On May 7, 2026, Tennessee’s Republican-controlled legislature is poised to vote on a plan to carve up the state’s only Black-majority congressional district. The 9th Congressional District, centered on Memphis and Shelby County, would be split into three sprawling pieces — two of them stretching all the way to the Nashville suburbs. Every one of Tennessee’s nine congressional seats would become Republican-leaning. This is not an accident. This is the plan.
The Timeline.
April 29: The Supreme Court rules 6-3 in Louisiana v. Callais that race-based redistricting violates the Fifteenth Amendment. Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act is effectively gutted. Justice Kagan calls it “the now-completed demolition of the Voting Rights Act.”
April 30: Trump posts on Truth Social that he’d like to see Tennessee become “fully Republican.” Senator Marsha Blackburn presents a redistricting map. Governor Bill Lee signals he’s ready to call a special session.
May 1: Lee signs a proclamation calling the Tennessee General Assembly into special session starting May 5. His stated purpose: “facilitate 2026 congressional elections.” There’s just one problem — Tennessee state law explicitly bans redistricting mid-decade. “Districts may not be changed between apportionments.” So they’ll change the law first.
May 4: House Speaker Cameron Sexton files a bill to repeal the statutory ban on mid-decade redistricting. The obstacle is the obstacle, so they’re removing the obstacle.
May 5: The special session begins. Hundreds of protesters pack the Capitol and the Cordell Hull State Office Building. Republicans reject every Democratic proposal for public hearings, more debate time, and notice to the public. They approve rules allowing legislation to move from committee to the floor within hours. A protester is removed from the Senate gallery. Democrats are shut out.
May 6: Republicans unveil the map. Memphis, a city that is 64% Black, is sliced into three districts. District 5 starts in downtown Memphis and stretches through rural West Tennessee all the way to the Nashville suburbs, including Franklin. District 8 takes northeast Memphis and Germantown through Jackson. District 9 runs from southeast Memphis along the state’s southern border and back up to the Nashville suburbs, including Brentwood. Each piece of Memphis is drowned in enough white rural and suburban voters to flip the district red.
“Intentionally breaking state law to take my community’s vote is downright disgusting and offensive.” — Sen. London Lamar (D-Memphis)
The Design.
This map was not drawn in Nashville. According to MLK50, it was “redrawn by Republicans with direction from the White House.” The proposed map cuts Shelby County — home to Memphis, the National Civil Rights Museum, and the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated — into three pieces “designed to give the GOP complete control over the state.”
Under the current map, the 9th Congressional District is Tennessee’s only Democratic-held seat. Rep. Steve Cohen has represented the majority-Black district since 2007. Under the new map, Cohen’s downtown Memphis district would stretch hundreds of miles north, picking up rural white counties and Nashville suburbs until the district’s demographics no longer support a Black or Democratic candidate.
Speaker Sexton said the districts were drawn “based on population and politics, not racial data.” Democrats noted that the result — dismantling the state’s only majority-Black district — speaks for itself.
Tennessee state law has explicitly banned mid-decade redistricting for decades. As recently as April 2022, the Tennessee Supreme Court rejected a redistricting challenge because it was “too close to the election to make changes.” Speaker Sexton’s solution: a bill to repeal that law. The special session package includes legislation to remove the prohibition on mid-decade redistricting, reopen the candidate qualifying window, and allow existing candidates to switch districts. They didn’t just change the map. They changed the rules to allow themselves to change the map.
The Protest.
On May 5, a coalition of elected officials, civil rights leaders, and activists gathered on the Capitol steps to condemn the session. Congressman Cohen returned from Washington to hold a press conference. Senate Minority Leader Raumesh Akbari (D-Memphis): “History is on our side. If they do this, they will not be allowed to do it in the dark. We will shine the light of truth on it.”
Democrats in the House presented alternative rules that would have required public hearings in each of Tennessee’s three Grand Divisions, more notice, and more debate time. All rejected. The Democratic caucus filed a bill to restore a map resembling the 2020 boundaries, making Nashville whole again and keeping Memphis as a cohesive voting bloc. It went nowhere.
Odessa Kelly, a political organizer and former congressional candidate, told the Nashville Scene: “This eliminates Black and brown representation in Memphis. This will affect the entirety of the state, because they have to redraw the whole map. It’s unjust. It’s racist, and it’s wrong.”
The Pattern.
Tennessee is not alone. Within 48 hours of the Callais ruling, Louisiana cancelled its upcoming primaries. Alabama called a special session. Florida passed a new map. Mississippi began “reviewing its options.” But Tennessee moved the fastest, and the most aggressively, because Tennessee had a president telling them exactly what he wanted.
The proposed map would give Republicans all nine of Tennessee’s congressional seats heading into the 2026 midterms — at a time when Trump’s House majority hangs by a thread. This is not about “population and politics.” This is about power. Specifically, it’s about using a Supreme Court decision — one that overturned 60 years of Voting Rights Act protections — to ensure that a city with 633,000 people, nearly two-thirds of them Black, has no representative who answers to them.
“We’re bearing witness to what’s happening. History is on our side.” — Senate Minority Leader Raumesh Akbari (D-Memphis)
They called a special session. They changed the law that said they couldn’t do this. They drew a map designed by the White House. They silenced every Democratic objection. And they’re voting on it in eight days. Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered in Memphis. They’re gerrymandering away his city’s vote from a building 210 miles away.
That’s Tennessee in 2026.
Sources.
- AP / Boston Globe: Tennessee poised to vote on new US House map sought by Trump that carves up Memphis — May 7, 2026. Republicans poised to take up the plan Thursday. Protesters interrupted hearings Wednesday. Bills would repeal mid-decade redistricting ban and reopen candidate qualifying. Speaker Sexton: drawn on “population and politics, not racial data.”
- Nashville Scene: Protests and Tension Erupt on First Day of Special Session — May 5–6, 2026. Gov. Lee called fifth special session of his tenure. Trump social media post preceded it. Protester removed from Senate gallery. Democrats shut out of rule-making. Sen. Lamar: “downright disgusting and offensive.” Sen. Akbari: “History is on our side.” Odessa Kelly: “unjust, racist, wrong.”
- Fox 17 Nashville: Rule changes, protests and no maps — what happened on Day 1 — May 5, 2026. House Ad Hoc Rules Committee rejected Democratic proposals. Rules approved to fast-track legislation from committee to floor within hours. Maps still not released until Day 2.
- MLK50: Tennessee Republicans plan three-way split of Shelby County districts — May 6, 2026. Map redrawn “with direction from the White House.” Shelby County cut three ways. Designed to consolidate power in Williamson County. Memphis drawn into districts with affluent Nashville suburbs.
- Rep. Steve Cohen (TN-9): Press releases on Tennessee redistricting — May 5–7, 2026. Cohen returned from Washington to hold press conference May 7. Coalition of elected officials and community leaders gathered at Beth Harwell Plaza May 5. Cohen: “disenfranchise the voters of a majority-Black 9th Congressional District.”
- Wikipedia: 2026 Tennessee redistricting — Compiled timeline. SCOTUS ruled April 29 in Louisiana v. Callais. Lee proclaimed special session May 1. Sexton filed bill to remove mid-decade ban May 4. Map unveiled May 6 splitting Memphis three ways. Tennessee law: “Districts may not be changed between apportionments.”