Democrat Steve Cohen Ends Reelection Bid After Tennessee Redrew District Lines
Cohen said if the Democrat lawsuit against the state succeeds and the court restores his district, he would jump back into the race.
Longtime Tennessee Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen has ended his reelection bid just days after Tennessee passed its new Congressional map.
Cohen represented District 9 for 19 years.
The new map carves the Memphis district into three districts.
Cohen told the media from his congressional office:
This morning I announced my decision not to run in any of the three gerrymandered congressional districts carved out of the 9th District I have represented for more than 19 years. Last week, Tennessee Republicans silenced the Black vote here in Memphis to make Republican victories likely. We are still fighting, and if we prevail in the courts and the 9th District remains intact, I will remain a candidate and will proud to represent you for another two years. If not, it has been the honor of my life serving you, and you can count on my representation until my final day in office and beyond.”
Cohen and the Tennessee Democratic Party have sued over the new map, arguing “that changing the congressional maps months before a primary will cause chaos for voters ahead of 2026.”
If the Democrats succeed with the lawsuit and restore his district, Cohen said he would jump back into the race.
A judge will hold a hearing on May 20 and decide if the plaintiffs qualify for a temporary restraining order.
The ACLU also filed a lawsuit, claiming the new map violates the 14th and 15th Amendments and “that it’s an act of retaliation for protected expression and association in violation of the First Amendment.”
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Comments
No lose there
I’m surprised a majority-black district nominated a Jew in the first place.
Not to mention the elephant in the room.
Dude admits he can’t win a fair race. Whole lot of Dems in constructed districts looking over their shoulders now that they aren’t shielded from ouster due to positions the general public isn’t all in on. Another race baiter down in SC is about to say So Long and good riddance.
This shows the need to allow racial gerrymandering. It’s unconscionable to split the Black vote in Tennessee, so they can’t vote for Black representatives like this white guy. D’OH!
I’d disagree with it, but I’d have more respect if, at any time in the last 19 years, he dropped his campaign to allow a Black candidate to win. It’s almost like he doesn’t believe what he says about racial gerrymandering. Haha.
At least he’s acknowledging he has no interest in competing for votes and finding common ground.
Or running against a black woman!
I’d like to announce that I am running for office as long as I am assured of winning, at least up until the time that I realize that I can’t win, though I reserve the right to jump back in if it appears, at any time in the future, that I will win. (In either case, I am keeping my campaign money.)
dems: if its not rigged
its not fair
dems: and this is why we counted the votes *our way* in 2020 and beyond…and before
Now you see why Elias and others went around suing so hard in 2020 and demanding mail in ballots, extended voting seasons and no verification.
Wow, not interested in even trying. Guess that pretty much tells you everything you need to know
DNC probably told him, we got no money for you, you want to run it’s all your own money. He realized that he couldn’t raise enough since he rarely had a serious challenge and Justin Pearson was going to run against him in the primary.
“Cohen represented District 9 for 19 years.”
Coincidentally, that’s 18 years, 364 days too long for this 🤡 to be in office.
Now that he’s fixin to retire, he’ll have all the time he could possibly need to eat KFC.
He lives or at least represents Memphasis and eats KFC. Something is definitely wrong with him.
“Last week, Tennessee Republicans silenced the Black vote here in Memphis to make Republican victories likely.”
Aw, cry me a river, Steve!
Hey — why don’t you move to Massachusetts?
ANYWHERE in Massachusetts — you wouldn’t even have to be careful!
Dude doesn’t want a reasonably competitive election and refuses to participate. On the flip side of ending racial gerrymandering to create ‘majority minority’ districts which pack minority constituents into one or two districts is the unpacking also created potential headaches for the remaining reps as the districts are reconfigured to absorb
the constituents from these districts. That’s why the 5GoP SC State Senators balked at redistricting. Their own gravy train is potentially at risk, probably not for the party but for their own political future v a more energetic challenger willing to go out and ask for votes. There’s been a sort of Faustian bargain between establishment GoP and d/prog to keep ‘majority minority’ districts b/c the establishment of both parties benefited.
Not MA. He’d be low democrat on the list and therefore not entitled to run, If he wants to carpetbag in NE he could consider NY, RI, VT, or NH, They all have history of carpetbaggers.
Old KFC has thrown in the towel. In 19 years he had not much to show except KFC affinity.
He’s long been an obnoxious cretin so good riddance!
Our focus should be on the ACLU’s challenge. I haven’t read it, but I assume it has a chance to succeed: to stay and temporarily suspend Tennessee’s redistricting from taking effect.
The old district being “majority-minority” was represented for 2 decades by a white dude; no minority candidates succeed. Now the newly aligned districts break up that district, and that leaves the door open for those folks to be a “minority” to represent them. And the Dems sue to prevent this.
This is Babylon Bee territory.
I’ll be interest to see how ACLU gerrymanders their case to turn the de-ghettoizing into a violation of the 15th Amendment. As the new district provides, everyone regardless of race gets to vote.
Exactly. The Dems can no longer keep blacks on their political plantation. I hope there are.several conservative black republican that runs for those seats and wins so it can be shoved in to the hypocritical Dem faces
I’ll send him so conciliatory KFC from SoCal via slow UPS. Should be perfect when he gets it. Asshat.
Don’t forget to add your own secret blend of 16 grubs and spiders.
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