Tennessee weighs redistricting map that could flip Memphis seat red

Tennessee’s redistricting particular legislative session Tuesday will weigh a map that will doubtlessly flip the state’s lone blue district red earlier than the 2026 midterms.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, who’s term-limited and leaving workplace after this 12 months, moved shortly to name the particular session after a dialog final week with President donald trump on the heels of the landmark Supreme Court determination that discovered race shouldn’t be used to dictate the drawing of legislative district maps.

“We owe it to Tennesseans to ensure our congressional districts accurately reflect the will of Tennessee voters,” Lee wrote in a statementsaying the session after the Trump name, expressing urgency “to comply with mandatory election qualifying timelines” and ensure a brand new map is “enacted as soon as possible.”

“After consultation with the Lt. Governor, Speaker of the House, Attorney General, and Secretary of State, I believe the General Assembly has a responsibility to review the map and ensure it remains fair, legal, 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 US Supreme Court’s decision in Louisiana v. Callais.

“I urge our state legislature to reconvene to redistrict another Republican seat in Memphis,” Blackburn wrote on X, sharing a picture of the brand new Tennessee map that could give Republicans a 9-0 House delegation edge. “It’s essential to cement @realDonaldTrump’s agenda and the Golden Age of America.

“I’ve vowed to maintain Tennessee a red state, and as Governor, I’ll do all the things I can to make this map a actuality.”

While Lee said he made the decision after consulting with Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, House Speaker Cameron Sexton, Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti and Secretary of State Tre Hargett, he also got encouragement from Blackburn and Trump after the Supreme Court ruling.

“I had an excellent dialog with Governor Bill Lee, of Tennessee, this morning, whereby he said that he would work onerous to right the unconstitutional flaw within the Congressional Maps of the Great State of Tennessee,” Trump wrote Thursday on Truth Social someday after Blackburn’s submit and a day earlier than Lee’s particular session announcement. “Likewise, all the different Political Representatives of Tennessee have promised to take action. This ought to give us one extra seat, and help Save our Country from the Radical Left Democrats, and their Country destroying Policies of High Tax, Open Borders, Transgender Mutilation, Defunding the Police, ICE, and Border Patrol, No Voter ID, Soft on Crime, and a lot extra.”

Tennessee Republican Gov. Bill Lee is term-limited at the end of this year, but he has called a state special session to consider redistricting Memphis to include some rural areas for the 2026 midterm elections. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Louisiana v. Callais struck down a Louisiana congressional map that created a second majority-Black district and narrowed the use of race in redistricting under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The ruling has prompted other Republican-led states in the South, including Alabama, to revisit congressional maps before the midterms.

Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., the Democrat from Memphis who will see his district potentially flip to a more Republican-friendly one, acknowledged the new map might get him voted out of Congress because Memphis’ Black voter base will not be isolated from more 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 may even dilute the Black vote in Tennessee to the purpose of irrelevance,” Cohen wrote in a statement. “I’ve been consulting with voting rights attorneys and different specialists to battle this transfer with each choice obtainable, political and authorized. The submitting deadline for candidates for the one hundred and twentieth Congress has handed. Were the General Assembly to alter the district maps, candidates already in search of workplace in a single district could discover themselves within the absurd scenario of working in one other – a wholesale injustice to voters and a mockery of democracy.”

“Republican state legislators 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., might potentially see his district become one more friendly to Republicans as soon as this November’s midterm election. (Getty Images)

Blackburn fired back Monday at Cohen’s righteous indignation.

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“Since the ruling on Wednesday, liberals have bemoaned that redrawing the traces would create a ‘lack of illustration,'” Blackburn wrote on

Cohen acknowledged the new map might be inevitable, potentially framing the fight as a near-term one to delay its use after the midterms.

“I believe possibly it may be delay till 2028, however after 2028, it is toast,” Cohen advised WMC Action News 5 in Memphis on Sunday.

He in contrast the potential Memphis modifications to the redrawing of nashville‘s district after the 2020 census, saying Nashville was split among three districts and left without a member of Congress based in the city.

Republican legislatureswho controls the General Assembly, will have the majority say in the special session that begins Tuesday.

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

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“We have been introduced with a crucial alternative to ship another Tennessee Republican to Washington who will assist President Trump and stop radical Democrat Hakeem Jeffries from changing into the subsequent speaker. We’re not going to let that alternative slip.”