GOP plan keeps Nashville district, makes big changes in Shelby, Middle Tennessee

The Memphis metro area will be sliced up into different congressional districts under a redistricting plan released today, while Davidson County will remain the hub of the 5th Congressional District. The map drawn by Republican lawmakers doesn't break Nashville into several congressional seats, as some Democrats had feared, but does make other changes in Middle Tennessee, altering the 4th District significantly to extend it from Rutherford County near Nashville to Bradley County near Chattanooga. In West Tennessee, the Commercial Appeal reports that U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn's 7th Congressional District -- which currently includes Germantown and much of Collierville and Bartlett -- would move completely out of Shelby and Fayette counties.

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