TN Enacts New US House Map             05/08 06:15

   

   NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Amid raucous protests Thursday, Republicans in 
Tennessee enacted a new U.S. House map that carves up a majority-Black district 
in Memphis, reshaping it to the GOP's advantage as part of President Donald 
Trump's strategy to hold on to a slim majority in the November midterm 
elections.

   The final Senate vote unfolded as demonstrators chanted loudly in the 
galleries and hallways. Democratic state Sen. Charlane Oliver stood on her desk 
in the Senate chamber, holding a banner denouncing the redistricting as a "Jim 
Crow" effort, then clapping and dancing. Other Democratic senators linked arms 
in the front of the chamber. Republican leadership quickly adjourned the 
special session, sending the new map on to Republican Gov. Bill Lee, who 
promptly signed it into law.

   Protesters in the galleries also had disrupted the Republican-led House as 
it voted for the new map -- yelling, chanting and blowing air horns. In the 
hallways, other shouting protesters were held back by Tennessee state troopers.

   Not long after the new map became law, the NAACP Tennessee State Conference 
sued in state court asserting that the mid-decade redistricting is illegal.

   Tennessee is the first state to pass new congressional districts since a 
U.S. Supreme Court ruling last week significantly weakened federal Voting 
Rights Act protections for minorities. But more Southern states could follow. 
Republicans in Louisiana, Alabama and South Carolina also have taken steps 
toward redistricting.

   The Supreme Court ruled that Louisiana relied too heavily on race when 
creating a second Black-majority House district as it attempted to comply with 
federal law. The high court's decision altered a decades-old understanding of 
the law, giving Republicans grounds to try to eliminate majority-Black 
districts that have elected Democrats.

   Louisiana has postponed its congressional primary to give state lawmakers 
time to craft a new House map. Legislation awaiting a final vote Friday in 
Alabama also would upend the state's congressional primaries if courts allow 
changes to its U.S. House districts. In South Carolina, meanwhile, Republican 
state House members released a proposed new congressional map designed to give 
them a clean sweep of the seats.

   The states are the latest to join an already fierce national redistricting 
battle. Tennessee is the ninth state to redraw its congressional districts 
since Trump prodded Texas Republicans to do so last year. From that spate of 
redistricting, Republicans think they could gain as many as 14 seats while 
Democrats think they could gain up to 10. But some competitive races mean the 
parties may not get everything they sought in the November elections.

   Tennessee Republicans act despite protests

   As a first step to adopting new House districts, Tennessee lawmakers gave 
final approval Thursday to legislation that repealed a state law prohibiting 
mid-decade redistricting. Another new law will reopen candidate qualifying 
until May 15 to allow time for new people to enter the U.S. House primaries and 
existing candidates to switch districts or drop out.

   The new House map breaks up Tennessee's lone Democratic-held district, 
centered on the majority-Black city of Memphis, creating a ripple effect of 
alterations to districts throughout the western and central parts of the state. 
The geographically compact 9th District that includes Memphis -- currently 
represented by Steve Cohen, who is white -- will now stretch a couple hundred 
miles eastward before reaching north toward the Nashville suburbs.

   Unlike in Louisiana -- where lawmakers had crafted a second majority-Black 
district to try to comply with the Voting Rights Act -- Memphis has long been 
the base of its own congressional district.

   Republican House Speaker Cameron Sexton said the new districts were drawn 
based on population and politics, not racial data.

   But Democrats dismissed such assertions.

   "These maps are racist tools of white supremacy at the behest of the most 
powerful white supremacist in the United States of America, Donald J. Trump," 
said state Rep. Justin Pearson, a Black Democrat from Memphis who is running 
for the U.S. House.

   Republican state Sen. John Stevens defended the new districts he sponsored 
by noting that Democrats in Illinois, Massachusetts and other states also had 
drawn congressional districts to their advantage.

   "This bill represents Tennessee's attempt to maximize our partisan 
advantage," he said.

   It does so at the expense of both Memphis residents and democracy, said Sen. 
London Lamar, a Democrat from Memphis.

   "You cannot take a majority Black city, fracture its voting power and then 
tell us race has nothing to do with it," she said.

   Democrats noted that the state Supreme Court in April 2022 rejected a 
challenge to the current congressional map, finding it was too close to the 
election to make changes. This year, there's even less time before the Aug. 6 
primary, raising the potential of confusion for both candidates and voters, 
Democrats said.

   A plan for a new primary advances in Alabama

   Audience members watching an Alabama legislative committee Thursday erupted 
in shouts of "shame" after Republican lawmakers advanced legislation to 
authorize special primaries if the state can put a new congressional map in 
place for the November midterms.

   Alabama has asked federal judges to lift an order requiring the state to 
have a second district where Black voters are the majority or close to it. That 
district gave rise to the election of Rep. Shomari Figures, a Black Democrat, 
in 2024.

   Republicans instead want to put in place a map lawmakers drew in 2023 -- 
which was rejected by a federal court -- that could allow them to reclaim 
Figures' district. Black residents currently make up about 48% of the 
district's voting-age population. That would drop to about 39% under the 2023 
map. Republicans hope the federal courts will see the case differently in the 
wake of the Supreme Court's Louisiana decision.

   If a court grants Alabama's request, the legislation under consideration 
would ignore the May 19 primary results for congressional seats and direct the 
governor to schedule a new primary under the revised districts. The House 
passed the legislation on a party-line vote Wednesday. A final Senate vote is 
expected Friday.

   Addressing a Senate committee on Thursday, Figures said his concern isn't 
for himself but for the people who fought for decades "to have a voice in what 
government looks like."

   A proposed new House map is unveiled in South Carolina

   A proposed new U.S. House map was distributed Thursday on the South Carolina 
House floor, where members huddled around desks to review it.

   The proposal would take Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn out of the 6th 
District he has represented since 1992. His district currently is made up of 
nearly 50% Black voters and provided a greater than 60% vote for Democrat 
Kamala Harris in 2024 presidential election. The proposal would split it into 
four different districts.

   The proposed map also would split the Democratic stronghold of Columbia and 
its redder suburbs into four different districts.

   The South Carolina House on Wednesday approved a resolution giving lawmakers 
permission to return after the May 14 end of their regular work to continue 
consideration of a redistricting plan. But that also would require a two-thirds 
vote of the Senate.

   The state's primary elections are June 9.