U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen has abandoned his reelection bid in the redrawn 9th Congressional District or any of Tennessee’s other congressional districts.

The Memphis Democrat made the announcement Friday, May 15, in Washington, D.C., two hours ahead of the noon Friday, May 15, filing deadline for the new districts.

“This is the most difficult moment I’ve had as an elected official,” Cohen said from his Washington office in a press conference carried by C-SPAN as he announced he had withdrawn his qualifying petition.

Tennessee’s new congressional district map — which state lawmakers enacted following a three-day special session last week — carves the Memphis 9th District into thirds. 

A judge ruled in favor of the state Thursday, May 14, in regard to Tennessee’s newly passed congressional map, creating a roadblock for those seeking to block it.

U.S. Chief District Judge William Lynn Campbell Jr. denied the plaintiffs’ requests for a temporary injunction in two of three federal lawsuits aimed at stopping the new map from being implemented before the August primaries.

Two of the cases, one by a coalition of Democratic voters and congressional candidates and the other by the ACLU of Tennessee, were combined because they both requested a temporary restraining order (TRO) and used similar facts to back up their cases.

Campbell wrote in one of Thursday’s filings that it would have been financially burdensome for the court to hear both cases individually.

Another lawsuit has been filed against Tennessee’s new congressional maps, bringing the total to four.

The Tennessee State Conference NAACP and the League of Women Voters of Tennessee filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday, May 13, against the state, challenging its “racially discriminatory” congressional map. The Tennessee NAACP has already filed one lawsuit — that one in Davidson County Chancery Court — against the redistricting.

The plaintiffs on the latest lawsuit include a coalition of the state LWV and NAACP as well as other organizations and individuals. It names Secretary of State Tre Hargett, Tennessee Elections Coordinator Mark Goins and the state election commission and its members as defendants.

The Tennessee General Assembly approved the new map May 7, capping off a whirlwind special session called by Gov. Bill Lee. Lee signed the bill into law within two hours of the special session’s conclusion.

Tennessee House of Representatives Minority Leader Karen Camper, D-Memphis, received a letter Tuesday, May 12, informing her that her Democratic colleagues in the House were being removed from their committee assignments. 

The move came as a result of Democrats’ actions on the House floor May 7 during a vote on new a congressional map that splits majority-Democratic Shelby County into three different districts.

In the letter from House Speaker Cameron Sexton, R-Crossville, he blamed Democrats for “instigating and encouraging disruptions of the legislative process in coordination with paid protestors and attendees in the gallery.”

They also acted against House rules by blocking the aisle, interlocking arms in the well and disrespecting other members of the House, according to Sexton’s letter.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Tennessee filed a federal lawsuit Monday, May 11, challenging the state’s new Congressional redistricting map.

The suit is the third filed over the issue. It follows lawsuits filed last week by the Tennessee State Conference NAACP and by a coalition of the Tennessee Democratic Party, Tennessee voters and Congressional candidates in suing state officials. 

The ACLU lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee on behalf of three Memphis voters, as well as the Black Clergy Collaborative of Memphis, the Memphis A. Philip Randolph Institute and the Equity Alliance. The plaintiffs are seeking to block the new map from taking effect before the August primary election, to the same end as the other two lawsuits. All three aim to temporarily halt the redistricting plan until final decisions can be made in court.

“Black voters in Memphis did exactly what the Constitution empowers every American to do, which is to choose their representative,” said ACLU of Tennessee Executive Director Miriam R. Nemeth. “The Legislature’s response was an effort to ensure that those votes never carry the same weight again. The law has a name for this, and it’s not redistricting, it is textbook First Amendment retaliation. And it is, at its heart, racism.”

The Shelby County Election Commission plans to request $350,000 in state funding to pay overtime and vendor fees incurred as a result of the Congressional redistricting.

Shelby County Elections Administrator Linda Phillips told reporters Tuesday, May 12, that she would also seek additional county funding to mail notices to voters whose congressional district has changed.

