Tennessee governor signs aggressive GOP gerrymander into law

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) signed a series of laws Thursday to approve the GOP’s new congressional map that eliminates the state’s only Black-majority district and its lone Democratic seat.

The new map, which President Donald Trump demanded in a phone call with Lee last week, takes effect just months before the 2026 midterm elections.

With Lee’s signature, the bill becomes the first Republican gerrymander directly in response to the Supreme Court’s dismantling of the Voting Rights Act, though it’s unlikely to be the last.

The court’s recent decision on the VRA has ignited a wave of GOP gerrymander efforts aimed at eliminating electoral districts drawn to protect the voting power of racial minorities across the South.

Tennessee’s new map dramatically dilutes the voting power of the state’s Black population by splitting Memphis, one of the largest predominantly Black cities in the U.S., between three separate congressional districts.

Tennessee Democrats and Black civil rights activists have denounced the gerrymander as a return to Jim Crow-era voter suppression tactics to silence the political voice of Black voters.

Under Tennessee’s old map, Memphis made up most of the state’s 9th Congressional District. That district is currently represented by Rep. Steve Cohen, the state’s lone Democratic congressman.

With Cohen’s district now drawn out in the new map, Republicans for the first time in state history will likely secure an all-GOP federal delegation after the midterms. 

The new map is likely to face legal challenges.

In addition to signing the map into law, Lee also signed a repeal of a state law that has barred lawmakers from redistricting between censuses for over five decades. Republicans had to pass that repeal to force through their gerrymander.

The governor also signed an amendment to another state law to no longer require county election officials to directly notify voters of changes to their designated polling places when electoral lines are redrawn.

The GOP-controlled General Assembly passed the series of laws in a special legislative session Lee called shortly after speaking with Trump by phone at the end of April.

Lee claimed that the session was needed to “ensure our congressional districts accurately reflect the will of Tennessee voters.”

However, the session was clearly part of Trump and the GOP’s ongoing efforts to rig electoral maps in their favor before the midterms, which the Supreme Court supercharged with its recent ruling on the VRA. 

Throughout Tennessee’s emergency session, state Republicans defended the map as being drawn solely using partisan and population data, not race. They also repeatedly claimed it was exclusively meant to boost the GOP’s chances of holding its slim majority in the House after the midterm elections.