US House Redistricting: Tennessee

[RBH]

Submitted for consideration










Racial changes in districts

TN5: Goes from 68/23 in the 2000 Census to 75/14.
TN6: Goes from 89/6 to 77/15.
TN7: Goes from 83.5/11 to 80/14.
TN8: Goes from 74/22 to 76/19.
TN9: Goes from 35/59.5 to 29/63.

TN5 is less than half Davidson, and takes in two of the most Republican counties in Middle Tennessee.

And the division of Nashville actually divides their African-American neighborhoods between the 6th and 7th.

[RBH]

I can see them moving some of the Memphis suburbs into the 8th to make Fincher completely safe and to make sure that Blackburn has a district that isn't a total inkblot and won't have Memphis suburbanite Republicans who could challenge her in the future. Going for potential opposition that would take a pass due to a lack of a wide base.

[RBH]

New map, borrowing a theme



TN1: 70.9/29.1 McCain, 64/36 R
TN2: 64.6/35.4 McCain, 58/42 R
TN3: 68.6/31.4 McCain, 61/39 R
TN4: 62.3/37.7 McCain, 55/45 R
TN5: 59.7/40.3 McCain, 55.5/44.5 R
TN6: 58.3/41.7 McCain, 53/47 R
TN7: 58.4/41.6 McCain, 53/47 R
TN8: 59.3/40.7 McCain, 52.5/47.5 R
TN9: 75.6/24.4 Obama, 70.5/29.5 D, 63.7% Black



Now, your catch on gerrymandering Jim Cooper is that he represented the TN4 area (he used to live in Shelbyville. So keeping his former district very red helps out. Makes it harder for him to jump to TN6 or TN7 where he doesn't have much history.

If they carve Nashville that viciously, Cooper should move back to Shelbyville and face DesJarlais (or whoever primaries him). The shape of TN4 goes back to Jim Cooper and creating a seat for him in the 1980s, the district was similarly shaped in 1992.

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edit

realized Diane Black lived in Hendersonville... so time to change the plan



TN4: 57.6/42.4 McCain, 53/47 R
TN5: 57/43 McCain, 54/46 R
TN6: 66.1/33.9 McCain, 57/43 R