Tennessee
Southern US state whose new map, signed 7 May 2026, eliminated Cohen's majority-Black 9th district.
Tennessee eliminated its only Democratic congressional district when Governor Bill Lee signed a new map on 7 May 2026, and a federal panel let it stand on 23 July, finding no state law exists to challenge it.
Last refreshed: 26 July 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
Will Tennessee's map, which erased Cohen's Memphis seat, go unchallenged in court?
Timeline for Tennessee
Tennessee map survives its first test
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Tennessee is a Southern US state that has held a Republican trifecta in state government since 2011, giving Governor Bill Lee's party control of both the legislature and governorship without a divided-government check on redistricting.
It sits within the Sixth Circuit's jurisdiction alongside Michigan, Ohio and Kentucky; a 24 June 2026 appellate ruling that a 1960 civil rights statute does not entitle the DOJ to states' unredacted voter rolls binds all four. The state was also first to move after Louisiana v. Callais removed federal Voting Rights Act Section 2 protection for majority-minority districts nationwide, calling its own special session within a day of the 29 April ruling.
Brookings analyst Vanessa Williamson has called Tennessee's Memphis carve-up the cleanest case yet of a Black-majority city dispersed to dilute Voting Rights Act Section 2 protection, a template other post-Callais states are being watched against.
Its map lacks any state-law check
Tennessee moved first and fastest in the post-Callais redistricting cascade: Governor Bill Lee signed a new congressional map on 7 May 2026, two days after calling an extraordinary session, eliminating ten-term Democrat Steve Cohen's majority-Black 9th District and leaving all nine of the state's seats Republican-leaning, up from seven of nine.
Because Tennessee's constitution has no Fair Districts equivalent and the federal Voting Rights Act Section 2 route closed with Callais, the map faces no state-law check of the kind Florida's is still fighting; a three-judge federal panel duly declined to block it on 23 July, finding the redraw partisan rather than racial.