Tennessee Democrat Cohen Retiring After Republican Redistricting

Rep. Steve Cohen, Tennessee’s only Democrat in Congress, won’t seek reelection after Republicans dismantled the Memphis congressional district he’s represented for two decades.

“This is by far the most difficult moment I’ve had as an elected official,” Cohen told reporters in Washington on Friday, the deadline to qualify for or withdraw from Tennessee’s Aug. 6 primary under the modified districts.

Tennessee’s Republican government last week swiftly put in place a new congressional map that splintered Cohen’s compact, Black-majority 9th District and extended it more than 200 miles east through rural areas to suburbs of Nashville. The new 9th ...