The Tennessee Democratic Party has dropped its case challenging the legality of the new congressional district map approved last month by the Tennessee General Assembly's Republican supermajority.
In a statement, the TNDP says its lawyers filed a notice of voluntary dismissal, dismissing the suit without prejudice — meaning the entity could file suit for the same issue another time.
A four-part look at the fallout from the Republican supermajority’s successful gerrymandering attempts
Democrats, who are outnumbered in the General Assembly by more than 3 to 1, tried to push back against the redistricting effort during May's special session on congressional redistricting. But from the beginning, they knew a court challenge would be the only way to fight back.
The dismissal comes after the Davidson County Chancery Court denied the party's effort for expeditious injunctive relief to halt the implementation of the map ahead of the August primary election.
The legal case was carried out in hopes of reversing implementation of the new congressional district map, which carves Memphis and Shelby County into three new conservative-leaning districts and likely eliminates the state's only Democratic congressional representative. That Democrat — longtime U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen — has said he will not run for reelection should the redrawn congressional map stick.
The former 9th Congressional District was also the state's only majority-Black voting district. Other lawsuits from groups including the ACLU and the NAACP have also been filed. Those cases are still ongoing — a three-judge panel recently ruled against the NAACP's challenge of the maps at the state level, but the group is still pursuing action at the federal level.
“Our case focused on expedited relief for the 2026 cycle, and when that did not happen, we moved onto our next battlefield: the ballot box," says Tennessee Democratic Party Chair Rachel Campbell in a release.
"While we fully support the cases led by the NAACP and ACLU and hope these districts are permanently enjoined or found illegal, Tennesseans need relief from this Republican supermajority's chaos and broken promises."
This article was first published by our sister publication, the Nashville Post.
