Tennessee’s Republican-led Legislature passed a new congressional map dividing up the state’s lone majority-Black district, swiftly responding to the U.S. Supreme Court’s major redistricting ruling last week.
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The redrawn district lines, which Gov. Bill Lee signed into law, put Republicans in position to gain a seat in this fall’s midterm elections and secure full control over Tennessee’s congressional delegation.
The new map carves up a Memphis-based seat held by longtime Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., into three districts, spreading the Democratic voters into more rural, Republican districts that stretch hundreds of miles east. It further divides the Nashville metropolitan area, the state’s other Democratic stronghold, into five districts.
The long districts run across Tennessee’s distinct geographic regions and tie voters from different media markets and time zones together to achieve the desired partisan impact.
Lee moved quickly to call lawmakers into a special session this week to take up a new map proposal ahead of Tennessee’s Aug. 6 primaries.
The state House passed the map without any Republican speaking in defense of it. When one member rose to speak, members of the public watching the proceedings from the gallery began chanting and yelling so loudly that the House speaker called the vote as Democratic members stood and walked out on the session.
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