(The Center Square) – Just two hours after the Tennessee General Assembly passed bills redrawing the state’s congressional districts, Memphis state Sen. Brent Taylor said he would run in the newly configured 9th Congressional District.
Taylor, state senator since 2022, can often be seen wearing a “Make Memphis Matter” hat. He supported a bill that allows the state to intervene in the Memphis-Shelby County School System and authorized the deployment of the National Guard.
“To make Memphis matter, we have to make Memphis safe,” Taylor said in a November interview with The Center Square.
U.S. Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty endorsed Taylor.
“My friend, Brent Taylor, will be a fearless conservative leader for Tennessee,” Blackburn said.
The new 9th Congressional District includes the southern part of Shelby County and runs south through Hardeman, McNairy, Hardin, Wayne, Lawrence, Giles, Marshall, Bedford, Moore and Lincoln counties, as well as parts of Williams and Maury counties, which are in the middle part of the state.
Gov. Bill Lee signed the redistricting bill shortly after it was passed.
Sen. Steve Cohen, currently representative of the 9th, has not indicated if he will run.
“Trump knows he has to rig the game to keep his majority in November. And the Tennessee GOP was willing to go along with it,” Cohen said in a social media post. “It’s shameful. Next stop is the courts.”
