Overview
- Tennessee’s Republican legislature passed the map and Gov. Bill Lee signed it Thursday after a raucous special session with protests inside the Capitol.
- The plan breaks up Memphis’s majority-Black seat by dividing Shelby County into three Republican-leaning districts, which analysts say could wipe out the state’s lone Democratic-held seat.
- Republican leaders say the lines follow population and partisan data rather than race, while Democrats, civil-rights advocates, and Rep. Steve Cohen call it Black vote dilution and plan lawsuits.
- Lawmakers also repealed the state’s ban on mid‑decade redistricting and reopened candidate filing, compressing the calendar before the August 6 primaries and raising concerns about voter confusion.
- The overhaul follows Louisiana v. Callais, which narrowed the Voting Rights Act, and similar efforts in Louisiana, Alabama, and South Carolina could delay primaries and cut minority representation.