When Tennessee Republicans divided Nashville among three congressional districts in 2022, the move dismantled a Democratic bastion. Just four years later, Memphis got a similar treatment. Republican lawmakers in May approved a new congressional map that cracked Memphis, gutting the state’s only remaining Democratic congressional seat.
For state Rep. Justin Jones, 31, a Nashville Democrat who was briefly expelled from the Tennessee General Assembly in 2023 after he participated in a gun-control protest on the House floor, the connection between the two redistricting fights is key. Nashville served as a warning of the challenges to come.
The two cities have long been centers of Black political power in Tennessee. Nashville was home to the Student Movement that pushed for the desegregation of the city’s lunch counters, and Memphis was where Martin Luther King Jr. spent his final days. He had been in the majority-Black city to support sanitation workers who were striking.
Jones views the redistricting fights as part of a larger struggle over Black voting power, one playing out throughout the South and taking on new urgency ahead of the November midterm elections. In recent months, he has traveled around the region to protest Republican redistricting efforts. At home, he has focused on energizing voters. Jones is running for reelection in House District 52 against Republican Michele Vetter and independent Martez Coleman.
Capital B spoke with Jones about election security, Tennessee’s redistricting battles, the appeal of progressive candidates, and efforts to better engage young Black men. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Capital B: What are you hearing about election security and concerns about voter intimidation in Tennessee?
Justin Jones: We’re anticipating attempts at intimidation, and obviously ICE [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] is on a lot of constituents’ minds. People are concerned about ICE or vigilantes showing up at polling places to intimidate Black and brown voters, regardless of citizenship status.
Here in Tennessee, we understand the history of voter intimidation very viscerally. This is the birthplace of the Ku Klux Klan, an organization founded to terrorize Black people who were trying to vote. This isn’t distant history. It’s within the lifetime of our grandparents.
We’re looking at ways to make sure that people don’t feel isolated or vulnerable. We’re working with churches so that members of the clergy or other community leaders can be with them at the polls. We’re encouraging people to fill up their cars and vote in groups. And we have to pay attention beyond Election Day, through certification and the seating of the new Congress.
What has the fight over Tennessee’s congressional map meant for Black voting power?
One thing I always want journalists to understand is the lineage: Memphis didn’t just happen. Before Memphis, they did this to Nashville. We didn’t get as much national attention, but they split our county [Davidson County] among three districts and diluted the votes of communities of color.
Nashville is the city of Fisk University and American Baptist College. It’s the city where John Lewis and Diane Nash organized. Then, after the Louisiana v. Callais decision, Tennessee Republicans called a special session to break up Memphis.
Tennessee has nine congressional seats. For years, we had two Democratic districts. After Nashville was divided, we were down to one. Now, after Memphis, we could be down to zero.
That’s why I’ve been traveling around the South and showing up in places such as Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia. We have to understand that if they come for one of us, they come for all of us. This is bigger than one district. It’s a question of whether we’re going to have a multiracial democracy in this country.
Why do you think that younger voters are drawn to the Democratic Socialists of America and other progressive groups?
I push back on making this purely generational, because a lot of our older Black leaders were progressives before we used that term. Think about Shirley Chisholm. Before there was anything like DSA, Black leaders were pushing the country to address racial and economic justice.
What I think that we’re seeing now is that young voters want elected officials who aren’t so attached to institutions that they become trapped by decorum or business as usual. They want people who bring urgency to politics, the same urgency that King talked about when he called for the Poor People’s Campaign.
When there’s an emergency, a fire truck doesn’t stop at a red light. It goes through because there’s an emergency happening. Young people want elected officials who respond to these crises as emergencies — whether that’s economic inequality, environmental catastrophe, threats to democracy, militarism, or white vigilante violence.
I think that we have to be careful not to pit generations against one another. Our fight is going to take the wisdom of elders and the energy of young people. It’s always taken intergenerational relationships to understand where we’ve been and where we’re going.
What does engaging young Black men look like for you right now?
No matter what demographic I’m meeting with, the biggest issue people are talking about is affordability. People are struggling with gas prices and poverty wages. I don’t necessarily think that the issues are different. It’s about making sure that people know that their voices and experiences matter and that someone is willing to sit down and listen to their concerns.
One thing I hear all the time is, “Politicians never come here. We’ve never had a town hall. We’ve never had someone knock our door and ask us what we want to see.” That engagement can’t happen only during an election cycle. It has to happen year-round.
We just hired a cohort of young people who are doing deep canvassing. They’re not simply asking people to vote for somebody. They’re asking, “What issues matter to you? What are you struggling with?”
We want to hear people’s stories so that when we go back to make policy in January, we have the experiences of our constituents with us. That’s what people want to see.
