Tennessee Democratic Congressman Steve Cohen Announces Retirement

Rep. Steve Cohen, the fourth-generation Memphian who held Tennessee's 9th Congressional District for nearly two decades, announced on May 15, 2026, that he would end his bid for reelection [1]. The decision came eight days after Governor Bill Lee signed into law a new congressional map that splits Memphis among three Republican-leaning districts — eliminating what had been the state's only majority-Black congressional seat and its only Democratic one [2].

Cohen's exit is not a conventional retirement. It is the direct product of a redistricting blitz that Tennessee Republicans launched within days of the U.S. Supreme Court's April 29 ruling in Louisiana v. Callais, which weakened the Voting Rights Act's protections against racial discrimination in map-drawing [3]. That ruling freed state legislatures to redraw maps without maintaining majority-minority districts, and Tennessee became the first state to act on the new precedent [4].

The Redistricting Sequence

The timeline was compressed and deliberate. On May 6, Tennessee Republican legislators released a proposed congressional map. On May 7, it passed both chambers of the state legislature and was signed by Governor Lee — all in a single day [5]. The map carves Memphis, a city of roughly 630,000 people that is approximately 64 percent Black, into three separate districts, each paired with large swaths of rural, predominantly white, Republican-voting counties [6].

The political math is straightforward: the old 9th District carried a Cook Partisan Voting Index of D+23, making it the most Democratic-leaning seat in Tennessee by a wide margin [7]. Under the new maps, no Tennessee district retains a Democratic lean. Republicans aim for a 9-0 sweep of the state's House delegation [5].

Cohen, in his announcement, left a narrow door open: "If we prevail in the courts and the 9th District remains intact, I will remain a candidate and be proud to represent you for another two years" [1]. The ACLU filed a federal lawsuit on May 12 alleging intentional racial discrimination and First Amendment retaliation against Black voters, with a hearing scheduled for May 20 [8].

Cohen's Tenure: 19 Years in a Majority-Black District

Cohen first won the 9th District seat in 2006 in a crowded 15-candidate Democratic primary, securing just 31 percent of the vote [9]. He was a white Jewish Democrat in a district that was approximately 60 percent Black — a configuration that drew immediate questions about descriptive representation. His main opponent, Nikki Tinker, finished second with 25 percent [9].

Source: Tennessee Secretary of State / Ballotpedia

Data as of Nov 5, 2024CSV

The general election that year was complicated by the entry of Jake Ford, brother of outgoing congressman Harold Ford Jr., who ran as an independent and took 22 percent to Cohen's 60 percent [9]. But after surviving his first cycle, Cohen consolidated support. In 2008, he defeated Tinker 79-19 in a primary marred by antisemitic campaign rhetoric from a Tinker supporter [10]. From 2010 onward, Cohen won reelection comfortably, typically by margins exceeding 70 percent in the general election.

His most significant recent primary challenge came not from a general election opponent but from within his own party: in October 2025, state Rep. Justin Pearson — one of the "Tennessee Three" expelled from the state legislature in 2023 for protesting gun violence on the House floor — announced a challenge to Cohen for the 2026 Democratic primary [11]. Pearson framed his candidacy around generational change and more aggressive advocacy for Memphis' working-class Black communities, telling the Associated Press that "the status quo is failing us" [12].

Legislative Record: What Cohen Built

Over 19 years in office, Cohen was the primary sponsor of 15 bills that were enacted into law [13]. His most prominent legislative accomplishments include:

• The 2008 Congressional Apology for Slavery: A resolution marking the first time any branch of the federal government officially apologized for slavery and the system of Jim Crow laws [13].
• The SPEECH Act (2010): Signed by President Obama, it banned the practice of "libel tourism" — foreign courts imposing speech-restricting judgments on American authors [13].
• Monuments Men Congressional Gold Medal: Cohen was credited as the driving force behind legislation awarding the medal to the World War II art-recovery unit [13].
• Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act provisions: Cohen included language addressing truck underride crashes, impaired driving, and regional passenger rail [13].

His committee work focused on the House Judiciary Committee, where he chaired the Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice. He introduced the Fresh Start Act for nonviolent ex-offenders and the End Racial and Religious Profiling Act [14]. He secured $76 million from the Department of Transportation for Memphis transit electric buses, a $30 million Choice Neighborhood grant for redeveloping Foote Homes, and $9 million for clearing the city's backlog of untested sexual assault kits [15].