Legislators included some funding to pay for the adjustments but did not require local election commissions to notify voters that they are in a new district.

The Tennessee General Assembly approved the redistricting plan May 7, splitting Memphis and Shelby among Districts 5, 8 and 9.

Tennessee Rep. Justin J. Pearson is sticking with the 9th Congressional District Democratic primary even though, by the new map’s district boundaries, he now lives in the 5th.

Standing at the corner of Airways Boulevard and Park Avenue in Orange Mound, Pearson announced his intention Tuesday, May 12, to stay in the 9th District primary for which he is already qualified. If he wins the Democratic nomination in August and the general election in November, Pearson said he will move within the 9th’s new boundaries.

With Memphis, as of last week, divided among three congressional districts, the city will now share representation with a wide swath of rural West Tennessee and some Middle Tennessee counties. Pearson is the first contender among those who filed under the old boundaries to officially announce his choice.

The Tennessee General Assembly approved the redistricting plan May 7, splitting the state’s biggest blue county — Shelby — among District 5, 8 and 9.

One of the three lawsuits filed in response to Tennessee’s congressional redistricting has a court date.

A hearing for a temporary injunction against the new map is set for Thursday, May 21, at 9 a.m. in Davidson County Chancery Court.

The Tennessee State Conference NAACP filed its lawsuit against the state May 7, the same day the Tennessee General Assembly passed a set of bills that redraw the state’s congressional district boundaries.

The NAACP and its Tennessee State Conference President Gloria Sweet-Love are seeking a temporary injunction, meaning they’re asking for the new map’s implementation to be halted until the matter is decided in court.

Memphis City Council members vote Tuesday, May 12, on a resolution opposing the congressional redistricting map approved in this month’s special session of the Tennessee General Assembly.

The resolution by council members JB Smiley Jr. and Janika White is a nonbinding action that doesn’t affect the body’s decision to divide the city among three newly drawn congressional districts.

Each of those districts takes in large swaths of rural West Tennessee with one extending into Williamson County in Middle Tennessee.

The resolution says the council is “vehemently” opposed to the new district lines “as it has damaging effects on the City of Memphis’s voters and congressional representation, undermines the priorities of the City of Memphis, and disrespects the history, work, sacrifice, and martyrdom of civil rights and voting rights advocates from the past through the present day.”

The Tennessee Democratic Party and other plaintiffs, including U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., filed a lawsuit late Thursday, May 7, in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, challenging the legality of the state’s new congressional map.

The new map, which Gov. Bill Lee signed into law Thursday, redraws the state’s congressional boundaries, splitting the majority-Black Memphis into three separate districts ahead of this year’s elections. 

The Republican-led redistricting effort closely followed the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling in the Louisiana v. Callais decision, which weakened a key provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

The Tennessee Democratic Party supported multiple events and several rallies during the three-day special session that led to the map’s passage into law, calling for better maps with better representation.

Tennessee lawmakers passed a new Congressional map Thursday, May 7, redistricting the state and splitting Shelby County into three different districts.

It’s left many Memphians wondering what district they’re in under the new boundaries.

Shelby County residents are now part of either the 5th, 8th or 9th Congressional District of Tennessee. Maps for each district can be found on the state Comptroller of the Treasury’s website.

District 5 is closest to the Mississippi River and includes areas near Coro Lake, Raleigh Egypt High School, Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital and Overton Park.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed the state’s new congressional map into law Thursday, May 7, according to the General Assembly’s website.

He signed the bill less than two hours after it passed in a whirlwind special session marked by protests from community members and lawmakers.

Lee also signed several more bills related to redistricting.

Those bills repealed a 1972 law that banned mid-census cycle redistricting, changed residency requirements for those who wish to run to represent the new districts, and pushed back the filing deadline for candidates.

State Rep. Brent Taylor, R-Eads, announced his intent to run for the state’s new Congressional District 9 seat — representing Middle and West Tennessee — within an hour of redistricting passing in Nashville.

In his announcement, Taylor said he would “fight to cement Tennessee’s conservative legacy for generations to come.”

