Tennessee Governor Bill Lee called an extraordinary legislative session within twenty-four hours of Louisiana v. Callais coming down on 29 April.1 The target is TN-9, the Memphis seat held by Steve Cohen, the state's lone Democratic congressman. South Carolina legislative leaders confirmed on Tuesday 5 May that staff were drawing new maps. Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves issued a similar call the same day. Alabama has been flagged by the Council on Foreign Relations and the Brennan Center for Justice as the next likely state to act.
President Donald Trump phoned Lee after Callais to encourage the move; the operational tempo runs through state executives, not The White House. The net redistricting tally now sits at twelve to fifteen potential Republican gains across Texas, Florida, Louisiana, Tennessee, South Carolina, Alabama and Mississippi, before any compensating Democratic action.
Red-state legislatures move on executive timetables, sometimes within twenty-four hours of a court ruling. The Democratic equivalents face referendum hurdles, redistricting commissions, or supermajority blocks: Maryland's mid-decade bill died on 14 April when Bill Ferguson declined to bring it to a vote. The five-state Republican response and the one-state Democratic non-response landed inside the same fortnight, on the same trigger.
