Steve Cohen

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Key Figures

A federal judge in the Western District of Tennessee issued a temporary restraining order on May 7, 2026 — the same day Gov. Lee signed HB 7003 — halting the new congressional map pending a full hearing. Rep. Steve Cohen, State Rep. Justin Pearson, and NAACP Tennessee President Gloria Sweet-Love filed as co-plaintiffs, arguing the map violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act by cracking Memphis's Black community across three districts where Black voters form a minority in each. The NAACP also filed a separate state court petition arguing the session exceeded the governor's proclamation.

The Tennessee Legislature passes a new congressional map on May 7, 2026, splitting Memphis and its majority-Black population among three Republican-leaning congressional districts, eliminating Rep. Steve Cohen's 9th Congressional District. The bill, HB7001, also repeals a 2010 state law that banned mid-decade redistricting. Speaker Cameron Sexton argues the Callais ruling means "redistricting should be color-blind." Dozens of protesters interrupt Senate and House committee hearings, chanting "Hands off our vote" and singing "We Shall Overcome," with state troopers removing demonstrators on multiple occasions. Brennan Center vice president Kareem Crayton testifies that splitting Memphis across three districts means "no single representative would have an incentive to show attention to the issues and concerns of people who live there." The NAACP calls the map "Black vote dilution at an industrial scale."

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.

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee calls a special legislative session to redistrict Tennessee's 9th Congressional District, a majority-Black Memphis-based seat held by Democrat Steve Cohen. The coordination occurs with President Trump. Lee states: \"He would work hard to correct the unconstitutional flaw in the Congressional Maps of the Great State of Tennessee.\"

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee calls the state legislature into a special session starting Tuesday, May 5, to redraw the state's 9th Congressional District — a majority-Black Memphis-based seat held by Democrat Steve Cohen, the only Democrat in Tennessee's congressional delegation. Lee acts after Trump publicly posts on Truth Social that Lee told him he \"would work hard\" to put a new congressional map in place. The state's August primary deadline creates an extremely compressed timeline for drawing, passing, and defending new maps in court. Democrats note that in 2022 the Tennessee Supreme Court blocked redistricting as too close to an election. Tennessee's candidate qualifying period closed in March. If redistricting proceeds, the likely strategy would be to break up Memphis into multiple pieces, each absorbed by heavily Republican rural and suburban counties — a \"cracking\" approach designed to dilute the 9th District's concentrated Democratic vote and potentially produce an all-Republican congressional delegation.