January 16, 2022
By: Dwayne Page
DeKalb County would have a new state senator if a redistricting plan to be considered by the Tennessee General Assembly is adopted.
According to the plan adopted in committee and revealed by Tennessee Republican state lawmakers last week, DeKalb County would be moved from the 17th State Senatorial District, now represented by Mark Pody (R) of Lebanon, to the 16th District represented by Janice Bowling (R) of Tullahoma. In addition to DeKalb County, the 16th District would include the counties of Warren, Grundy, Coffee, Franklin, and Lincoln. Senator Bowling currently represents Coffee, Franklin, Grundy, Marion, Sequatchie, Van Buren, and Warren Counties.
The proposed redistricting plan calls for Senator Pody’s 17th District to include all of Wilson County and extend into Davidson to include portions of Donelson and Hermitage, along with areas near the Nashville International Airport and Percy Priest Lake. Pody currently serves Cannon, Clay, Macon, Smith, and Wilson counties in addition to DeKalb.
Meanwhile, 40th District State Representative Terri Lynn Weaver (R) would represent all of DeKalb County under the State House Redistricting Plan. Weaver’s proposed new district would include Jackson, Smith, and Cannon in addition to DeKalb and a small portion of Wilson. She currently represents Smith, Trousdale, and a portion of DeKalb and Sumner Counties.
District 46 State Representative Clark Boyd (R), who currently serves Cannon and a portion of DeKalb County and Wilson County would no longer serve either DeKalb or Cannon but he would represent a large portion of Wilson County if the State House Redistricting plan is adopted.
The new 6th Congressional District, represented by Congressman John Rose, would be made up of all of Sumner, Macon, Clay, Pickett, Scott, Trousdale, Smith, Jackson, Overton, Fentress, Putnam, Cannon, DeKalb, White, Cumberland, and Van Buren, and part of Wilson and Davidson counties.
The current 6th Congressional District is made up of Cannon, Clay, Coffee, Cumberland, DeKalb, Fentress, Jackson, Macon, Overton, Pickett, Putnam, Robertson, Smith, Sumner, Trousdale, White, and Wilson. It also contains very small pieces of Cheatham and Van Buren.
The map plans must be approved by both the House and the State Senate and then signed by Governor Lee before they can take effect.
Redistricting is necessary every decade when lawmakers use the latest federal census to equalize state and congressional districts to ensure “one man one vote.”
Democrats don’t like the overall redistricting plans and are vowing a legal battle. Specifically, they contend that the Republican-controlled chambers in the Tennessee General Assembly are splitting up Davidson County’s 5th Congressional District into three separate districts in an attempt to water down the Democratic vote and give a Republican a chance to defeat Democratic incumbent Congressman Jim Cooper.
Republicans control seven of nine U.S. congressional seats, with the only Democratic strongholds in Nashville and Memphis. Republicans say population losses in East Tennessee and West Tennessee led map drawers to move district lines closer to Nashville and Middle Tennessee, which experienced heavy growth over the past decade.
Lawmakers are expected to move relatively quickly to settle the new maps ahead of an April filing deadline to ballot access in the August primaries.