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Tennessee's redistricting special legislative session Tuesday will weigh a map that will potentially turn the state's lone blue district red before the 2026 midterms.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, who is term-limited and leaving office after this year, moved quickly to call the special session after a conversation last week with President Donald Trump on the heels of the landmark Supreme Court decision that found race should not be used to dictate the drawing of legislative district maps.
"We owe it to Tennesseans to ensure our congressional districts accurately reflect the will of Tennessee voters," Lee wrote in a statement, announcing the session after the Trump call, expressing urgency "to comply with mandatory election qualifying timelines" and make sure a new map is "enacted as soon as possible."
"After consultation with the Lt. Governor, Speaker of the House, Attorney General, and Secretary of State, I believe the General Assembly has a responsibility to review the map and ensure it remains fair, legal, and defensible."
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Notably, the map was presented Wednesday by Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., who is the leading candidate to succeed Gov. Lee, just hours after the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Louisiana v. Callais.
"I urge our state legislature to reconvene to redistrict another Republican seat in Memphis," Blackburn wrote on X, sharing an image of the new Tennessee map that could give Republicans a 9-0 House delegation edge. "It's essential to cement @realDonaldTrump's agenda and the Golden Age of America.
"I've vowed to keep Tennessee a red state, and as Governor, I'll do everything I can to make this map a reality."
While Lee said he made the decision after consulting with Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, House Speaker Cameron Sexton, Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti and Secretary of State Tre Hargett, he also got encouragement from Blackburn and Trump after the Supreme Court ruling.
"I had a very good conversation with Governor Bill Lee, of Tennessee, this morning, wherein he stated that he would work hard to correct the unconstitutional flaw in the Congressional Maps of the Great State of Tennessee," Trump wrote Thursday on Truth Social one day after Blackburn's post and a day before Lee's special session announcement. "Likewise, all of the other Political Representatives of Tennessee have promised to do so. This should give us one extra seat, and help Save our Country from the Radical Left Democrats, and their Country destroying Policies of High Tax, Open Borders, Transgender Mutilization, Defunding the Police, ICE, and Border Patrol, No Voter ID, Soft on Crime, and so much more."
Louisiana v. Callais struck down a Louisiana congressional map that created a second majority-Black district and narrowed the use of race in redistricting under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The ruling has prompted other Republican-led states in the South, including Alabama, to revisit congressional maps before the midterms.
Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., the Democrat from Memphis who will see his district potentially flip to a more Republican-friendly one, acknowledged the new map might get him voted out of Congress because Memphis' Black voter base will not be isolated from more rural surrounding areas.
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"This transparent effort to create a seat for a member of Congress who will rubber stamp Trump's increasingly bizarre and dangerous agenda will also dilute the Black vote in Tennessee to the point of irrelevance," Cohen wrote in a statement. "I have been consulting with voting rights lawyers and other experts to fight this move with every option available, political and legal. The filing deadline for candidates for the 120th Congress has passed. Were the General Assembly to change the district maps, candidates already seeking office in one district could find themselves in the absurd situation of running in another - a wholesale injustice to voters and a mockery of democracy."
"Republican state lawmakers clearly have the votes to make this Machiavellian move," he added. "I hope fairness is part of their consideration and that they abandon it."
Blackburn fired back Monday at Cohen's righteous indignation.
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"Since the ruling on Wednesday, liberals have bemoaned that redrawing the lines would create a 'lack of representation,'" Blackburn wrote on X. "It's funny, you've never heard a liberal bemoan the lack of conservative representation in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Hawaii, or Delaware."
Cohen acknowledged the new map might be inevitable, potentially framing the fight as a near-term one to delay its use after the midterms.
"I think maybe it can be put off until 2028, but after 2028, it's toast," Cohen told WMC Action News 5 in Memphis on Sunday.
He compared the potential Memphis changes to the redrawing of Nashville's district after the 2020 census, saying Nashville was split among three districts and left without a member of Congress based in the city.
Republican lawmakers, who control the General Assembly, will have the majority say in the special session that begins Tuesday.
"Tennesseans have made it clear they want strong borders, a strong economy, and common-sense leadership - not the failed policies coming from Washington Democrats," state Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson, R-Williamson County, told WMC.
"We have been presented with a critical opportunity to send another Tennessee Republican to Washington who will support President Trump and prevent radical Democrat Hakeem Jeffries from becoming the next speaker. We're not going to let that opportunity slip."