“Tennessee’s new congressional map has created an opportunity to deliver another strong Republican voice to Congress and secure a brighter, safer, and more conservative future for our state and our country, and I’m ready to be that leader,” Taylor said.

Both Tennessee senators, Republicans Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty, endorsed Taylor’s run in concert with his announcement.

NASHVILLE — Tennessee lawmakers passed a new Congressional map Thursday, May 7, less than a week after Gov. Bill Lee called for a special session to redistrict the state.

The new map splits majority-Democratic Shelby County into three different districts, redrawing the boundaries of a U.S. House seat that’s been reliably blue for more than 50 years.

“Ayes 25, five nays,” said the clerk in the state Senate. 

The legislation passed in the Tennessee House of Representatives on a 65-24 vote with three present and not voting.

The women walked into chambers wearing white suits and dresses, while the men joined them in white shirts and ties topped with navy blazers.

The color coordination by the 30 Democratic members of the Tennessee state legislature on Thursday, April 7, wasn’t an accident, as white has historically been linked to the suffrage movement.

Those six state senators and 24 representatives, many from Memphis, said they were using their clothing as a silent — but highly visible — protest against the legislature’s congressional redistricting plan. 

“This white stands for all those who came before us who sacrificed for representation equity, and we wanted to make sure that we carried that same mantle,” said state Sen. London Lamar, D-Memphis. “That is why we wore white today as a form of solidarity, as a form to say that we do not like our representation being erased.”

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen said Thursday, May 7, that he is one of a group of legislators that plans to sue the State of Tennessee over the redrawn congressional map. 

The Memphis Democrat, who has represented the 9th Congressional District for almost two decades, said that he will be part of a lawsuit that will argue a redrawn congressional map would impair his First Amendment rights because it comes in the middle of his reelection campaign. 

“We’ve been campaigning hard since the filing deadline ... and that’s a First Amendment violation, so there will be a lawsuit in state court. I’ll be a plaintiff, among others,” Cohen said. 

The Tennessee General Assembly is currently in the process of redrawing and approving new lines for the state’s nine congressional districts. 

The newly released proposal for Tennessee’s congressional map splits Memphis and Shelby County into thirds.

And a close-up of Shelby County, obtained by The Daily Memphian and shared by legislators on social media, shows that most of Memphis’ municipal limits appear to be split roughly three ways.

The map obtained by The Daily Memphian does not include streets, precincts or municipal boundaries. 

Proposed 9th District (yellow)

The close-up shows that the 9th, which currently covers most of Memphis and Shelby County, would change to stretch east from parts of Whitehaven into what appear to be portions of southeastern Shelby County and Collierville.

NASHVILLE — At least a hundred had gathered at the Cordell Hull State Office Building in Nashville to watch lawmakers decide whether or not to send a newly introduced congressional map to full floor votes.

State House and Senate committees voted Wednesday, May 6, to send the bills — SB7004/HB7003 — and a new congressional map to full votes. The move stirred up dozens of demonstrators who came to protest the Republican-led plan. 

Officers cleared the room for one committee meeting after the crowd of protesters inside broke out into chants. State Rep. Gabby Salinas, D-Memphis, told The Daily Memphian that, at one point, the state troopers denied her entrance to the committee room.

State Sen. London Lamar, D-Memphis, eventually pleaded with protesters to let lawmakers do their business after state Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Hixson, said their disruptions were hurting their cause.

Tennessee Republicans on Wednesday, May 6, proposed a new Congressional map to redraw districts across the state and carve Memphis’ 9th Congressional district, a Democratic stronghold, into thirds.

The map would make all nine of Tennessee’s seats Republican-leaning districts. It would slice Shelby County three ways into rural districts that stretch north and east from Memphis’ reliably blue southwestern corner. 

The proposed map comes on the second day of a three-day special session of the Tennessee General Assembly.

Gov. Bill Lee convened the session quickly after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last week weakened a provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The court struck down a majority-Black congressional district in Louisiana, opening the door to more redistricting across the country that could aid Republican efforts to control the House. 

