{"id":22369,"date":"2026-05-07T18:47:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T18:47:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/tennessee-republicans-pass-new-gerrymander-following-supreme-courts-voting-rights-act-ruling\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T18:47:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T18:47:17","slug":"tennessee-republicans-pass-new-gerrymander-following-supreme-courts-voting-rights-act-ruling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/tennessee-republicans-pass-new-gerrymander-following-supreme-courts-voting-rights-act-ruling\/","title":{"rendered":"Tennessee Republicans pass new gerrymander following Supreme Court’s Voting Rights Act ruling"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Tennessee\u2019s Republican-controlled legislature approved a new congressional map Thursday that dismantles the state\u2019s majority-Black district and will likely secure them an all-GOP federal delegation.<\/p>\n

The redraw comes as Republican-led Southern states scramble to enact new maps in the wake of 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

The 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 the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee\u2019s target list<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Supreme Court has opined that redistricting, like the judicial system, should be color-blind,\u201d said Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton in a social media post<\/a>. \u201cThe decision indicated states can redistrict based off partisan politics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, is expected to sign the map into law imminently. He called the legislature into a special session last week to pass the map.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe owe it to Tennesseans to ensure our congressional districts accurately reflect the will of Tennessee voters,\u201d Lee said in a statement Friday<\/a>. \u201cAfter consultation with the Lt. Governor, Speaker of the House, Attorney General, and Secretary of State, I believe the General Assembly has a responsibility to review the map and ensure it remains fair, legal, and defensible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tennessee is the first state to finalize a new congressional map after last week\u2019s Supreme Court decision. Louisiana\u2019s GOP-controlled legislature is expected to unveil a new map<\/a> as soon as this week, and Republicans in South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi and Alabama<\/a> are pushing to do the same.<\/p>\n

Andrew Howard contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tennessee\u2019s Republican-controlled legislature approved a new congressional map Thursday that dismantles 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 and […]<\/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-22369","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\/22369","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=22369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22369\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}