Tennessee Republicans Release Proposed U.S. House Redistricting Map

On the morning of May 6, 2026, Tennessee's Republican legislative leaders released a proposed congressional map that would dismantle the state's sole Democratic-held U.S. House district — a majority-Black seat anchored in Memphis and represented by Democrat Steve Cohen — by splitting it into three Republican-leaning districts [1][2]. The map was unveiled less than 24 hours before lawmakers planned to hold a final vote, capping a special legislative session that has drawn hundreds of protesters to the state Capitol in Nashville and reignited a national debate over racial representation, partisan gerrymandering, and the future of the Voting Rights Act [3][4].

The Catalyst: Louisiana v. Callais

The redistricting push traces directly to the Supreme Court's April 29, 2026 ruling in Louisiana v. Callais, in which a 6-3 majority struck down Louisiana's two-Black-majority congressional map as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander [5]. Writing for the majority, Justice Samuel Alito held that the configuration of Louisiana's second Black-majority district subordinated traditional redistricting criteria to race [6].

But the decision went further than the Louisiana map itself. The Court reworked the 40-year-old framework established in Thornburg v. Gingles (1986), imposing new restrictions that collectively make it far harder for minority voters to bring successful claims under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act [5][7]. Multiple legal scholars and civil rights organizations described the ruling as an effective evisceration of Section 2's redistricting protections [7].

Tennessee Republicans moved within days. On May 1, Governor Bill Lee signed a proclamation calling a special session to begin May 5, explicitly citing the Callais decision [8]. House Speaker Cameron Sexton and Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson stated the new legislation "modernizes Tennessee's redistricting process by removing racial data from the mapmaking process entirely" and acknowledged it was a "direct response" to Callais [1][2].

What the Map Does

The proposed map targets the 9th Congressional District, which encompasses most of Memphis and much of Shelby County. Under current lines, the 9th is more than 60% Black by voting-age population and has been represented by Democrats for decades [3][9].

Under the new map, Memphis would be divided into three districts. The Black voting-age population in each of the resulting districts would drop to approximately 29-30% — well below the threshold needed for Black voters to elect their preferred candidates [3][9].

Source: Nashville Banner / NBC News analysis

Data as of May 6, 2026CSV

The map also reconfigures the middle and western portions of the state. The redrawn 5th District would form an "upside-down U" shape stretching from Williamson and Maury counties all the way to Memphis — a span of nearly 300 miles [2][9]. Nashville, which was already split into three districts during routine 2022 redistricting, would be further fractured across five districts under the new lines [2][4].

East Tennessee's districts remain largely unchanged [9].

A Potential 9-0 Republican Sweep

If enacted, the map would position Republicans to hold all nine of Tennessee's congressional seats — a state where roughly one-third of voters supported Democratic candidates in the 2024 presidential election [2][3].

Source: NBC News / Roll Call analysis

Data as of May 6, 2026CSV

However, this comes with a trade-off that some analysts have flagged. By spreading Republican voters more thinly across nine districts rather than concentrating them in eight, the map would shrink GOP margins in nearly every district. Six districts would have Republican margins of less than 12 percentage points, compared to only two under the current map [10]. In a strong Democratic wave year, this configuration could paradoxically create more competitive districts than the current lines [10].

The most directly affected incumbent is Rep. Steve Cohen (D), who has represented Memphis since 2007. Cohen called the proposal "insane" and "a blatant, corrupt power grab that would destroy the Black community's and our entire city's voice" [11]. On the Republican side, GOP Rep. Andy Ogles, who faces a well-funded Democratic challenger in the 5th District, could see his redrawn seat become more favorable [11].

Rep. John Rose (R) is retiring from the 6th District to run for governor, leaving that seat open regardless of the new lines [10].

County Splits and Procedural Concerns

The map splits Shelby County — home to Memphis and more than 900,000 residents — into three congressional districts, a sharp departure from the current arrangement where the county is kept substantially whole within the 9th District [4]. Davidson County (Nashville) was already divided into three districts in 2022 and would be further fragmented under the proposal [9].

During the 2022 redistricting cycle, Tennessee Republicans kept Memphis whole specifically because federal voting protections for the majority-Black district required it [3]. The Callais ruling removed that constraint.

Procedural objections have been as pointed as substantive ones. The special session rules adopted on May 5 limited public comment periods and shortened the window for citizens to review the map [4]. The detailed, interactive version of the map was withheld until after passage was expected [9]. State Rep. Bo Mitchell noted the statistical precision with which Memphis's Black population was divided — approximately 29-30% in each of three new districts — calling the odds of that happening by chance "less likely than...one-in-11.5 million odds of winning $1 million through the Powerball" [9].

To carry out mid-decade redistricting, the legislature must also repeal portions of a 56-year-old Tennessee law that prohibits off-cycle redistricting [8][9]. Republicans hold supermajorities in both chambers sufficient to do so.

The Voting Rights Act Question

The central legal question is whether the new map violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which bars redistricting plans that dilute minority voting power. Under the Allen v. Milligan (2023) framework, the Supreme Court upheld Section 2 protections and required Alabama to draw a second majority-Black congressional district [12]. But Callais significantly narrowed that framework just three years later, raising new barriers for minority voters seeking to challenge maps under Section 2 [5][7].

Tennessee's 9th District, with its 63% Black voting-age population, would be replaced by three districts each hovering near 29-30% Black — a configuration that voting rights advocates argue is a textbook case of "cracking," where a cohesive minority community is split across multiple districts to dilute its electoral influence [3][9].