State lawmakers meet Tuesday, May 5, in a special session called by Gov. Bill Lee.

The session is expected to see a vote in the Tennessee General Assembly on redrawing the state’s nine Congressional districts. U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen — Tennessee’s only elected Democrat in Washington D.C. — currently represents the state’s 9th District, which is primarily made up of the City of Memphis.

Lawmakers will reconvene less than two weeks after the regular legislative session closed in what Republicans plan to be a short affair. Republican leaders framed the special session as “a critical opportunity to send another Tennessee Republican to Washington who will support President Trump,” according to Senate Majority Speaker Jack Johnson, R-Franklin.

Meanwhile, Democrats say redistricting is a deliberate attempt to dilute Black political voices and “a raw political power grab aimed directly at Memphis,” according to Senate Democratic Caucus Chairwoman London Lamar, D-Memphis.

NASHVILLE — Emotions ran high Tuesday, May 5, as people gathered to protest Republicans’ attempt to redraw Tennessee’s congressional maps.

Democrats from the Tennessee Senate and House of Representatives held an 11 a.m. press conference alongside U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Memphis, the state’s only elected Democrat in Washington. The press conference was followed by a protest on the Beth Harwell Plaza, just outside of lawmakers’ offices in the Cordell Hull building.

Elected officials, people who traveled from Memphis and local advocates turned up to fight against the effort to divide Memphis’ 9th Congressional District and therefore make the seat easier for Republicans to win. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee announced last week that he would call the Tennessee General Assembly into special session on redistricting; that session began Tuesday.

Cohen, who has represented the state’s District 9 since 2007, urged Memphians to vote out anyone who votes in favor of redistricting their city.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee announced Friday, May 1, that he is calling the Tennessee General Assembly into special session on redistricting, to begin Tuesday, May 5.

“We owe it to Tennesseans to ensure our congressional districts accurately reflect the will of Tennessee voters,” Lee said in a statement late Friday afternoon. “After consultation with the lieutenant 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.”

Lee said the legislature’s review will have to be quick citing “mandatory election qualifying timelines.”

But the races for the state’s nine Congressional District primaries on the Aug. 6 ballot have already been certified with the fields of contenders.

President Donald Trump says Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has told him he will “work hard” to redraw the state’s congressional districts this year.

In a Thursday, April 30 post on Truth Social, Trump wrote that Lee “would work hard to correct the unconstitutional flaw in the Congressional Maps of the Great State of Tennessee.” 

The post comes in the wake of Wednesday’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling that weakened a key provision of the 1965 Civil Rights Act. In its ruling, the court struck down a majority-Black congressional district in Louisiana, opening the door for more redistricting across the country that could aid Republican efforts to control the House.

In his post, Trump wrote that he talked with Lee Thursday morning about a special legislative session to “give us one extra seat, and help Save our Country from the Radical Left Democrats, and their Country destroying Policies of High Tax, Open Borders, Transgender Mutilization, Defunding the Police, ICE, and Border Patrol, No Voter ID, Soft on Crime, and so much more.”

U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., is calling for the Tennessee General Assembly to reconvene to redraw district lines for the state’s nine Congressional districts.

“I urge our state legislature to reconvene to redistrict another Republican seat in Memphis,” Blackburn posted on her campaign X account shortly after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling Wednesday, April 29, that appeared to weaken a provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

The landmark Civil Rights-era law, which has increased minority representation in Congress and elsewhere, permits the drawing of legislative districts to concentrate Black and minority voting power as an antidote to redistricting practices that diluted Black voting power. In its 6-3 ruling Wednesday, the court struck down a majority Black congressional district in Louisiana, opening the door for more redistricting across the country that could aid Republican efforts to control the House.

The plaintiffs argued that Louisiana’s second Black-majority congressional district, drawn to correct a previously discriminatory map, has an unconstitutional racial basis and did not follow the standards for drawing a district, including compactness.