Tennessee Republicans pass new map erasing majority-Black US House district
The plan splits Memphis and Shelby County into three districts and could give Republicans all nine U.S. House seats, lawmakers said.
- On Thursday, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed a new congressional map into law after legislators approved the plan, carving up Memphis's majority-Black 9th Congressional District into three Republican-controlled districts.
- Republican legislators initiated the special session after a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling weakened the 1965 Civil Rights Act, removing requirements to use race-based data protecting minority representation.
- State Sen. Raumesh Akbari and other Democrats denounced the move, calling it a 'modern-day revival of Jim Crow.' The plan costs taxpayers $3.1 million to weaken Democratic representation.
- Lawmakers approved the redistricting plan in a 25-5 vote amid protests at the Tennessee Capitol, subsequently reopening candidate qualifying until May 15 for U.S. House primaries.
- Similar redistricting efforts by Republicans in Alabama and South Carolina aim to maximize partisan control ahead of November midterm elections, aligning with President Donald Trump's strategy to maintain a slim U.S. House majority.
192 Articles
192 Articles
Tennessee Republicans Carve Up Memphis, Set To Dilute State's Black Voting Power With New Map
After the Supreme Court’s decision to severely weaken the Voting Rights Act and its protections of majority-Black congressional districts, several Southern states are rushing to redraw their congressional maps. In Tennessee, the state’s Republican leaders are now pushing a new map that would carve up Memphis and Shelby County, diluting much of the state’s Black voting power. Tennessee redistricting plan moving quickly As The New York Times repor…
She did everything she could to prevent the breakup of a majority-Black congressional district
As the Tennessee legislature held a special session this week to redraw its congressional map to break up a majority-Black district in Memphis, state Sen. Charlane Oliver did everything she could to broadcast that what was happening was not normal. The longtime voting rights advocate disrupted proceedings. She forced votes on routine matters. She told her colleagues about her great-great-uncle Elijah Bryant, who fought for the Union in the U.S.…
On April 29, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling that changed the rules of the election game for millions of color voters. In a six-to-three decision, the court weakened article 2 of the Voting Rights Act, the clause that for 60 years forced states to draw electoral maps that guaranteed racial minority representation. Tennessee was the first state to respond: on May 7, it approved a new map that divides the state's only black majority distric…
Tennessee Democrats turn legislature into madhouse after Republicans nuke 'black district' represented by white liberal
Tennessee Democrats' thin veneer of civility broke again, this time on Thursday amid state Republicans' successful efforts to pass a new congressional map.Radical lawmakers not only attempted to obstruct the democratic process — screaming, dancing, blowing bullhorns at Republican legislators, and getting combative — but cosplayed as opponents of racial prejudice, barking lines popularized during the civil rights movement and working in real time…
Tennessee lawmakers erase lone Democratic district
What happenedTennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) on Thursday signed into law a new congressional map that slices up Memphis to disperse its Black voters into Republican-leaning districts, seeking to eliminate the state’s last Democratic-held and majority-Black district. The General Assembly’s Republican supermajority approved the gerrymander earlier in the day amid raucous protests. Who said whatTennessee is the first state to draw a new map since the S…
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