Tennessee Special Session: Lee signs map cracking Memphis into three GOP districts

Gov. Bill Lee signed HB 7002 and HB 7003 on May 7, 2026, redrawing Tennessee's nine congressional districts eight days after the Supreme Court's Callais ruling. The Tennessee House passed the bills 64-25 and the Senate passed them 25-5 in a one-day session called at President Trump's request. The new map splits Memphis — represented since 2007 by Rep. Steve Cohen — across three Republican-favoring districts and eliminates Tennessee's only Black-majority congressional seat. Speaker Cameron Sexton and Sen. Marsha Blackburn had both publicly urged the redistricting as a federal partisan priority.