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 came just hours 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.
Tennessee’s primaries are scheduled for Aug. 6. A lawsuit challenging the new map is widely expected.
Leaders of the state legislature, where Republicans hold a supermajority, said they redrew the map based on partisan politics, not race, to comply with the Supreme Court decision.
“It was absolutely drafted on politics,” said State Representative Jason Zachary, a Knoxville Republican. The goal, he said, was to have an entirely Republican delegation.
“We’re taking advantage of that as the supermajority in this body,” he said.
Democrats, noting that about two-thirds of Memphis voters are Black, said it was a blatant attack on hard-won gains for fair representation in a state shaped by slavery, segregation and the civil rights movement.
“Perhaps the legislature should explain why Memphis should continue to be part of the state of Tennessee,” said State Representative Antonio Parkinson, a Memphis Democrat. He suggested that the city should break away from the state.
“You’re constantly beating on us,” he said. “Allow us out.”
Some voting rights experts said the map would be an early test of what the high court now considers a racial gerrymander under what is left of the Voting Rights Act, as well as how voters would challenge new district lines. David Becker, the executive director of the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation and Research, said the map likely “would never have withstood scrutiny under the Voting Rights Act under the last several decades.”
“Now, the Supreme Court almost seems to invite it,” he added.
Triggered last summer by President Trump’s demand that Texas embark on a rare mid-decade redistricting, half a dozen states across the country had already created new maps in a tit-for-tat redistricting war. Republicans are poised to take the lead in that race, although their chances of maintaining control of the House next year remain precarious.
Louisiana, whose congressional map was at the center of the Supreme Court case, is expected to draft new district lines that undercut at least one majority-Black district. Other Southern states, like Georgia and Mississippi, have signaled they will make similar moves after the 2026 midterm elections.
The votes on Thursday capped off a raucous, emotional three days at the state capitol in Nashville, after Mr. Lee summoned lawmakers for a special session. Mr. Trump said he spoke with Mr. Lee about a new map, and the redistricting effort was closely watched in Washington and across Tennessee.
State highway patrol officers lined the hallways, repeatedly cordoning off protesters or removing them from committee hearings. Demonstrators, many carrying signs that referenced segregation-era laws, screamed and chanted at Republican lawmakers who walked past them. (At least one Republican on Thursday walked through a crowd of demonstrators with a Trump flag draped over his shoulders like a cape.)
Black lawmakers delivered emotional speeches about family members, friends and colleagues who endured segregation or struggled with barriers to voting in the 1960s. State Senator Charlane Oliver of Nashville, a Democrat, stood on her desk right before the vote, holding a banner reading “No Jim Crow 2.”
“My race is who I am and it informs my politics,” said Danyelle Norment, 30, who woke up early to drive in from Memphis. “It’s not something that’s separate or can be left behind.”
She added, “it’s really, really important to have folks who can understand our lived experience.”
To take up the new map, Republicans also pushed through a bill that repealed a ban on redistricting in the middle of a decade.
Republicans repeatedly stressed that their intent was driven by partisan politics and population, not race, since the Supreme Court has made clear it does not see a role for the courts in blocking maps drawn purely for political gain.
One Memphis Republican, State Representative Mark White, said in an interview he voted against the bill because “I hear and I listen and today was not a day for me to vote yes.”
“If I lose the respect of my Black community or the respect of the white community, then I can’t make change,” he said.
Democrats pointed to judicial precedents that prevented changes too close to a primary election, highlighting how Black voters had repeatedly been the driving force behind political decisions in Memphis.
Drawn just three months ahead of Tennessee’s primaries, the new maps scrambled political campaigns and calculations. Some candidates, when asked this week, said they would still run, even if it wasn’t entirely clear what district they would pick. And the stiff political headwinds facing Republicans this year could tamp down the scope of the new Republican margins.
Even so, the districts were drawn to give Republicans an overwhelming advantage, even in a tough political year.
State Senator Brent Taylor, a Shelby County Republican who has been a vocal supporter of the federal task force tackling crime in Memphis, quickly announced he would run for the new Ninth Congressional District and began rolling out Republican endorsements.
Mr. Ogles, who will retain a small portion of his Middle Tennessee district, pledged to be an “America First warrior” for his new constituents. His expected Democratic opponent, Mayor Chaz Molder of Columbia, Tenn., framed the new district as a sign of the momentum behind his campaign.
Among the most closely watched Democratic candidates was Mr. Cohen, who faced a primary challenger in State Representative Justin Pearson, a young Black Democrat. Both men were in the State Capitol this week, arguing for the preservation of a district they had hoped to represent.
“This will not be good for your state,” Mr. Cohen told lawmakers this week, warning that they needed to be able to work with federal Democrats to secure resources for Tennessee.
Mr. Pearson’s brother, KeShaun Pearson, a Memphis environmental activist, was among the demonstrators forcibly escorted out of the gallery and arrested on Thursday amid protests.
Justin Pearson, who was expelled from the legislature in 2023 for a gun control protest on the House floor, said, “this is what happens when you allow tyranny to govern.”
