Tennessee Republicans Unveil Map to Eliminate Lone Democratic Seat
On May 6-7, 2026, Tennessee Republicans introduced, passed, and sent to Gov. Bill Lee a congressional map that splits the Black-majority 9th District — held since 2007 by Democrat Steve Cohen of Memphis — across three Republican-leaning districts, giving Republicans a potential 9-0 sweep. The House passed the map 64-25 and the Senate 25-5, largely along party lines. Lee signed a repeal of the state's 50-year-old prohibition on mid-decade redistricting less than an hour after it cleared the chamber, paving the way for the map to take effect. The effort was called explicitly by Trump and follows the Supreme Court's ruling in Louisiana v. Callais that dramatically weakened the Voting Rights Act and cleared states to draw maps on partisan grounds.