Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has officially called a special session for the legislature to re-draw the state’s congressional maps.
The announcement follows pressure from President Donald Trump and U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn to eliminate Tennessee’s remaining Democratic seat in congress.
Lee and Senate Republican leadership had been hesitant to come back to Nashville so close to the state’s congressional primaries, with the filing deadline long passed and early voting set to start mid-July. In a statement, Lee’s office said that the maps would have to be enacted as soon as possible to impact the 2026 midterm elections.
“We owe it to Tennesseans to ensure our congressional districts accurately reflect the will of Tennessee voters,” Lee said.
Outgoing Senate Speaker Randy McNally, R-Oak Ridge, had called the state’s existing maps “strong, fair and legal,” but has also praised the governor’s call for a special session.
“Tennessee now has the opportunity to send another Republican voice to Washington. We intend to seize it,” McNally said in a statement.
The legislature will reconvene Tuesday for the special session, less than two weeks since its regular session adjourned.
The last-minute redistricting effort was spurred by a U.S. Supreme Court decision that walked back part of the Voting Rights Act, which had protected Memphis against redistricting on the basis of race. State Republicans intend to carve up Memphis into several safe districts for their party, similar to how Nashville lost its Democratic seat.
Rep. Justin J. Pearson, D-Memphis, told WPLN News that the SCOTUS decision has undone a key victory of the Civil Rights Movement.
“I would be lying if I didn’t say it was also so painful because of what my ancestors went through to get access to the ballot, many of them who were lynched, who were shot, were beaten on bridges like the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma in order for us to have this right to representation,” Pearson said. “And now to see the Supreme Court living in some mythological universe where racism is not as persistent is dangerous.”
As a state representative and candidate for Memphis’s District 9 congressional race, Pearson’s district could look drastically different. Incumbent Democrat U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, who is running against Pearson in the upcoming primaries, also invoked the Civil Rights Movement in his criticism of the redistricting effort.
“Trump’s targeting of a majority-minority district, and Republicans’ proven lack of interest in helping the less fortunate, is an affront to Dr. King’s memory and to the legacy of hard work that generations of civil rights advocates have championed,” Cohen said.
Blackburn, who is running for governor of Tennessee, proposed new maps that would group portions of Memphis in the western corner of the state with rural areas in the middle of the state. The drive across her proposed District 8 would span more than 200 miles.
Tennessee is one of several states where Trump has pressured leaders to create new maps to cement a Republican-majority in Washington. State legislatures elsewhere have also created new Democratic seats.
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