State Rep. Joe Towns Jr. argued that the partisan and racial dimensions are inseparable: "By the mere fact that you're doing it by partisanship, you're still dealing with race, because you know where the Blacks are" [9].

Civil rights organizations including the NAACP, the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and the League of Women Voters have previously challenged Tennessee's redistricting maps [13][14]. A 2023 lawsuit — Tennessee NAACP v. Lee — challenged the 2022 Nashville split as a racial gerrymander, but a three-judge panel in the Sixth Circuit dismissed the case, ruling plaintiffs had not sufficiently alleged racial intent [13][14]. That ruling would likely serve as a key precedent in any challenge to the new map, though the substantially different facts — dismantling an existing majority-Black district rather than splitting a plurality-white city — could distinguish the new case.

Martin Luther King III sent a letter to Tennessee lawmakers expressing concern that the redistricting "undermines the work of his father to help secure passage of the Voting Rights Act" [3].

The Republican Defense

Tennessee Republicans frame their map as a legitimate exercise of political authority, grounded in multiple layers of legal precedent.

First, they point to the Supreme Court's 2019 ruling in Rucho v. Common Cause, which held 5-4 that partisan gerrymandering claims present political questions beyond the reach of federal courts [15]. Under Rucho, there is no federal judicial remedy for maps drawn with partisan intent, no matter how extreme — a position that effectively immunizes this map from federal partisan gerrymandering challenges.

Second, they cite Callais itself. Speaker Sexton stated: "The Supreme Court has opined that redistricting, like the judicial system, should be color-blind. The decision indicated states like Tennessee can redistrict based on partisan politics" [1][2].

Third, Republican leaders have offered a representation argument. Majority Leader William Lamberth asked: "Is it better in a state like Tennessee, where we have a rich agrarian history, for our urban areas and our rural areas to be within the same district?" [9]. The claim is that combining urban and rural populations gives more diverse representation to each district.

Fourth, the legislation itself is framed as race-neutral, with Republicans stating it removes racial data from the mapmaking process entirely [1]. This framing positions the map as a political choice rather than a racial one — a distinction that matters enormously under equal protection jurisprudence, where racial classifications receive strict scrutiny but political ones do not.

Comparison to Other Post-2020 Gerrymanders

Tennessee's effort joins a broader wave of Republican redistricting moves following Callais. Similar efforts are underway in Louisiana, Alabama, and South Carolina, where GOP-controlled legislatures are seeking to reduce Black-majority districts [11].

In 2022, Tennessee's existing map already received an "F" grade from the Princeton Gerrymandering Project for partisan fairness [16]. The proposed map would likely score worse by standard metrics. The efficiency gap — a measure of "wasted votes" that quantifies the degree to which a map systematically advantages one party — was cited in redistricting scholarship as a key metric, though specific calculations for the proposed Tennessee map were not yet available at the time of the map's release [16].

For comparison, Ohio's 2022 congressional map was struck down multiple times by state courts for extreme partisan gerrymandering before a revised version was adopted. Alabama was forced by the Supreme Court in Milligan to create a second majority-Black district. Georgia's map faced ongoing litigation over its treatment of Black voters in metro Atlanta [12]. Tennessee's proposed map, which would eliminate the state's only majority-minority congressional district rather than merely declining to create a new one, represents a more aggressive posture than most post-2020 maps that survived legal challenge.

State Rep. Torrey Harris pointed to an internal comparison that critics found telling: Knoxville, a Republican-voting city with a smaller Black population, was left undivided in the proposed map, while Memphis was split three ways [9].

Timeline and What Comes Next

The timeline has been compressed by design:

• April 29: Supreme Court rules in Louisiana v. Callais [5]
• May 1: Governor Lee calls special session [8]
• May 5: Special session convenes; rules limiting public comment adopted [4]
• May 6: Proposed map released publicly [1][2]
• May 7-8: Floor votes expected in both chambers [1]
• August 6: Tennessee primary elections [10]
• November 3: General election [10]

Republicans hold 75-24 and 27-6 supermajorities in the state House and Senate, respectively, making passage all but certain [4]. Governor Lee has signaled support for the effort he initiated [8].

Legal challenges are expected almost immediately after passage. The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, which previously filed suit over Tennessee's 2022 maps, and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund are among the organizations likely to bring claims [13][14]. The case would be heard initially by a three-judge panel in the Sixth Circuit, following the same procedural path as Tennessee NAACP v. Lee [14].

The critical question for the 2026 elections is whether any court would issue an injunction blocking the new map before the August primary filing deadlines. Given the Callais ruling's new restrictions on Section 2 claims and the Sixth Circuit's prior dismissal of challenges to Tennessee's maps, legal observers have expressed skepticism that an injunction could be secured in time [7][13].

Stacey Abrams, testifying before the Tennessee legislature during the special session, framed the stakes in broader terms: "We would never sit in these bodies and say that ranchers can only be represented by vegans...the decision to tell certain communities that your voices are so inconsequential, we will not even provide the pretext that you should be heard" [9].

Whether Tennessee's map withstands legal scrutiny will depend on whether courts view it through the lens of Rucho — as a permissible partisan act — or whether the dismantling of a longstanding majority-Black district triggers the racial gerrymandering scrutiny that Callais itself narrowed but did not eliminate.