MCTNDP Statement on the New Congressional Maps and their Effects on Montgomery County Voters

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CLARKSVILLE, TN – The Montgomery County Democratic Party is reeling from the news that, with no input from voters, two of Montgomery County’s state representatives and our state senator voted to split our county into two different congressional districts. Aron Maberry (District 68), Michael Lankford (District 75) and Bill Powers (senate District 22) all voted in favor of the new congressional district map proposed by the Tennessee GOP that was promptly fast-tracked into existence during this week’s 3-day special session in Nashville.

The new map appears designed to dilute voting power in Memphis-Shelby County – a historically majority Black city and county – by combining it with counties to the north and west. A byproduct of the power grab to redistrict Memphis voters is that part of Montgomery County will now share a congressperson with a city almost four hours away. Our county will be split into two congressional districts. In some cases neighbors across the street will have a different congressional representative. Essentially Fort Campbell is now unrepresented since it has been carved out of Congressional District 7 and bundled in with rural north west TN and parts of Shelby County in the south west in District 5. The new map divides the large active duty population on post from the rest of Montgomery County which houses the second largest veteran population in the state.

Statement from Montgomery County Democratic Party Chair, Christine McKinney:

“It’s a sad time for voting rights here in Tennessee. We stand with our Memphis neighbors in condemning this power grab by the Republicans. Once again our Republican legislators have proven that they are not interested in doing anything constructive to improve the quality of life for their constituents, but they have plenty of time to hold a special session mere days after the end of the regular session and waste 3 million dollars of public money on administering a redistricting plan that no one asked for. Furthermore, they had to break with convention and change an existing law to be able to redistrict in the middle of the decade. They are more interested in consolidating their own power than in working to reduce the cost of living, feed hungry kids or improve our road networks”.

The MCTNDP urges Democrats in Montgomery County to push back against this racially motivated voter disenfranchisement by supporting and voting for our incumbent House Democratic Representative Ronnie Glynn (67), as well as our candidate in House District 68 Garfield Scott, and Allie Phillips who is running for House District 75. Electing more Democrats to the State House is the only way to break up the GOP supermajority, which would allow us to regain fair maps in Tennessee and work for the betterment of our residents.

For information on our incumbents and candidates go to mctndp.org/candidates