Tennessee enacts mid-decade congressional map eliminating Memphis majority-Black 9th district

On May 7, 2026, the Tennessee General Assembly passed a new U.S. congressional district map; Governor Bill Lee signed it the same day. The map splits Memphis — the population core of Tennessee's 9th congressional district — among three districts that extend hundreds of miles into surrounding rural and exurban territory, each drawn to favor a Republican candidate. The 9th was the state's only Democratic-held U.S. House seat and one of two majority-minority districts; the redrawn map eliminates both characteristics. Approximately 60 percent of voters in the prior District 9 were Black; the new lines disperse those voters across three districts in which they constitute the minority.

The action followed eight days after the U.S. Supreme Court's April 29, 2026 decision in Louisiana v. Callais, which weakened the private right of action under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and removed a key legal constraint on mid-decade racial-vote-dilution maps. Tennessee finished its regular legislative session on April 23, and Lee called lawmakers back for a special session in the immediate wake of Callais. The bill also repealed a half- century-old Tennessee statute prohibiting mid-decade redistricting. According to reporting in The Intercept and NBC News, the special session was preceded by public pressure from President Donald Trump and Sen. Marsha Blackburn urging the Republican-led legislature to redraw the map and convert the state's 8-1 Republican congressional delegation into a 9-0 sweep.

Tennessee is the ninth state to enact a new congressional map in this mid-decade cycle, which began in Texas in 2025 and has since spread to at least nine states across both parties. Democratic state lawmakers and attorneys have indicated plans to file suit, arguing the map was drawn on racial lines and adopted too close to the August 6 primary.

Coverage from The Intercept, NBC News, and Tennessee Lookout documents the final-passage events and quotes from state legislators on both sides; Democracy Docket's earlier reporting situates the action within the broader post-Callais context.

Updates

2026-07-24 — Federal three-judge panel declined preliminary injunction, allowing Tennessee congressional map to stand for August primary [5, 6]

On July 24, 2026, a federal three-judge panel denied the ACLU's motion for a preliminary injunction in its lawsuit challenging Tennessee's new congressional map. The court found that political motivations readily explained the map's dilutive effects, declining to block the map before the August 6 primary. The ruling allows the contested district lines to remain in effect as the litigation continues.