{"id":22780,"date":"2026-05-15T16:17:47","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T16:17:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/tennnesee-democrat-steve-cohen-announces-retirement\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T16:17:47","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T16:17:47","slug":"tennnesee-democrat-steve-cohen-announces-retirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/tennnesee-democrat-steve-cohen-announces-retirement\/","title":{"rendered":"Tennnesee Democrat Steve Cohen announces retirement"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) announced Friday he would not seek reelection later this year, after his Memphis-based House seat was dismantled amid the redistricting battles sweeping the country after last month\u2019s Supreme Court decision.<\/p>\n

Cohen told reporters that his decision not to run was by far the most difficult moment he\u2019s had as an elected official.<\/p>\n

The 10-term House incumbent\u2019s decision to end his campaign came days after Tennessee\u2019s Republican-controlled Legislature approved a new congressional map<\/a> that eliminated Cohen\u2019s majority Black district, likely securing them an all-GOP federal delegation. <\/p>\n

Tennessee is one of a handful of GOP-controlled states in the South racing to dismantle majority Black seats<\/a> after the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince my first election in 2006, I\u2019ve had nine reelects and I haven\u2019t lost a precinct in my reelects,\u201d he said. \u201cI think that\u2019s unique in Congress, but it’s unique in America that an African American majority district has elected a white guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cohen has been the sole Democratic representative in Tennessee\u2019s nine-member U.S. House delegation for the last several years. Before the state\u2019s map was redrawn, Cohen was in a tough primary race<\/a> against 31-year-old state Rep. Justin Pearson. Pearson has said he will continue with his campaign, but the new district is dramatically redder.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not a quitter. But these districts were drawn to beat me,\u201d Cohen said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) announced Friday he would not seek reelection later this year, after his Memphis-based House seat was dismantled amid the redistricting battles sweeping the country after last month\u2019s Supreme Court decision. Cohen told reporters that his decision not to run was by far the most difficult moment he\u2019s had as an elected […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22780","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=22780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22780\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}