The Tennessee legislature approved on Thursday new redistricting maps that will break apart the lone Democratic, majority-Black district in the state, centered around Memphis.
Tennessee is the first state to pass new US Congressional maps since the Extreme Court blew up the Voting Rights Act in a ruling over Louisiana’s Black-majority district maps. The compact 9th District is currently represented by Steve Cohen, who is white.
In April 2022, Tennessee’s Supreme Court had rejected a bid to redistrict, noting it was too close to the election to make changes.
The votes came as Democrats protested at the State Capitol, in the hallways and galleries, among State Troopers who arrested the brother of state Rep. Justin Pearson. Rep. Pearson was challenging Cohen in the primary for the 9th District seat in the US House.
GOP lawmakers defended their new maps, admitting they were fulfilling a partisan goal of sending an all-Republican delegation to Washington, redrawing maps based on politics and not race.
Rep. Justin Pearson called the new maps “racist tools of White Supremacy at the behest of the most powerful White Supremacist in the United States of America, Donald J Trump.”
The Tennessee Speaker of the House is worried that some Democrats went against the House rules by protesting.
Tennessee’s new maps will also help to shore up a vulnerable GOP seat around Nashville, currently held by Rep Andy Ogles, who was facing a well-funded Democratic challenger.
As Justin Pearson stated, “This is what happens when you allow tyranny to govern.”
The NAACP Tennessee state conference filed a lawsuit challenging the map on Thursday evening.