By GovTrack's legislative metrics, Cohen's bill sponsorship areas broke down as: Transportation and Public Works (25%), International Affairs (19%), Crime and Law Enforcement (14%), Government Operations (10%), and Health (10%) [13].

The Impeachment Question

Cohen was the first member of Congress to file articles of impeachment against Donald Trump, doing so in 2017 [15]. He voted for impeachment four times — twice in committee, twice on the House floor — and remained one of the most visible Democratic voices calling for Trump's removal through both impeachment proceedings [15].

Critics in Memphis argued that Cohen's national profile on impeachment consumed political oxygen that could have been directed toward bread-and-butter legislation for a district with a poverty rate above 25 percent. The counterargument, advanced by Cohen's defenders, is that his Judiciary Committee position made impeachment an institutional responsibility rather than a strategic choice, and that his office simultaneously delivered the federal grants and infrastructure funding listed above. The tension between national visibility and local deliverables is real, but the record shows Cohen maintained both tracks simultaneously rather than abandoning one for the other.

Tennessee's Vanishing Democratic Footprint

Cohen's departure — forced or not — completes a trajectory that has been accelerating for 16 years.

Source: Dave Leip Atlas of U.S. Elections

Data as of Nov 5, 2024CSV

Tennessee voted for George W. Bush by just 4 points in 2000. By 2024, Donald Trump carried the state by 28 points [16]. The state legislature went from competitive to a Republican supermajority. Nashville's 5th Congressional District was carved up in 2022 redistricting. Now Memphis' 9th follows the same pattern.

If the new maps survive legal challenge, Tennessee will send an all-Republican House delegation to Washington for the first time since Reconstruction — a zero-seat Democratic representation in a state with roughly 1.3 million Democratic voters in the 2024 presidential election [5].

The Successor Question

The Democratic primary for the 9th District — if it proceeds under the old maps per a court injunction — features several candidates: incumbent Cohen (who has conditionally suspended his campaign), state Rep. Justin Pearson, state Sen. London Lamar, and candidates M. LaTroy A-Williams and DeVante Hill [17]. The primary is scheduled for August 6, 2026 [17].

Pearson holds structural advantages in name recognition and fundraising infrastructure built during his nationally covered expulsion from the state legislature [11]. London Lamar brings a state Senate seat and deeper roots in traditional Memphis Democratic politics. Cohen's conditional withdrawal creates uncertainty: if courts block the new maps, he could re-enter the race, complicating calculations for candidates who have already begun organizing.

If the new maps stand, the question changes entirely. Under the redrawn districts, no Memphis-based seat retains a majority-Black population or a Democratic lean. Republican candidates including state Sen. Brent Taylor and state Rep. Todd Warner are already campaigning in the redesigned 9th District [17].

Precedent and Pattern

The dismantling of Tennessee's 9th District fits a broader national pattern following the Louisiana v. Callais decision. Tennessee is the first state to pass new maps, but legal observers expect similar efforts in other states with majority-minority districts that were previously protected under Voting Rights Act precedent [4].

The specific scenario — a white Democrat holding a majority-Black urban seat, then retiring as the district is eliminated — has historical parallels. Before the 1990s redistricting wave created majority-minority districts across the South, white Democrats routinely held seats with 35-40 percent Black populations, benefiting from Black voter support without creating conditions for Black candidates to win [18]. The post-1990 creation of majority-Black districts led to the election of the Congressional Black Caucus's largest cohort and simultaneously contributed to surrounding districts flipping Republican.

Cohen's tenure represented a different configuration: a white Democrat winning within a majority-Black district, sustained by broad coalition support. That model is now being tested to destruction — not by voters choosing a different representative, but by a legislature erasing the district itself.

What Remains Unresolved

The federal lawsuit challenging Tennessee's maps will determine whether candidates file under old or new district lines. The May 20 hearing on a temporary restraining order will be decisive for the 2026 cycle [8]. Cohen has signaled he would resume his campaign if courts restore the old 9th District [1].

Beyond the legal fight, Cohen's exit raises a question that Memphis' political class must answer regardless of map lines: after 19 years of seniority, committee positions, and federal funding relationships, what is the cost of starting over? That cost is not hypothetical — it is measured in appropriations influence, institutional knowledge, and the years required for a new member to accumulate equivalent leverage in a Congress where seniority still determines much of a member's power.