After a Supreme Court ruling that weakened the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Republicans carved up a majority-Black Memphis seat as the national redistricting wars continue.
Gov. Bill Lee of Tennessee signed a new congressional map into law on Thursday that slices up Memphis to scatter Black voters into neighboring districts, a move intended to eliminate the state’s last Democratic House seat.
It is the first map crafted since the Supreme Court weakened the remaining provision of the Voting Rights Act, by making it difficult for states to craft majority-minority districts that would not be considered racial gerrymanders. With Tennessee taking the lead, the ruling has opened a new front, particularly in the South, in a bitter, coast-to-coast redistricting battle ahead of November’s midterm elections.
The new map, passed over angry, loud protests that sought to at least slow the vote, splits Memphis and Shelby County into three separate districts, blasting apart the seat of Representative Steve Cohen, Tennessee’s last House Democrat. It also aims to shore up the seat of Representative Andy Ogles, a Republican who was facing a well-funded Democratic challenger, by shifting the boundaries around the liberal city of Nashville.
Mr. Lee’s signature quickly came just after the Republican supermajority in the General Assembly approved the new maps.
The final vote in the state House exploded into noisy chaos, as Democrats and demonstrators drowned out the final tally with loud noisemakers, yells and alarms. Shortly after, in the State Senate, Republicans faced similar outcries as demonstrators yelled, “hands off Memphis.”
Both chambers passed the map largely along party lines, though two Memphis-area Republicans in the House joined Democrats in opposing the measure.