{"id":22333,"date":"2026-05-06T16:02:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T16:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/tennessee-unveils-new-congressional-map-poised-to-erase-dem-seat\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T16:02:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T16:02:08","slug":"tennessee-unveils-new-congressional-map-poised-to-erase-dem-seat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/tennessee-unveils-new-congressional-map-poised-to-erase-dem-seat\/","title":{"rendered":"Tennessee unveils new congressional map poised to erase Dem seat"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Tennessee Republicans on Wednesday unveiled a proposed congressional map that slices into the state\u2019s majority-Black district and will likely secure them an all-GOP federal delegation.<\/p>\n<p>The redraw comes as Republican-led Southern states scramble to enact new maps in the wake of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/04\/29\/voting-rights-act-2026-midterms-republicans-gerrymandering-redistricting-00899022\" target=\"_blank\">last week\u2019s Supreme Court ruling<\/a> that weakened Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and opened the door to states blowing up blue districts drawn to protect the voting power of racial minorities.<\/p>\n<p>Tennessee\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/tnsenategop\/status\/2052034274988015720\" target=\"_blank\">new map<\/a> aims to draw the state\u2019s lone Democratic congressional representative \u2014 Rep. Steve Cohen \u2014 out of his Memphis-area seat by splitting up majority-Black Shelby County. It also divides Maury County, likely delivering a more favorable district to Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.), who is on<a href=\"https:\/\/dccc.org\/2026-red-to-blue\/\" target=\"_blank\">the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee\u2019s target list<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The plan is supported by Republican leadership in both chambers of the Tennessee General Assembly and is expected to pass Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Supreme Court has opined that redistricting, like the judicial system, should be color-blind,\u201d said Tenesseee House Speaker Cameron Sexton in <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/CSexton25\/status\/2052025699146310048\" target=\"_blank\">a social media post<\/a>. \u201cThe decision indicated states can redistrict based off partisan politics. Today, Tennessee joins other red and blue states in redrawing their congressional maps.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, called the state assembly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tn.gov\/governor\/news\/2026\/5\/1\/gov--lee-calls-special-legislative-session-to-review-congressional-map.html\" target=\"_blank\">into a special session<\/a> on Friday following the Supreme Court ruling. The assembly adopted <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsfromthestates.com\/article\/tenn-gop-limit-public-input-redrawing-us-house-map-protesters-descend-capitol\" target=\"_blank\">a set of rules limiting public comment<\/a> in an attempt to expedite the new map.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHouse Republicans remain well-positioned to re-elect our incumbents, compete aggressively across the map, and grow the majority in November,\u201d National Republican Congressional Committee spokesperson Reilly Richardson said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p><i>Andrew Howard contributed reporting.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tennessee Republicans on Wednesday unveiled a proposed congressional map that slices into the state\u2019s majority-Black district and will likely secure them an all-GOP federal delegation. The redraw comes as Republican-led Southern states scramble to enact new maps in the wake of last week\u2019s Supreme Court ruling that weakened Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22333\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}