Ten-term Democrat Steve Cohen drops House reelection bid after Tennessee redistricting

Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) introduced on Friday that he wouldn’t search re-election after Tennessee’s Republican-controlled legislature broke up his district.

The ten-term Democrat, who represents the Memphis space, spoke to reporters in Washington on Friday after votes. “This is by far the most difficult moment I’ve had as an elected official,” he stated, revealing he despatched a letter to the state capital of Nashville requesting to not be on the poll.

The announcement got here days after Tennessee’s legislature agreed to redraw the state’s congressional map.

That transfer got here after the Supreme Court handed down the Louisiana v. Callais determination, which not solely compelled Louisiana to redraw its congressional map, however nearly killed Section 2 of the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Late final month, the Supreme Court said that Louisiana had relied too closely on race to redraw its 2024 congressional map.

The inhabitants within the earlier iteration of the 9th district of Tennessee was 60 percent Black. Despite this, Cohen, who’s Jewish, persistently received re-election regardless of quite a few credible challenges from Black candidates.

“It’s unique in America that an African-American-majority district elected a white guy and that we’ve got a relationship,” he stated. “And it shows that that district and those people vote and choose as the second section of the Voting Rights Act, they choose the person they think is the best.”

Most just lately, state legislature Justin Pearson had jumped in to problem Cohen in a main.

The second part of the Voting Rights Act prohibits voting guidelines that discriminate based mostly on race. That additionally included drawing congressional traces in a approach that disenfranchises voters based mostly on their race.

But with the Supreme Court basically nullifying that part and due to this fact, the regulation, Republican-controlled state legislatures have moved to redraw their congressional maps to provide Republicans a bonus.

“The African American population has been very much distressed by this ruling,” he stated. Cohen stated that if the courts halt the brand new congressional map, he’ll run for his previous workplace.

“That’s the office I’ve been elected to for 20 years,” he stated. “I don’t want to quit. I’m not a quitter, but these districts were drawn to beat me. They were drawn to defeat me.”

Cohen stated he had thought-about working in one of many new districts, however none of them embody Memphis.

“There’s no commonality of issues and purposes between Willamson County and Orange Mound,” he stated.

The ninth district was not a Voting Rights Act-protected district, however Cohen stated its majority Black inhabitants made it distinctive.

“Because the fact that it’s majority-Black and there are white constituents there too doesn’t mean they don’t have the same interest,” he stated.

Already, Louisiana has sought to redraw its congressional maps to attract out certainly one of its majority-Black districts. And earlier this manner, the Supreme Court cleared the way in which for Alabama to redraw its congressional map after a courtroom order had prohibited it from doing so till 2030.

After an preliminary try within the South Carolina legislature to attract out the sixth district, which Rep. James Clyburn represents, failed, Gov. Henry McMaster introduced the legislature would strive once more.

Last yr, President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans started a push for states the place Republicans management the legislature and the governorship redraw their congressional districts mid-decade. Historically, redistricting occurs as soon as per decade instantly following the US Census.

But Cohen warned this may trigger long-term injury to constituents.

“This is for Donald Trump to get one more vote,” he stated. “He thinks it’s to stop him from being impeached.”

Already, states like Texas, Missouri and North Carolina have gone ahead with redistricting.

So far, Democrats have solely been in a position to give themselves a lift in California, the place voters handed a poll initiative to permit for a one-time redraw of their congressional map mid-decade and circumvent the state’s redistricting fee.

But Virginia’s supreme courtroom killed an initiative final month voters handed final month that will have carried out one thing comparable.