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Keep us strong. You power public media.Donate todayThursday, May 7, 2026Good morning! Emily SinerTennessee Republicans unveiled revised congressional maps yesterday morning, in an attempt to guarantee an additional Republican seat in Congress next year.

The proposal would split Memphis’s majority-Black, majority-Democratic district into three. It would also further fracture Nashville and its surrounding counties.

The result? Tennessee’s 9th Congressional District, which has historically represented Memphis in the U.S. House, would stretch from the bottom of the city to the edge of Nashville, a distance spanning nearly 300 miles.

Take a look.

WHAT TO KNOW

New congressional maps unveiled by Tennessee Republican leadership on May 6, 2026.This proposed change comes after a recent U.S. Supreme Court weakened protections in the Voting Rights Act for majority-Black districts, like Memphis. President Donald Trump has called on Republican-led states to redistrict areas they previously couldn’t touch.

And it’s not just Tennessee lawmakers who have heeded that call.

Lawmakers in Alabama, South Carolina and Louisiana lawmakers also are making plans for new U.S. House districts. (In South Carolina, the governor has declined to call for a special session, but lawmakers are considering other pathways.)

According to the Associated Press, eight other states already have adopted new U.S. districts ahead of the midterms. From those alone, Republicans expect to gain as many as 13 seats in Congress, while Democrats think they could gain up to 10 seats. The new proposals in Southern states could add to the Republicans’ tally.

But here’s the thing with voting demographics: People don’t always vote for the same party from election to election. 

And some of the newly drawn districts could be competitive in November, meaning the parties may not get all they seek.

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On today’s episode of the NashVillager podcast 
with host Nina Cardona 🎙️ 

How long have Tennessee’s political maps been gerrymandered? The current special session may be the fastest Tennesse’s political map has ever been redrawn, but there’s a history of changing the lines for party gain. Plus the local news for May 7, 2026, and Key Changes looks at comedic country.

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MORE TO KNOW

• Rutherford and Williamson Counties will have new mayors as a result of Tuesday’s election. In both counties, no Democratic candidate qualified for the primary, so the Republican tickets determined the outcomes. In Rutherford: Nonprofit leader Randy Allen edged out the incumbent mayor by fewer than 400 votes. In Williamson: Andy Marshall will be the first new mayor the county has had in more than two decades. Meanwhile in Wilson County, incumbent County Mayor Randall Hutto ran unopposed in the Republican primary. But he will have a challenger in the general election, Christina Puza-Smith. [WPLN]
   
• Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has signed several bills targeting transgender Tennesseans — and more are on the way to his desk. One of them is a bill that would require schools, prisons and shelters to only recognize a person’s sex at birth in gendered spaces. This means the state would place transgender women in male prisons and require trans boys to use the girl’s locker room. WPLN’s Marianna Bacallao wrote up a list of LGBTQ-related bills that got passed this year (and one that didn’t).
   
• Paychecks, bank accounts and refunds that never get delivered are often turned over to the state’s Unclaimed Property Division. Over the past year, the division received more than 168,000 claims and returned $125 million to the owners. WPLN intern Seth Thorpe put together a hilarious Instagram reel explaining why people often don’t check (the name is confusing — you don’t need to own property). A success story: I followed Seth’s directions, checked on ClaimItTN.gov and found almost $100 in various refunds and payments that were supposed to have been sent to my husband, but went to an old address instead. Now he (and we) will be reunited with the cash.

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THIS IS NASHVILLE

The job market seems to be on the downturn, especially if you’re a young person. College graduates are scrambling to get their hands on just about any kind of job — but there are still sectors that need professionals, and schools are listening. We hear some hopefrom some fresh journalism graduates. Then we’ll talk with a graduate of Lipscomb’s Accelerated Nursing program to see how she’s holding up in the workforce, and we’ll wrap the show learning how Nashville Software School is changing software engineering and addressing AI.

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