As protesters accused them of racial gerrymandering, Tennessee state lawmakers handed into regulation on Thursday a brand new congressional map that would enable Republicans to flip the state’s lone Democratic-held seat, notching the GOP one other win within the mid-decade redistricting scramble.
Republican Tennessee Gov. Invoice Lee signed the invoice into regulation Thursday afternoon.
The session was interrupted by chaotic scenes with lawmakers shouting over protesters’ voices and at one level forcing police clear the balcony above the Home flooring earlier than it voted on the brand new map.
State troopers ask demonstrators to depart the Home gallery as they protest efforts by the state’s Republican management in redistricting congressional election maps on the final day of a particular session in Nashville, Tennessee, Could 7, 2026.
Seth Herald/Reuters
The brand new map breaks up the state’s present ninth Congressional District, which is primarily made up of Memphis, and the state’s solely majority-Black district. The district is at the moment represented by Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen.
The legislature additionally handed payments on Thursday that may enable the state to legally redistrict exterior of the traditional once-a-decade cycle, in addition to offering funding to assist implement the brand new map in time for the 2026 elections.
Impression on the midterms and illustration in Congress
With the map handed, it paves the way in which for President Donald Trump and Republicans to realize an extra Home seat within the subsequent Congress, growing their possibilities of sustaining management of the Home as they proceed their redistricting battle throughout the nation.
Tennessee Democrats will doubtless not have any illustration in Congress subsequent 12 months if Republicans flip the seat and the map will dilute the Black vote by breaking apart Memphis.
However authorized challenges towards the map are anticipated.
Cohen stated Thursday he’ll file a lawsuit towards the brand new map.
Cohen posted on X after the vote “[President Donald] Trump is aware of he HAS TO rig the sport to maintain his majority in November. And the TN GOP was keen to associate with it. It’s shameful. Subsequent cease is the courts.”
Cohen had stated earlier this week on CNN that the Republicans’ redistricting effort was a foregone conclusion, including that he hopes the brand new congressional map can take impact in 2028 fairly than 2026.
Democratic state consultant Justin J. Pearson and his brother KeShaun Pearson are faraway from the gallery after collaborating in a silent sit-in protesting efforts by the state’s Republican management in redistricting congressional election maps on the final day of a particular session in Nashville, Tennessee, Could 7, 2026.
Seth Herald/Reuters
The pace at which the method occurred was outstanding — it was solely final week that the Supreme Courtroom struck down Louisiana’s congressional map as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander, dealing a blow to Part 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
And simply at some point after the Supreme Courtroom’s ruling in Louisiana v. Callais, Trump posted on Reality Social that he spoke with Lee and that the governor stated he would work to redraw the state’s congressional maps in an effort to internet one other GOP seat for Tennessee within the Home. Lee known as a particular session the subsequent day, April 30, to overview the state’s congressional map.
Potential redistricting efforts are additionally at the moment underway in Louisiana, Alabama and South Carolina, though every state has completely different procedural or authorized boundaries to beat.
With Tennessee’s new map, Republicans probably may flip 14 Democratic-held seats in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio and Florida. Democrats may choose up 10 from new maps handed in California, Utah and Virginia.
Acrimonious debate and protests within the state capitol
The proposed congressional map underwent a lot acrimonious debate and protest contained in the legislature on Thursday earlier than it was handed.
On the Home flooring, Democratic representatives condemned the map, saying it might dilute the Black vote within the state. At one level, chants of “our home!” began within the Home gallery.
Because the vote got here up for the brand new map on the Home facet, chaos erupted within the room. A trooper was requested to filter the balcony above the Home flooring as folks protested.
Earlier, Democratic State Rep. Justin Pearson, who’s working for Congress within the ninth District that shall be damaged up on the brand new map, stated that “what is going on right here is immoral and improper.”
Demonstrators collect within the Home gallery protesting efforts by the state’s Republican management in redistricting congressional election maps on the final day of a particular session in Nashville, Tennessee, Could 7, 2026.
Seth Herald/Reuters
“That is about attacking, focusing on and cracking District 9 into items for extra political and racial dominance and white supremacy within the state of Tennessee. And we have to notice that the Callais resolution that you just all are basing your selections off of that gutted the Voting Rights Act, that that Voting Rights Act was paid in blood,” Pearson stated.
Pearson later confronted regulation enforcement officers, ABC affiliate WKRN reported, as they labored on clearing the Home gallery of protestors. Pearson later stated his brother KeShaun Pearson was arrested.
After the Home handed the invoice and it was taken up within the Senate, Republican state Sen. John Stevens spoke in assist of the brand new map over audible protests and yelling.
“Tennessee is a conservative state, and I submit its congressional delegation ought to mirror that. The proposed map ensures that,” Stevens stated.
He later stated, “This invoice represents Tennessee’s try to maximise our partisan benefit and permit Tennesseans to assist a nationwide Congress to be a Republican majority.”
However Democratic state Sen. London Lamar, who’s Black, slammed the brand new map throughout debate as an assault on Black voters and stated it “diminishes Memphis.”
“This map doesn’t mirror Memphis. It diminishes Memphis. It slices our metropolis into items and stretches our communities a whole bunch of miles away to locations of various wants, completely different economies, completely different histories and completely different lived realities,” she stated. “You can’t take a majority-Black metropolis, fracture its voting energy after which inform us race has nothing to do with it. Racism doesn’t turn out to be much less racist as a result of it is known as partisan.”
Later, chants of “Arms off Memphis!” rang out and one other lawmaker quickly unfurled a banner that learn “NO JIM CROW 2.0 – STOP THE TN STEAL.”
The Senate handed the map quickly after.
