Tennessee Republicans on Wednesday unveiled a proposed U.S. House map that would split Memphis's Shelby County into three districts instead of the current two, breaking up the state's lone Democratic-held seat and rippling new boundaries across western and central Tennessee. A final floor vote is expected Thursday.
The redraw is the first concrete map to emerge from the special sessions Govs. Bill Lee of Tennessee and Kay Ivey of Alabama called Friday in response to the Supreme Court's ruling last week narrowing Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The Tennessee plan, if enacted, would draw Memphis Democrat Rep. Steve Cohen out of his Memphis-area seat and is designed to deliver an all-Republican federal delegation, according to Politico.
What the map does
The proposal divides majority-Black Shelby County across three districts and also splits Maury County in a way Politico reported would shore up Rep. Andy Ogles, a Republican on the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's target list. Tennessee lawmakers are separately moving to repeal a state law that bars mid-decade redistricting, a step needed before the new lines can take effect.
The candidate qualifying period closed in March, but the legislation would reopen it so candidates can switch districts or enter new ones. The state primary is Aug. 6.
On the floor
"Tennessee is a conservative state, and our congressional delegation should reflect that. This bill ensures it does," Republican state Sen. John Stevens said. House Speaker Cameron Sexton said the districts were drawn on population and politics, not race, and pointed to the high court's ruling as authority for a partisan redraw.
Democrats and civil-rights groups objected at length during Wednesday's committee hearings. Sekou Franklin, a Middle Tennessee State University political scientist active in the state NAACP, called the proposal "Black vote dilution at an industrial scale," according to PBS NewsHour. Protesters chanting "Hands off our vote!" forced one Senate committee to suspend its hearing; state troopers cleared the room and senators resumed elsewhere.
Democrats also noted that the Tennessee Supreme Court in April 2022 rejected a challenge to the current map on the grounds that the election was too close, an argument they say applies with greater force now, three months before the August primary.
Counterpoint
Today's wires on the Tennessee map came from center-leaning outlets, PBS NewsHour and Politico; no left- or right-leaning partisan reports were available at filing. Democratic state lawmakers and civil-rights groups, quoted in those wires, frame the redraw as racial vote dilution that will face a Voting Rights Act challenge, while Sexton and Stevens cast it as a partisan exercise the Supreme Court has now blessed. The administration's own response to the specific Tennessee plan had not surfaced in today's reporting.
Thursday's vote in Nashville is the next marker. Alabama's primaries are May 19, and South Carolina is moving on a parallel track to consider redrawing Rep. Jim Clyburn's 6th District.