Legislators pass bill to redraw TN Congressional map

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:05]A live look at the state capital this morning. It is quiet now, but the sounds of protesters echoed the halls just hours ago.

[00:00:15]Leader Lambert Mr. Clark >> Mr. Speaker, I yield I yield the remainder of my time. Mr. Lambert yields the rest of his time. We're voting.

[00:00:26]We are voting on the bill. All those in favor of House Bill 7003 as amended, vote I when the bell rings. Those opposed, vote no.

[00:00:37]Has every member voted? Does any member wish to change their vote?

[00:00:47]Protesters filled the House chamber as lawmakers voted to redraw Tennessee's congressional map and split Memphis into three different districts. Opponents call it a racist move designed to dilute the black vote and strip minority communities of fair representation in Washington. Now, Republicans made it clear the new map is designed to strengthen the Republican majority. Now, [snorts] take a look. So, instead of Memphis and Shelby County having its own district, Memphis is divided into three congressional districts. And in some cases, Memphis voters will be lumped in with rural communities that are hundreds of miles away. The House voted first and then the Senate took action. Democrats in that chamber took a stand against the change that will impact voting districts for the upcoming August election. Those representing Memphis were emotional, fighting the change until the bitter end.

[00:01:37]What is being proposed right here is not just a redrawing of districts.

[00:01:42]It is the breaking apart of a people.

[00:01:45]It is the fracturing of a history. It is the dilution of a voice that generations of people bled for, that marched for, that prayed for, that died to build.

[00:01:58]Memphis is a city of sanitation workers that proudly proclaimed, "I am a man."

[00:02:04]Memphis is not an accident on a map.

[00:02:07]Memphis is the balcony where the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated. Memphis is the place where he took his last footsteps.

[00:02:16]Memphis is sacred ground in our civil rights story, in American history.

[00:02:24]This all was the result of Republicans jumping on an opportunity presented by a Supreme Court decision handed down last week. Governor Bill Lee has already signed Tennessee's new congressional map into law.

[00:02:35]>> Now, there will be legal challenges. The NAACP has already filed a lawsuit here in Davidson County to stop this new congressional map from taking effect.

[00:02:43]Now, there are other states attempting to redraw their legislative maps as well. Tennessee now joins Louisiana, South Carolina, and Alabama as states that are trying to redraw their congressional maps under the new Supreme Court ruling. Alabama Republicans want to replace their current map with one that was rejected in 2023. And South Carolina's proposed map would split a district made up of nearly 50% black voters into four different districts.

[00:03:11]Democrats expect to gain 10 seats total, five in California, one in Utah, and four in Virginia. Republicans will likely flip 14 districts, gaining four in Florida, one in Missouri, North Carolina, and now Tennessee, two in Ohio, and five in Texas. This morning, there are questions about whether all of this gives one party an advantage in November's upcoming midterm elections.

[00:03:37]We spoke to ABC's political director, Rick Klein.

[00:03:41]At the end of this, it's it does seem likely that Republicans will get an advantage, not a huge advantage. Uh and and frankly, in the way that midterm elections usually work, not the kind of advantage that would win or lose you a midterm election. There tends to be waves, there tend to be districts that fall in in directions that that are very much uh unexpected uh going into an election cycle. Um but if this is as close as things are now with you know, Republicans have been clinging to a three or a four-seat margin, uh yeah, those that that that carving up a couple of districts in the south could actually make the difference. We followed the special session since the beginning.

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