Nashville Democrat sues Tennessee lieutenant governor over committee suspension, other restrictions

A Tennessee Democratic state senator has sued the chamber leader over her committee reassignment and travel reimbursement restrictions implemented after she protested from the Senate Floor during a recent special session to redraw the state’s U.S. House map.

During a special legislative session in May to redraw and gerrymander Tennessee’s U.S. congressional map so Republicans could net an extra seat in this year’s midterm election ​State Sen. Charlane Oliver of Nashville stood on her desk and unfurled a banner in protest.​Republican lawmakers divided the predominantly Black city of Memphis across three congressional seats to create a map in which the party is favored to win all nine of Tennessee’s U.S. House districts.

​Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, an Oak Ridge Republican and also Senate speaker, suspended Oliver from the Government Operations Committee following the session and reassigned her to the less powerful State and Local Government Committee Oliver is also not allowed to receive a per diem for legislative work and is not allowed to use state funds to attend legislative conferences.

​“When I stood on my Senate desk, I did it because the legislature swiftly moved to silence the voices of Black Tennesseans,” said Oliver in a news release. “An injustice of that magnitude demanded an equally urgent response. As the only Black senator representing Nashville, I carry the voices of people who have been pushed to the margins of this state’s policies for generations.”

​The Lookout reached out to a spokesperson for McNally, and he didn’t respond by the time of publication.

​Tennessee lawmakers implemented a midcycle redistricting after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in April that states with a history of racial discrimination were no longer required to draw majority-minority U.S. House seats.

Democrats face uphill battle in winning any Tennessee U.S. House race

​A seat that included all of Memphis was Tennessee’s last majority-minority district, after Republicans broke up Nashville’s congressional seat in the 2022 redistricting cycle.

​Before 2022, Republicans held a 7-2 advantage over the Democratic Party in Tennessee’s congressional map. The GOP upped its advantage after 2022 to 8-1 and is now expected to win all nine, as each district is a seat President Donald Trump won by at least 20 percentage points.

​Trump won Tennessee in 2024, with Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris winning around 35% of the vote.

​The Campaign Legal Center is representing Oliver in the lawsuit, and she’s a co-plaintiff with four of her constituents.

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The lawsuit