Tennessee’s Republican-led legislature and Gov. Bill Lee have approved a new congressional map that breaks up the state’s only Black-majority U.S. House district, intensifying a national redistricting battle ahead of the November midterm elections.
The new map divides Shelby County, home to majority-Black Memphis, among three Republican-leaning districts. The change effectively dismantles the 9th Congressional District, Tennessee’s only Democratic-held U.S. House seat, currently represented by Democrat Steve Cohen. Republicans now have a strong chance of winning all nine of Tennessee’s congressional districts.
The move came just days after the U.S. Supreme Court limited a key provision of the Voting Rights Act in a Louisiana redistricting case. The ruling made it harder for challengers to prove that district maps unlawfully dilute minority voting power unless they can show intentional racial discrimination. Voting rights advocates say that standard will be difficult to meet and could encourage more mid-decade redistricting efforts.
Democratic lawmakers and civil rights groups condemned the Tennessee map as an attack on Black political representation. Protesters at the state Capitol denounced the plan as a return to Jim Crow-style disenfranchisement. State Rep. Justin Pearson, a Democrat from Memphis, described the map as a racist effort to weaken Black voting power.
Republicans rejected accusations of racial discrimination, saying the map was drawn for partisan and population reasons rather than racial ones. State Sen. John Stevens said openly that the proposal was designed to “maximise” Republican partisan advantage, arguing that both parties have used redistricting to improve their electoral position.
The Tennessee NAACP has filed a lawsuit challenging the new map, arguing that the redistricting process and the resulting districts violate state law and the Tennessee Constitution. Rep. Cohen has also criticized the plan as a political power grab and is expected to fight the changes in court.
Tennessee is part of a broader wave of mid-decade redistricting across the country. Republican-led states including Texas, Missouri, North Carolina, Alabama, Louisiana and South Carolina have pursued or considered new maps, while Democratic-led states such as California and Virginia have also moved to counter Republican gains.
The fight could play a major role in determining control of the U.S. House. With both parties looking for every possible advantage, Tennessee’s new map underscores how voting rights, race and partisan power have become central issues in the 2026 midterm campaign.
