Tennessee Passes Map to Create All-GOP Delegation

Tennessee Republicans just moved to erase the state's lone Democratic-held congressional seat. The GOP-controlled state House and Senate on Thursday approved a new map that dismantles Memphis's Black-majority district, long represented by Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen, and spreads its voters across Republican-leaning areas, the Washington Post reports. Republican Gov. Bill Lee, who called lawmakers into special session, is expected to sign off, potentially creating an all-Republican, nine-member House delegation, reports the AP.

The new map also shores up the seat of Republican Rep. Andy Ogles by shifting the boundaries around Nashville, a former Democratic stronghold that was carved up in an earlier round of redistricting, the New York Times reports. The vote follows last week's Supreme Court ruling that narrowed the reach of the Voting Rights Act and gave lawmakers more room to redraw majority-Black districts. On the House floor, Democratic state Rep. Justin Jones accused Republicans of "seething with racism" and called Speaker Cameron Sexton the legislature's "grand wizard in chief," likening the plan to "Jim Crow terror," the Post reports.

• During the votes, shouts from protesters could be heard outside both chambers. Demonstrators shouted at Republican lawmakers in hallways that were lined with state troopers. One lawmaker walked through the crowd wearing a Trump flag as a cape, the Times reports. During the final vote in the House chamber, protesters and Democratic lawmakers drowned out the final tally with yells and noisemakers.

Republicans said the move was about politics, not race. "This map was drafted based on politics, based on population," said GOP state Rep. Jason Zachary, touting the chance for a fully Republican delegation. A Democratic lawmaker from Memphis, state Sen. London Lamar, said the move harms both democracy and the city's residents, the AP reports. "You cannot take a majority Black city, fracture its voting power, and then tell us race has nothing to do with it," she said. Similar efforts are underway in Alabama, Louisiana, and South Carolina, as both parties continue a nationwide redistricting fight to lock in advantages before November.