All hell broke loose on Thursday after Tennessee Republicans passed a new congressional map eliminating the only Democrat district.
Tennessee’s Republican-led House passed the new map that eliminates the state’s only majority-black district in Memphis.
Shortly thereafter, the State Senate passed the congressional map.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed the new map into law.
NBC News reported:
Tennessee’s Republican-led Legislature passed a new congressional map splitting up the state’s lone majority-Black district, swiftly responding to the U.S. Supreme Court’s major redistricting ruling last week.
The redrawn district lines, which Gov. Bill Lee is expected to sign into law, put Republicans in position to gain a seat in this fall’s midterm elections and secure full control over Tennessee’s congressional delegation.
The new map carves up a Memphis-based seat held by longtime Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., into three districts, spreading the Democratic voters into more rural, Republican districts that stretch hundreds of miles east. It also further splits the Nashville metropolitan area, the state’s other Democratic stronghold, into five districts.