Tennessee weighs redistricting map that might flip Memphis seat crimson

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Tennessee's redistricting particular legislative session Tuesday will weigh a map that may probably flip the state's lone blue district crimson earlier than the 2026 midterms.

Tennessee Gov. Invoice Lee, who's term-limited and leaving workplace after this yr, moved rapidly to name the particular session after a dialog final week with President Donald Trump on the heels of the landmark Supreme Court docket choice that discovered race shouldn't be used to dictate the drawing of legislative district maps.

"We owe it to Tennesseans to make sure our congressional districts precisely mirror the desire of Tennessee voters," Lee wrote in a press release, saying the session after the Trump name, expressing urgency "to adjust to necessary election qualifying timelines" and ensure a brand new map is "enacted as quickly as potential."

"After session with the Lt. Governor, Speaker of the Home, Lawyer Common, and Secretary of State, I consider the Common Meeting has a duty to overview the map and guarantee it stays truthful, authorized, and defensible."

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Notably, the map was introduced Wednesday by Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., who's the main candidate to succeed Gov. Lee, simply hours after the U.S. Supreme Court docket’s choice in Louisiana v. Callais.

"I urge our state legislature to reconvene to redistrict one other Republican seat in Memphis," Blackburn wrote on X, sharing a picture of the brand new Tennessee map that might give Republicans a 9-0 Home delegation edge. "It is important to cement @realDonaldTrump’s agenda and the Golden Age of America.

"I've vowed to maintain Tennessee a crimson state, and as Governor, I will do every part I can to make this map a actuality."

Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., pitched this 9-0 Republican-favored map for the state after final week's Supreme Court docket ruling. (Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn./X)

Whereas Lee mentioned he made the choice after consulting with Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, Home Speaker Cameron Sexton, Lawyer Common Jonathan Skrmetti and Secretary of State Tre Hargett, he additionally received encouragement from Blackburn and Trump after the Supreme Court docket ruling.

"I had an excellent dialog with Governor Invoice Lee, of Tennessee, this morning, whereby he acknowledged that he would work exhausting to appropriate the unconstitutional flaw within the Congressional Maps of the Nice State of Tennessee," Trump wrote Thursday on Fact Social at some point after Blackburn's submit and a day earlier than Lee's particular session announcement. "Likewise, the entire different Political Representatives of Tennessee have promised to take action. This could give us one further seat, and assist Save our Nation from the Radical Left Democrats, and their Nation destroying Insurance policies of Excessive Tax, Open Borders, Transgender Mutilization, Defunding the Police, ICE, and Border Patrol, No Voter ID, Gentle on Crime, and a lot extra."

Tennessee Republican Gov. Invoice Lee is term-limited on the finish of this yr, however he has referred to as a state particular session to contemplate redistricting Memphis to incorporate some rural areas for the 2026 midterm elections. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Name, Inc by way of Getty Pictures)

Louisiana v. Callais struck down a Louisiana congressional map that created a second majority-Black district and narrowed the usage of race in redistricting below Part 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The ruling has prompted different Republican-led states within the South, together with Alabama, to revisit congressional maps earlier than the midterms.

Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., the Democrat from Memphis who will see his district probably flip to a extra Republican-friendly one, acknowledged the brand new map may get him voted out of Congress as a result of Memphis' Black voter base won't be remoted from extra rural surrounding areas.

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"This clear effort to create a seat for a member of Congress who will rubber stamp Trump’s more and more weird and harmful agenda can even dilute the Black vote in Tennessee to the purpose of irrelevance," Cohen wrote in a press release. "I've been consulting with voting rights attorneys and different specialists to battle this transfer with each possibility accessible, political and authorized. The submitting deadline for candidates for the a hundred and twentieth Congress has handed. Had been the Common Meeting to vary the district maps, candidates already looking for workplace in a single district may discover themselves within the absurd state of affairs of operating in one other – a wholesale injustice to voters and a mockery of democracy."

"Republican state lawmakers clearly have the votes to make this Machiavellian transfer," he added. "I hope equity is a part of their consideration and that they abandon it."

Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., may probably see his district develop into yet one more pleasant to Republicans as quickly as this November's midterm election. (Getty Pictures)

Blackburn fired again Monday at Cohen's righteous indignation.

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"For the reason that ruling on Wednesday, liberals have bemoaned that redrawing the strains would create a 'lack of illustration,'" Blackburn wrote on X. "It’s humorous, you have by no means heard a liberal bemoan the dearth of conservative illustration in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Hawaii, or Delaware."

Cohen acknowledged the brand new map is perhaps inevitable, probably framing the battle as a near-term one to delay its use after the midterms.

"I feel possibly it may be delay till 2028, however after 2028, it’s toast," Cohen advised WMC Motion Information 5 in Memphis on Sunday.

He in contrast the potential Memphis adjustments to the redrawing of Nashville’s district after the 2020 census, saying Nashville was break up amongst three districts and left with no member of Congress primarily based within the metropolis.

Republican lawmakers, who management the Common Meeting, can have the bulk say within the particular session that begins Tuesday.

"Tennesseans have made it clear they need sturdy borders, a powerful financial system, and common sense management – not the failed insurance policies coming from Washington Democrats," state Senate Majority Chief Jack Johnson, R-Williamson County, advised WMC.

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"We've got been introduced with a crucial alternative to ship one other Tennessee Republican to Washington who will help President Trump and forestall radical Democrat Hakeem Jeffries from turning into the subsequent speaker. We’re not going to let that chance slip."