The Republican Supermajority Wants to Make the State All-Red at Any Cost

Frankly, I’m looking forward to the special session to redistrict Tennessee’s congressional seats. Yes, it’s terrible. Yes, if the Republican supermajority is successful, it will disenfranchise even more Black voters in the state. And yes, it sure seems like it violates Tennessee Code, which states: “The general assembly shall establish the composition of districts for the election of members of the house of representatives in congress after each enumeration and apportionment of representation by the congress of the United States. The districts may not be changed between apportionments.” (Emphasis mine.)

But those are the serious concerns of serious people, and I don’t know how many serious politicians we have left in this state. So let’s focus on the petty shit. Over at the Tennessee Lookout, they put together a hypothetical post-redistricting map that’s pretty analogous to the map that Marsha Blackburn put up on social media last week. (Keep in mind, both maps are speculative.)

Gov. Lee Calls Lawmakers Back to Capitol to Redraw Congressional Lines

A week after sine die, Lee tasks legislators to reconfigure Memphis House seat in the wake of SCOTUS decision

And you can spot some very interesting things right off the bat. My district, for instance, Tennessee's 7th Congressional District — which Aftyn Behn lost-iddy lost lost lost, and how dare anyone feel even remotely concerned/happy about her loss to Republican Matt Van Epps being considerably narrower than anyone predicted — would no longer be one of the districts chopping Davidson County up. The 7th would also lose Clarksville. This seems a tacit acknowledgement that the old 7th was put together to consternate former U.S. Rep. Mark Green by giving him all of Nashville's HBCUs and Clarksville as well as a bunch of rural voters. His successor, Van Epps — should he choose to stay in the 7th — would have a more rural, homogenized voting base. And all the rich, white suburban Memphis voters. Plus, he could travel through his district by interstate, which would make campaigning easier.

This would not be the case for whoever got the proposed 8th. That hypothetical district traverses the whole state north and south and is about a third of the state wide. Now, if we’re assuming that Republicans will redraw the map to try to keep as many current representatives in Congress as possible, perhaps the intention could be that Van Epps would run for the 8th, and he (being mostly uncharismatic) and the new 8th (being pretty dang boring) might find themselves liking each other just fine.

This would give David Kustoff the rich Republicans of West Tennessee and the three largest Jewish populations in the western third of the state — Memphis, Brownsville and Jackson. That fits and doesn’t seem to be a middle finger of any sort to either Kustoff or Van Epps.

Tennessee Republicans Call to Redraw Congressional Maps [Updated]

Marsha Blackburn urges elimination of state's sole Democratic district after SCOTUS ruling weakens Voting Rights Act

But speaking of potential insults and counties getting divided up to reduce the power of their voting bloc, take a look at Maury County. All the internet tells me is that 5th Congressional District Rep. Andy Ogles lives on a farm south of Columbia. So maybe he stays in a district that also represents Nashville, but it sure looks possible that he could end up in the 7th or 9th. I don’t think he could win the 7th, and I don’t know if he’d want to win the 9th. I can’t say I’ll feel too bad if this is the end of Ogles’ political career, but I am counting on him to carry on like a complete lunatic until the end.

Here’s the thing, though. As of right now, Nashville is divided into three Republican districts thanks to previously successful gerrymandering efforts in 2022. And though none of the Republicans who’ve represented Nashville since then have complained about it (at least not where anyone can hear it), Mark Green bailed from the 7th; John Rose is looking to bail from the 6th ... oh, I mean he's running for governor; and Ogles seems content just yelling at Muslims and college kids instead of fundraising, which is an odd way of running for office. Obviously, they don’t like representing Nashville.

And for good reason: Once you represent a district, you represent a whole district, everyone in it. And there are a lot of people in Nashville who have fought their whole lives to be able to vote and to have their voices heard by Washington. They don’t give up just because they’re not in the majority in their district at the moment. They call their representatives. They ask for help. They demand action. They complain when their representative does something stupid. Having a district set up so that a Republican wins doesn’t mean Democrats in that district cease to exist.

And Nashville has some of the rowdiest, most troublesome Democrats in the state — and perhaps that's why our Republican representatives keep bailing. And you know who we’re second to? Memphis.

And now Republicans want to give some of their colleagues that headache? Excuse me while I laugh for a million years.

It’s a strange victory for Republicans to cause six of their Republican colleagues to be miserable. Sure, they can create districts that Republicans can win, but will they want to?