Tennessee Reveals New Congressional Map Proposal

NASHVILLE, Tenn.—Tennessee Republicans revealed a new U.S. congressional map during a special session aimed at redistricting the state on May 6.

The controversial proposal unveiled on Wednesday would divide the Democratic stronghold of Memphis into three U.S. congressional seats as opposed to one, which is currently held by Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.).

The split would likely result in all of Tennessee’s nine congressional districts leaning Republican, which could eliminate the only Democratic voice representing the Volunteer State in the midterms.

Cohen—who currently represents District 9 covering parts of Shelby County, including the city of Memphis, and Tipton County—testified before the Tennessee State Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday and urged lawmakers to reconsider redrawing the map.

Republican Gov. Bill Lee had ordered the Tennessee General Assembly to review the state’s congressional map on May 1 after a landmark Supreme Court decision in April.

“The TN GOP wants to sacrifice our voice and our city’s future just for Trump to hold onto power for 2 more years,” Cohen wrote. “Not without a fight.”

The congressman, who first won his U.S. House seat back in 2006 and represents the majority-black city, voted to impeach President Donald Trump twice in his first term.

Cohen called it “insane” that people near Memphis, located in southwest Tennessee could have the same congressperson as those who live 200 miles away in Williamson County, just south of Nashville.

Cohen’s calls were echoed by Democratic lawmakers in the Tennessee Senate and House who not only disagreed with the redistricting proposal but argued there would be flaws with any speedy efforts to pass legislation, including a cost to taxpayers and risk of confusion among voters.

“It’s beyond last minute,” Democratic state Sen. Heidi Campbell said during the Senate Finance Ways and Means Committee. “It’s incredibly rushed, it’s the antithesis of conservative.”

“Then Tennessee needs to be the one to stop it,” Rep. Karen Camper (D-Memphis) said. “We don’t have to do all this stuff that the other states have done, pairing red against blue and all of it.”

Protesters held signs that accused the proposed redistricting as being racist, an accusation that House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville) argued was not true during the Congressional Restricting Committee of Extraordinary Session II.

Sexton said the maps were only based on population numbers and not designed to split voters in a black-majority district into three other districts.

“On our software, when we put that map into ours, we turned all that data off so that the only thing that was referenced in our map was population,” Sexton said during the special session.

Sexton said that the proposed map is a collaboration between the House and Senate, which are both currently a Republican majority.

He did not reveal which lawmakers specifically drew the newly-proposed map.

“The map that you see was originally drafted by the Senate with the collaboration of the House, which then was amended a couple different times,” he said.

Sexton would not confirm if any attempt was made to avoid dividing Shelby County.