state-run home insurer of last resort, Louisiana Citizens, had increased its average rates by 164 percent, or $2,800 a year, and 12 percent of Louisianans were uninsured. That ongoing crisis—increasingly recognized as a critical climate impact—was part of what propelled Davis last May to mount a primary race to unseat Troy Carter, the incumbent representing Louisiana’s 2nd Congressional District.

Electoral politics was the fastest route Davis could imagine to bring critically needed federal assistance to the insurance crisis.

“We’ve seen such a level of degradation and harm done that we need the federal government to step in and provide an assurance that we have a pathway to reestablish our communities,” Davis told Deceleration.

“[Florida’s Hurricane] Milton could have been us.”

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