Tennessee Republicans pass a map to break up the state’s lone Democratic House seat

State troopers remove people from the Tennessee House gallery on Thursday during a special session of the state legislature to redraw congressional voting maps.

George Walker IV/AP

George Walker IV/AP

Tennessee Republicans have passed a new congressional map that would crack Memphis’ Shelby County into three different districts, in an effort to eliminate the state’s lone remaining Democratic-held seat.

Currently, Tennessee is represented by eight Republicans and one Democrat.

The district that includes Memphis is majority Black, and Tennessee Republican Gov. Bill Lee called a special legislative session to consider a new congressional map after the U.S. Supreme Court last week weakened the Voting Rights Act’s protections against racial discrimination in redistricting.

Thursday’s legislative votes came amid protests at the state capitol, and after a walkout by Democrats.

State Rep. Justin Pearson, a Memphis Democrat, called the new district maps “racist tools of white supremacy” in House testimony.

Tennessee GOP lawmakers defended the new map, saying their goal is partisan, to send an all-Republican delegation to Washington, D.C.

President Trump has urged Tennessee and other GOP-led states to redraw their maps before this fall’s midterm elections, as part of his mid-decade redistricting push. Earlier Thursday, Tennessee Gov. Lee signed a bill that repealed a state law prohibiting mid-decade redistricting.

Republican lawmakers in other southern states, including Louisiana and Alabama, are moving to eliminate other majority-Black, Democratic-held districts in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision.

Before last week’s ruling, Republicans likely held a narrow lead in mid-decade redistricting — creating districts they can more easily flip to their side — by a few seats over Democratic counter-efforts. Now that lead could double, to perhaps six or seven seats. And that’s if a pro-Democratic redistricting measure approved by voters in Virginia holds up in state court.

With reporting by WPLN’s Marianna Bacallao

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