‘What Evil Looks Like’: Outrage as Tennessee GOP Rams Through Racist Voting Map at Trump’s Behest

Republicans in the Tennessee House of Representatives voted during a special session on Thursday to adopt a new congressional map that would carve up the state's lone majority-Black district, a move that came amid raucous protests from angry residents and Democratic lawmakers.

The special session was called by GOP Gov. Bill Lee at the behest of President Donald Trump, whose aggressive gerrymandering push across the country was supercharged by the US Supreme Court's decision last week gutting the 1965 Voting Rights Act’s protections against racial discrimination. One Tennessee Republican—state Rep. Todd Warner (R-92)—walked into the House chamber for Thursday's vote wearing a Trump 2024 flag as a cape.

The Tennessee House approved the new congressional map, which would likely draw the only Democrat in Tennessee's US congressional delegation out of his seat, by a party-line vote of 64 to 25. Following the vote, The Tennessean reported that "Democrats linked arms and walked out of the room. Seconds later, the chamber adjourned."

Shouts of rage flooded the Tennessee House chamber after the map passed, and protesters booed and jeered Republican lawmakers as they exited.

House passage of the map came after lawmakers voted to repeal a 1972 ban on mid-decade redistricting after limited debate, clearing the way for approval of the new district lines, which are expected to draw US Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.)—the only Democrat in Tennessee's congressional delegation—out of his seat.

The Tennessee Senate is expected to approve the new map on Friday.

State Rep. Justin Pearson (D-86), whose brother was among the demonstrators arrested during a protest against the new map, said in the wake of Thursday's vote that "this is what evil looks like."

"I told a colleague today that you're all going to have a lot to repent for, because these actions are evil," Pearson told Zeteo. "And we have to use that language."

Ahead of Thursday's vote, state Rep. Gloria Johnson (D-90) said that "this is not a special session—this is a white power rally, and a white power grab."

Democracy Docket reported that the new map "splits Memphis, a majority-Black city that made up most of the state’s 9th Congressional District, between three districts."

"It also further fractures Nashville, another Democratic stronghold in the state," the outlet added.

The ACLU of Tennessee called the redrawn district lines a "Jim Crow" map with the "specific goal of targeting the state's only majority-minority district in Memphis."

"The moment politicians manipulate the map," the group warned, "the power begins to leave your hands."

Tennessee's special session came days after Louisiana's Republican governor suspended his state's US House primaries to allow lawmakers to redraw district lines following the US Supreme Court's decision in Louisiana v. Callais, the high court's latest hammer blow to the Voting Rights Act.

Republican lawmakers in Alabama and Mississippi are also moving to redraw their states' district lines following the Supreme Court's ruling.

"By weakening protections against racial gerrymandering, the court made it easier for politicians to draw voting maps that look neutral but quietly weaken the voices of communities of color," warned the pro-democracy group Common Cause. "When that happens, certain voters have less of a say in who represents them, and that’s exactly how power gets skewed.