A woman protests outside the House chamber before a special session of the state legislature to redraw U.S. Congressional voting maps Thursday in Nashville, Tennessee. (George Walker IV / AP)
By Michael Schwarz May 7, 2026 at 4:25pm
Turmoil engulfed the Tennessee State Capitol in Nashville Thursday after lawmakers approved a new congressional map.
Videos posted to the social media platform X showed elected Democrats — a distinct minority in the Volunteer State — walking out of the Capitol in protest while their supporters chanted and disrupted proceedings with noisemakers.
The following short video, for instance, showed black lawmakers quietly walking out of the chamber. One could hear protesters in the background.
Chaotic moments in TN House as Dems walk out in protest of redistricting map cracking Memphis. Alarms are going off in the Capitol pic.twitter.com/kmh6IsipTH
— Melissa Brown (@itsmelissabrown) May 7, 2026
Another video, shot from the protesters’ perspective, captured the chants in the Capitol gallery.
The same video also showed at least one protester chanting “pedophile protector” as Republican lawmakers filed out of the building. Since President Donald Trump and others in his administration appeared to only reluctantly release files on the deceased sex offender and suspected sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, Democrats have taken to calling Trump a “pedophile.”
Finally, in a callback to the 1960s, protesters chanted “hey hey, ho ho, this racist map has got to go.”
#BREAKING: Tennessee House passes new congressional map, removing state’s only Democratic black-majority district. pic.twitter.com/fs6FZFwdZo
— Insider Wire (@InsiderWire) May 7, 2026
According to The Tennesseean, the new map split the state’s only majority-black congressional district into three districts. Two of those new districts stretch from Memphis to outside Nashville.
The Republican-dominated state Senate approved the map, 25-5.
Given the state legislature’s partisan composition, a Republican victory always amounted to a foregone conclusion.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, based on data available through Aug. 29, the GOP holds a 75-24 edge in the Tennessee House and a 27-6 edge in the Senate.
On Thursday, House Minority Leader Karen Camper cried racism.
“I want the world to know that the Tennessee Democratic Caucus and the Tennessee Black Caucus what standing in the midst of adversity looks like,” Camper said, per The Tennessean. “We showed the world what fighting racism in 2026 looks like, and today we are going to show the world that we are ready to fight.”
Republicans, however, acted on last month’s landmark Supreme Court decision.
On April 29, SCOTUS ruled 6-3 that Section 2 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act neither requires nor authorizes states to draw congressional maps with race-based outcomes in mind.
As a result, red states have begun redrawing old congressional maps designed to produce black-majority districts. Those districts tend to favor Democrats politically.
Tennessee’s new map also represents the latest salvo in a nationwide redistricting war ahead of the 2026 midterms.
Last month, for instance, voters in Virginia approved a new map gerrymandered to produce a likely 10:1 Democrat advantage in the state’s U.S. House delegation. Multiple courts, however, including the Virginia Supreme Court, have halted certification of that vote.
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Michael Schwarz holds a Ph.D. in History and has taught at multiple colleges and universities. He has published one book and numerous essays on Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and the Early U.S. Republic. He loves dogs, baseball, and freedom. After meandering spiritually through most of early adulthood, he has rediscovered his faith in midlife and is eager to continue learning about it from the great Christian thinkers.
Michael Schwarz holds a Ph.D. in History and has taught at multiple colleges and universities. He has published one book and numerous essays on Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and the Early U.S. Republic. He loves dogs, baseball, and freedom. After meandering spiritually through most of early adulthood, he has rediscovered his faith in midlife and is eager to continue learning about it from the great Christian thinkers.
