Trump says Tennessee next to redistrict after US Voting Rights Act ruling

Ruling weakening Voting Rights Act opens door to more US states redrawing maps, diluting voting power of minority groups.United States President Donald Trump has said Tennessee will redraw its electoral map following a US Supreme Court ruling that gutted a key provision of the landmark US Voting Rights Act.While the Supreme Court’s ruling on Louisiana’s electoral map has wide-ranging implications across the country, it also has implications for the broader electoral landscape.It removes some race-related restrictions on how congressional district maps can be drawn and, in turn, has sparked calls from Republicans to revisit redistricting in several states ahead of the consequential midterm elections in November.The shift comes amid a largely unprecedented redistricting spree that began last year with US President Donald Trump heaping pressure on Texas to redraw its congressional maps to favour Republicans. Both parties have since sought to gain seats in redistricting in seven states – including Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, California, Utah, and Virginia.Most recently, Florida’s legislature on Wednesday passed a new congressional map, creating 24 districts expected to go to Republicans, up from 20 currently held by members of the party.In a post on his Truth Social account on Thursday, Trump said he had spoken with Tennessee’s Republican Governor Bill Lee, “wherein he stated that he would work hard to correct the unconstitutional flaw in the Congressional Maps of the Great State of Tennessee”.Lee did not immediately confirm the statement.A new map in Tennessee is expected to net another solidly Republican district in the state, increasing Republicans’ chances of keeping control of the US House of Representatives in November.