Tennessee House Races Set After Redistricting Deadline, Cohen Retires
Rep. Steve Cohen retires as Tennessee’s redrawn congressional maps split Memphis across three districts, with 11 candidates now vying for the reconfigured 9th District seat.
MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE — The qualifying deadline for Tennessee’s redrawn U.S. House districts ended Friday, finalizing candidate lineups for the 2026 congressional races and marking the effective retirement of U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen after two decades in Congress.
Cohen, a Memphis Democrat and the only Democrat in Tennessee’s nine-member U.S. House delegation, will not seek re-election in the newly drawn 9th Congressional District. State Republican lawmakers redrew Tennessee’s U.S. House map on May 7, gerrymandering it to attempt flipping Cohen’s Democratic-held seat.
The redistricting process followed a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that states with a history of racial discrimination no longer have to draw majority-minority districts to ensure Black representation. Tennessee undertook its first mid-cycle redistricting in decades as a result.
Candidate Field Takes Shape
The redrawn 9th district now includes 11 candidates vying for the seat. In the Republican primary, state Rep. Todd Warner of Chapel Hill and state Sen. Brent Taylor of Memphis emerged as the most notable contenders.
The Democratic primary features state Rep. Justin Pearson and state Sen. London Lamar, both from Memphis, among the candidates seeking to maintain Democratic representation in the reconfigured district.
Redistricting Strategy and Legal Challenges
Republicans contend the new maps were purely political, following direction from President Donald Trump’s administration. The White House began pushing Republican states to draw new maps ahead of the 2026 midterms, seven years earlier than the typical redistricting schedule.
Tennessee’s new maps feature long, horizontal districts that split Memphis among three congressional districts, stretching from the state’s western edge to the suburbs of Nashville. This redistricting method, known as cracking, dilutes urban Black Democratic voters by combining them with rural white Republican voters.
Democrats in Tennessee argued the redistricting process was racially motivated and filed lawsuits challenging the maps. A federal judge declined this week to issue an order blocking the maps from taking effect, according to court documents.
The redistricting effort is part of a broader national trend, as both parties have created new maps in several states where they maintain legislative control. The timing aligns with the Trump administration’s strategy to reshape congressional districts before the midterm elections.
A similar redistricting method was previously used in Nashville to dilute the Democratic Party’s voting power, establishing a pattern of redistricting that has drawn criticism from voting rights advocates and Democratic officials across the state.
