Republican redistricting plan advances, splits Nashville into 3 districts
Republican redistricting plan advances, splits Nashville into 3 districts
A House Republican plan to carve Davidson County into three congressional districts passed its first hurdle on Wednesday, advancing out of a redistricting committee over the objections of Democrats who decried the process as secretive.
The proposed map would dramatically alter the political landscape of Middle Tennessee, a region driving the state’s ongoing population growth, and split Nashville. Davidson County has been a historic Democratic stronghold, but the new plan would dilute the county's vote and likely deliver Republicans another congressional seat.
The bid to target Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District, currently represented by U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Nashville, would significantly shift the district southwest.
The proposed district would include south Davidson County, east Williamson county and west Wilson County, in addition to covering Lewis, Maury and Marshall counties.
Under the Republican plan, northwest Davidson would move into the 7th Congressional District, currently represented by U.S. Rep. Mark Green, R-Clarksville.
Northeast Davidson, including most of East Nashville, would slide into the 6th Congressional District represented by U.S. Rep. John Rose, R-Cookeville.
Cooper slammed the plan as "legislative overreach."
“All Nashvillians should feel insulted and abused by the new map," he said in a statement. "For at least 100 years, Nashvillians have freely chosen Democratic representatives in Congress, but that tradition is about to end. What Republicans could not win in local elections, they are stealing through gerrymandering."
Related:Tennessee Republicans plan to split Nashville congressional seat
More:What it could mean to Black voters if Republicans divide Nashville's congressional district
Democrats call for more debate
House Minority Leader Karen Camper, D-Memphis, tried to push a motion Wednesday to table the map, calling for more time to review the proposed districts, which Democrats and the public were not able to review prior to the committee meeting.
“This is the first time we’ve seen the map. I understand you’re saying there’s been conversation about it but with whom, I don’t know," Camper said. “No one in the Democratic leadership has seen or talked or had a conversation about this map until this very moment.”
Majority Leader William Lamberth, R-Portland, opposed the motion, which ultimately failed in a committee vote.
“We’ve been through this process for months and months and months. We’ve had lots of public input, we’ve had lots of opportunity for input, and we will continue to have more,” Lamberth said. “To stonewall the process at this juncture would be premature.”
Debby Gould, president of the League of Women Voters of Tennessee, said Wednesday her organization heard "very clearly from across the state that people wanted their counties kept whole."
"And the fact that this map in particular cuts Davidson not just in two, but in three districts, is really an astounding move," Gould said. "So we see that it really is bad both for rural voters and for urban voters, that they are not going to have their voice heard as loudly on the U.S. level."
House Speaker Cameron Sexton, R-Crossville, said Monday that Republicans are confident the redistricting plan will satisfy the Voting Rights Act, which protect majority-minority districts.
Rep. Pat Marsh, R-Shelbyville, the vice chair of the redistricting panel, said the "concept complies with all state, federal, constitutional and statutory requirements."
He said the proposal creates nine districts of equal population, including one majority minority district.
That district, the 9th, centers on Memphis and will now include parts of Tipton County, according to the proposal. The current representative is U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Memphis.
In a social media statement following the committee meeting, the Tennessee Democratic Party said the newly proposed districts deny "an entire community of shared interests a voice at the national level" and the party would prepare to sue over the plan.
Related:Redistricting: Proposed congressional map puts much of Tipton County in Cohen's 9th District
Changes will have major impact on primaries
The proposed map, which Senate Republicans are expected to mirror, throws upcoming congressional primaries into question.
In the 5th, Nashville activist Odessa Kelly has mounted a well-funded primary challenge against incumbent Cooper. But it appears that under the new plan Kelly, an East Nashville resident, will be drawn into the 6th, although congressional candidates are not required to live within the district they seek to represent.
Kelly, who attended Wednesday's meeting, said she needed time to review the proposed map before making any campaign decisions.
"They are egregiously breaking up Davidson County to try to dilute the voices of Black, Brown, immigrant, progressive thought," Kelly said. "Everyone should be ashamed of what just happened there, and I'm not going to stand for it. We're not going to let it happen. We're going to organize and make sure that democracy still has a way to go forward in the state of Tennessee."
Much of North Nashville and its large Black population, for example, would move into the 7th. That would mean it is in the same congressional district as overwhelmingly white and conservative counties, such as Wayne, which former President Donald Trump carried with 86.9% of the vote in 2020.
Cooper, who was unable to attend the meeting after testing positive for COVID-19 over the weekend, had previously pleaded with lawmakers to keep Davidson largely whole. In a statement, Cooper said the General Assembly is "gerrymandering Nashville and Davidson County into political oblivion."
"Under the new map announced today, Nashvillians will be reduced from proud citizens of a capital city to captives inside three colonies run from Clarksville, Cookeville, and Columbia," Cooper said, noting the proposed redistricting lines snakes through central Nashville, even dividing the Tennessee Titans stadium and its practice facility into two separate districts.
“The damage this map does to the political influence of minority groups in Nashville is devastating. Our robust, diverse communities in Nashville are represented and affirmed in Washington, DC today when Nashville has its own voice in Congress. That voice is silenced when we are colonized by outlying rural communities. The map was released for the first time today and the more people learn about it, the more they will hate it."
The proposed map must now make its way through several House committees before going to the House floor for debate and vote. The Senate redistricting committee plans to meet Thursday to discuss its plan, which is expected to mirror the House proposal.
Lawmakers are expected to move relatively quickly to settle the new maps ahead of an April filing deadline to ballot access in the August primaries.
Proposed map for Middle Tennessee redistricting
This is a developing story.
Reach Melissa Brown at mabrown@tennessean.com.
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