When State Senator John Stevens stood on the Tennessee Senate floor last week and explained that the legislature's new congressional maps had been drawn "to elect more Republicans," he was not saying anything inconsistent with the maps. He was simply noting it. On the floor. In the session. For the minutes.
What preceded Senator Stevens's floor note was a special session called eight days after the Supreme Court weakened the Voting Rights Act. The legislature's first vote repealed the 54-year-old state law prohibiting mid-decade redistricting, yes, the rule standing between Tennessee Republicans and the maps they intended to draw. The second vote drew those maps: new congressional districts splitting Memphis's 9th District, the state's only majority-Black seat, into three new districts stretching hundreds of miles into rural Republican territory. Tennessee went from one Black congressman to zero.
The question the minutes raise, and cannot answer, is what the correct response is when an institution removes the rule against something, does the thing, and files documentation explaining that it did the thing and why. The safeguards were not circumvented. They were voted out, in order, by the people they were meant to restrain, with the rationale attached.
The NAACP filed suit. The minutes are available.
Reason to Care
Tennessee's Republican-controlled legislature called a special session, repealed a 54-year-old state law protecting against mid-decade redistricting, and then drew new congressional maps in the same session that eliminated the state's only majority-Black congressional district. The sequence, remove the rule, then do the thing the rule prevented, was publicly documented and explained by the legislators who carried it out.
The Facts
- Eight days after the Supreme Court weakened the Voting Rights Act, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee called a special legislative session to address congressional redistricting. (Source: NBC News — https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-election/tennessee-republicans-pass-map-splitting-states-lone-majority-black-di-rcna343934)
- The legislature first voted to repeal Tennessee's 1970 law prohibiting mid-decade congressional redistricting, in place for 54 years, along with a separate 1972 provision requiring that districts remain unchanged between federal apportionments. (Source: Wikipedia — 2026 Tennessee Redistricting — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Tennessee_redistricting)
- The legislature then passed new maps splitting the Memphis-based 9th Congressional District, the state's only majority-Black district, into three new districts, each stretching hundreds of miles east into rural, Republican-leaning territory. (Source: NBC News — https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-election/tennessee-republicans-pass-map-splitting-states-lone-majority-black-di-rcna343934)
- Geometric analysis by the Nashville Banner found the new districts were measurably less compact than the previous maps, undermining the Republican claim that the redraw was intended to balance urban and rural representation. (Source: Nashville Banner — https://nashvillebanner.com/2026/05/08/tennessee-congressional-districts-black-voters-memphis/)
- State Senator John Stevens explained on the floor that the maps were drawn "to elect more Republicans," a direct acknowledgment of partisan intent entered into the legislative record. (Source: NBC News — https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-election/tennessee-republicans-pass-map-splitting-states-lone-majority-black-di-rcna343934)
- The NAACP filed suit challenging the maps. Rep. Steve Cohen, who had represented the 9th District, called the maps "the most brazen partisan gerrymander I've ever seen." *(Source: NBC News — https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-election/tennessee-republicans-pass-map-splitting-states-lone-majority-black-di-rcna343934)