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State troopers remove people from the Tennessee House gallery on Thursday during a special session of the state legislature to redraw congressional voting maps. George Walker IV/AP hide caption
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George Walker IV/AP
Tennessee Republicans on Thursday passed a new congressional map that would crack Shelby County — home to majority-Black Memphis — into three different districts, in an effort to eliminate the state's lone remaining Democratic-held seat.
Currently, Tennessee is represented by eight Republicans and one Democrat.
The state is the first to pass a new congressional map after the U.S. Supreme Court last week weakened the Voting Rights Act's protections against racial discrimination in redistricting.
Tennessee Republican Gov. Bill Lee then called a special legislative session, targeting the 9th Congressional District held by Democrat Steve Cohen.
Thursday's legislative votes came amid protests at the state capitol, and after a walkout by Democrats.
State Rep. Justin Pearson, a Memphis Democrat, called the new district maps "racist tools of white supremacy."
Tennessee GOP lawmakers defended the new map, saying their goal is partisan, to send an all-Republican delegation to Washington, D.C.
President Trump has urged Tennessee and other GOP-led states to redraw their maps before this fall's midterm elections, as part of his mid-decade redistricting push. Earlier Thursday, Tennessee Gov. Lee signed a bill that repealed a state law prohibiting mid-decade redistricting.
Republican lawmakers in other southern states, including Louisiana and Alabama, are moving to eliminate other majority-Black, Democratic-held districts in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision.
Before last week's ruling, Republicans likely held a narrow lead in mid-decade redistricting — creating districts they can more easily flip to their side — by a few seats over Democratic counter-efforts. Now that lead could double, to perhaps six or seven seats. And that's if a pro-Democratic redistricting measure approved by voters in Virginia holds up in state court.
With reporting by WPLN's Marianna Bacallao
