As far as anyone knows, the term “gerrymander” was first printed by the Boston Gazette in 1812. Massachusetts Gov. Elbridge Gerry had recently signed a bill redrawing the state’s Senate maps to help his own party, the Democratic-Republicans. One of the redrawn districts, as depicted by a political cartoonist, looked an awful lot like a salamander. Thus the amphibious portmanteau gerrymander was born. The term, and the practice, stuck.
Following the 2020 U.S. census, Tennessee’s Republican-dominated legislature redrew the state’s congressional map. In the process, they carved Nashville — a longtime Democratic stronghold surrounded by a sea of rural red counties — into three new districts. Once wholly represented by Tennessee’s Democrat-safe 5th Congressional District, Davidson County is now split between the 5th, 6th and 7th. Republicans have been handily elected, and reelected, in each.
In this week’s three-part cover package, less than three months out from a special election to fill the 7th District seat, reporters Eli Motycka and Hamilton Matthew Masters look at how gerrymandering has played out in Nashville. —D. PATRICK RODGERS, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Taking a tour of the area where Nashville’s three gerrymandered congressional districts meet
History and data show that gerrymandering has worked, delivering easy victories for Republicans
The race to replace U.S. Rep. Mark Green is crowded — and early voting in the primary begins Sept. 17
