Map to be used in Aug. 6 primary elections

A three-judge federal panel ruled Thursday that Tennessee may use a new congressional map that divides the Memphis-based majority-Black district, clearing the way for the districts to be applied in the Aug. 6 primary elections. The panel declined to issue a preliminary injunction against the map, which the state enacted in May after the U.S. Supreme Court limited how courts can enforce Voting Rights Act protections for minority voters.

Tennessee is one of eight Republican-led states that have redrawn congressional maps since the Supreme Court’s ruling last year, according to the Associated Press. President Donald Trump has urged GOP-controlled states to use the mid-decade redistricting to gain seats, hoping to buck the historical trend in which the sitting president’s party typically loses House seats in midterm elections, AP reported.

The map splits the district that had been the state’s only majority-Black congressional seat. Republicans have said the new lines will help the party win an additional seat in the U.S. House, where the GOP holds a slim majority. The three-judge panel’s decision allows the map to take effect while the legal challenge continues.

The panel’s ruling is the latest in a series of court decisions that have reshaped congressional districts across the South. The Tennessee map was drawn after the Court held that partisan considerations, not racial ones, could justify map changes as long as the state did not intentionally discriminate.

Tennessee’s Republican-controlled legislature passed the map in May. The swift enactment came shortly after the Supreme Court issued a ruling that weakened the Voting Rights Act’s protections against racial gerrymandering. The Court has held in a series of decisions that maps drawn primarily for partisan advantage are permissible, even if they reduce minority voting strength.

The 2026 midterm elections will determine control of the House. Trump’s involvement in urging the redraws underscores the strategic importance of the mid-decade map changes, according to AP.