BATON ROUGE - Three candidates have lined up to take U.S. Representative Julia Letlow's seat, a day after she announced her bid for the U.S. Senate.

House District five stretched from Washington Parish to the most northern part of the state, and state data reveals where campaigning might pay off the most.

Tuesday, Letlow formally announced her campaign after President Donald Trump endorsed her over the weekend.

Larry Davis from Livingston Parish, Republican State Senator Rick Edmonds from Baton Rouge, and Ray Smith, a Republican army veteran, all now say they will run for the open District 5 seat.

"I really think the voters of this district will put these candidates under scrutiny to see where they stand on the issue," Woody Jenkins with the East Baton Rouge Republican Party said.

Jenkins says the competition among GOP candidates in the primary will be the race to watch because it's likely a republican will win the seat in the fall.

"You have to convey that you really represent the views of the ordinary citizen in Washington," Jenkins said. "There's a tremendous split in our country right now. This is a very conservative district."

Jenkins says the numbers show the importance of voters in the greater Baton Rouge area because there are so many of them compared to northern Louisiana.

In congressional district five, there are more than 776,000 voters. In East Baton Rouge, there are about 172,000 voters, in Livingston, roughly 128,000, and in Ouachita Parish, about 104,000.

Political analyst James Hartman says candidates from those areas have an advantage.

Other candidates could join the race. At least two other potential candidates say they're waiting to make the final call to put their name in the contest. State Representative Dixon McMakin said earlier in the week that if former congressman Garret Graves decides not run, then he would.

WBRZ reached out to Stewart Cathey to gauge his intentions, but he didn't respond at the time of publishing.

"This is anybody's race at this point," Hartman said.