BATON ROUGE — State Rep. Clay Schexnayder, R-Gonzales, has been named to the Executive Committee of the Louisiana Legislative Rural Caucus for 2016-17.

Forming the Rural Caucus was important, Schexnayder said, because rural areas “don’t have big populations, so people don’t have many representatives.”

By joining, “We bring a big group from across the state. It gives us more of a voice” in the House and Senate, Schexnayder said.

Because legislative districts are determined by population, cities have advantages in electing multiple lawmakers, whereas rural areas share lawmakers.

For example, Schexnayder’s district covers four parishes.