Steve Cohen is stepping aside. The Tennessee congressman announced Friday that he will not seek re-election after Republicans redrew his Memphis-based district in ways that shred his political viability, a casualty of the redistricting wars now reshaping the American political map.
"I don't want to quit. I'm not a quitter. But these districts were drawn to beat me," Cohen said from his Washington office.
The new congressional map, passed this month by the Republican-controlled state legislature, fragments Cohen's historically majority-Black district and reconfigures it to benefit GOP candidates. The move follows a Supreme Court decision that gutted key protections under the Voting Rights Act, opening the door for states to redraw lines with minimal federal oversight. Tennessee became the first state to act on the new legal landscape, but Louisiana, Alabama, and South Carolina are positioning themselves to follow.
Cohen has held his seat for roughly two decades, a rarity in modern politics: a white Democrat representing a Black-majority district in the South. His departure signals a potentially seismic shift in Tennessee's congressional representation. He warned that the state could end up with an entirely Republican delegation after November, a configuration that would likely diminish Democratic influence in statewide negotiations once the party regains the White House.
A member of the House Judiciary Committee since arriving in Congress, Cohen built his reputation on civil rights advocacy and voting access issues. He is also Tennessee's first Jewish representative in Congress. His relationship with his constituents had been durable enough to weather local challenges, but he calculated that the new district lines made victory nearly impossible.
State lawmakers Justin Pearson, a Black Democrat who represents Memphis in the state legislature, had been mounting a primary challenge against Cohen. Pearson intends to run in the newly configured ninth district, but Cohen expressed deep skepticism that any Democrat could win in the redrawn map. He acknowledged only a remote possibility that the redistricting gambit could backfire on Republicans, and only if Democrats mounted an extraordinary registration and turnout operation.
Still, Cohen's exit is conditional. He is contesting the redistricting effort in court and pledged to rejoin the race if litigation succeeds in restoring his original district boundaries.
In his final remarks as an active candidate, Cohen expressed concern that his Memphis voters would lose representation in Washington and reflected on his collaborative work with Republican leaders to secure federal funds for a new bridge spanning the Mississippi River. He also trained his fire on the Trump administration, calling it "the greatest threat to democracy and to decorum and grace that we've ever seen." He vowed to use his remaining congressional time to oppose Trump's agenda, framing the redistricting itself as a power play designed to shore up Republican numbers against potential impeachment threats.
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a statement that Cohen had been "a powerful champion for civil rights" and that "the City of Memphis, the Congress and the nation are better because of Steve's commitment to making a difference."
Author James Rodriguez: "This is what happens when the Voting Rights Act loses its teeth: majority-Black districts get carved up on a map and skilled legislators get shown the door. Tennessee Republicans just wrote the script for what comes next in the South."
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