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AILSA CHANG, HOST:
What does representation look like for Tennessee voters who were split into three new congressional districts last week? The impact of those changes span geographically, beyond majority-Black Memphis into the suburbs of Nashville. So this week, NPR’s Stephen Fowler drove across one of those new districts to learn more.
Continuing coverage: Tennessee redistricting
STEPHEN FOWLER, BYLINE: From the founding of Memphis more than two centuries ago, Poplar Avenue has served as a spine of the city, connecting urban, suburban and rural Shelby County and contributing to its growth into the hub of the Mid-South region. But the new map sees that spine running through a majority-Black district fractured into three.
J LAWRENCE TURNER: I think what congressional districts were formed for – the purpose was to help to represent, you know, more localized issues in the national stage.
FOWLER: That’s J. Lawrence Turner, pastor of the Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church off Poplar in Midtown and a second campus in the city’s southeast corner that’s now in a different congressional district.
TURNER: Memphis has become a political pawn for a national agenda which doesn’t accurately reflect the realities here in Tennessee.
FOWLER: As head of the Black Clergy Collaborative of Memphis, Turner warns that residents of Memphis and surrounding Shelby County could have their voices diluted. The new 9th District starts in Memphis, meanders across rural southern Tennessee and ends more than 200 miles away in suburban Williamson County south of Nashville. State Senator Brent Taylor says that’s a good thing.
BRENT TAYLOR: I think it’s better for the congressman in these districts to actually represent the interests and values of Tennesseans.
FOWLER: The Shelby County lawmaker has the backing of many of the state’s top Republicans to be that congressman.
TAYLOR: And that’s much better accomplished in districts that look like Tennessee rather than these – just a simply large urban core district like the old District 9 was.
FOWLER: It’s not the first time Republicans in Tennessee have clashed with Democrats in Memphis. Taylor, wearing a Make Memphis Matter hat, has been at the center of conflicts over fighting crime in Shelby County and education policies.
Speaking of conflict, Pat Ford was part of a group of women playing mahjong nearby while Taylor spoke to NPR.
PAT FORD: I could hear every word he was saying. While I’m playing a peaceful game, he’s being an obnoxious bore.
FOWLER: Ford, who spoke with NPR after Taylor left, is one of many Democrats who lament both the form and function of these changes made in the South that primarily affect Black voters.
FORD: Oh, it’s highway robbery. It’s totally racist from the core. It’s always been about race.
FOWLER: Three hours up the road from Memphis, at the other end of the new 9th District, Williamson County GOP Chairman Steve Hickey also wonders how the new geographic reality of the lines will affect representation.
STEVE HICKEY: Is a representative going to be able to represent Williamson County as effectively as they’re going to be able to represent the Memphis area or the big rural area in between? And, you know, to be certain, that’s going to be a challenge.
FOWLER: But like other Republicans, he thinks it’ll make for better representation and reiterates the importance of electing more House members who support President Trump, while noting the way Democrats gerrymander conservative voters, including a past map in Tennessee that looked kind of like this one.
HICKEY: You know, for too long, I feel the Republican Party has played Charlie Brown to the Democrats’ Lucy with the football and just been the hapless loser.
FOWLER: Jason Gilliam, chair of the Maury County GOP just south of Williamson, echoed similar themes as other Republicans who argue race shouldn’t be a factor.
JASON GILLIAM: And a lot of people say, well, you know, you’re going to have a complete, you know, diverse population within that district. Well, that’s kind of the way we are here – right? – in America. We’re a melting pot. We’re diverse.
FOWLER: But for Williamson County Democratic Party Chair Ragan Grossman?
RAGAN GROSSMAN: We have not evolved to a place that the Republicans are trying to speak about, that this should have nothing to do with race in this country.
FOWLER: As candidate qualifying wraps up Friday, there are several legal challenges that argue, despite the weakened Voting Rights Act, that these new boundary changes cross the line.
Stephen Fowler, NPR News, the 5th, 8th and 9th Congressional Districts, Memphis, Tennessee.
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