US Rep. Jim Cooper will not seek reelection after GOP redraws Nashville congressional district

[RandySF]

U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, the Nashville Democrat who has spent more than three decades representing Tennessee in Congress, announced Tuesday he will not seek reelection following a Republican redistricting plan to split Davidson County and upend the region's political landscape.

Cooper announced his decision Tuesday afternoon, less than 24 hours after legislative Republicans voted in the House to approve the plan to divide Davidson County into three congressional districts. The Republican supermajority's plan sailed through committees and a Senate vote earlier this month.

"You backed me more than almost anyone in Tennessee history, making me the state’s third longest-serving member of Congress," Cooper said in a social media statement announcing the end of his 32 years in office.

"You allowed me to help millions of people while representing our state capital, as well as 30 of our state’s 95 counties. Despite my strength at the polls, I could not stop the General Assembly from dismembering Nashville. No one tried harder to keep our city whole. I explored every possible way, including lawsuits, to stop the gerrymandering and to win one of the three new congressional districts that now divide Nashville. There’s no way, at least for me in this election cycle, but there may be a path for other worthy candidates."




https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/politics/2022/01/25/us-rep-jim-cooper-not-seek-reelection-after-gop-redraws-nashville-congressional-district/9214111002/

[DFW]

1. Someone needs to make the gerrymander an extinct species.

The Tennessee Republicans can stack their voting districts with Republicans, and they th9ink it's perfectly legitimate to do that. But if we want to do the same thing with the Supreme Court, they will scream about its "unconstitutionality" so loud, it will be heard in Fiji.

[Docreed2003]

3. Exactly DSW

This was a deliberate strategy by state republicans to weaken the Democratic party's voice in this state and they all will pay themselves on the back as if it's no big deal. But the moment that they received pushback, those same GOP will be screaming to high heaven

[Docreed2003]

2. This is infuriating and a huge loss for the people he represents in Nashville

How this can stand up to legal challenges is just beyond me. This was deliberate move to weaken the voice of one of the very few blue area within the state of Tennessee. Such BS

[MadLinguist]

4. oh, they'll be after Memphis as soon as they can

The Tennessee GOP is the rat-fuqqinest rat's nest around.
They've been gunning for Nashville for the longest time

[Docreed2003]

5. I'm sure they will be...

The GOP nutters that run this state have no shame

[BeckyDem]

6. What is feared has become reality.

Damn the GOP.