Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) has urged the Tennessee General Assembly to come together and redraw the congressional map to achieve a Republican-dominated 9-0 outcome. This initiative follows a pivotal Supreme Court ruling concerning the drawing of districts based on racial criteria.
Currently, Tennessee is divided into nine congressional districts, with Republicans holding eight of those seats. The latest district is occupied by Democrat Steve Cohen in Memphis, covering Shelby County.
The Republican-controlled legislature previously designed the current map after the 2020 census, securing approval in 2022. This arrangement divided the Democratic-leaning Nashville across three separate districts, aiding Republican candidates in areas that historically leaned Democrat.
In a recent post on X, Blackburn emphasized the need for the GOP-led legislature to redraw Cohen’s district for a stronger Republican foothold in Memphis. “It’s vital to solidify [President Trump’s] agenda and the Golden Age of America,” she stated.
She also shared a visual representation of the state’s districts entirely shaded in red. Blackburn, who is campaigning for governor, reiterated her commitment to keeping Tennessee a Republican stronghold and making this vision a reality.
This proposal is a response to the Supreme Court’s recent decision regarding Louisiana’s congressional map, initially drawn to create an additional majority-Black district due to prior Voting Rights Act findings.
A lower federal district court had deemed the map an unconstitutional racial gerrymander, concluding that race was a predominant factor in its design without justifiable reasoning.
The Supreme Court ruled that Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act does not mandate Louisiana to develop an extra majority-minority district, thereby rejecting the justification for the predominant use of race. This ruling underlined the necessity for compliance with the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment during redistricting.
While the decision does not outright nullify Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, it significantly narrows its applicability, making it clear that race cannot be the primary consideration in district mapping unless absolutely necessary.
