MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Democrat Justin J. Pearson conceded Wednesday in Tennessee’s 9th Congressional District race, clearing the way for Republican state Sen. Brent Taylor after a margin of roughly 2,500 votes, about 1% of the total.
The seat had been a longtime Democratic stronghold anchored in Shelby County before lawmakers stretched it into rural West and Middle Tennessee, including a slice of Rutherford County and a piece of Williamson County. Taylor claimed victory late Tuesday; Pearson told supporters he would wait for every ballot before deciding.
Pearson, who remains the state representative for District 86, said in a Wednesday statement that every county in the new map swung 10 to 30 points toward Democrats compared with recent presidential results, even though the redraw was designed to elect a Republican. He accepted the congressional outcome while criticizing the map and the role of big money in the contest.
Unofficial returns showed Pearson winning about 85% of the vote in the Shelby County portion of the district and nearly 55% in the Rutherford County sliver, while Taylor piled up margins in the rural counties that now dominate the seat. In the Williamson County fragment, Pearson still took about 38% to Taylor’s 60%.
Mapmakers had carved Memphis across three U.S. House districts, and Republicans won all three on Tuesday, the first time in decades the city will send an all-GOP slate to Washington. Taylor also won reelection to his state Senate seat and said he intends to keep the congressional job, which would leave the Shelby County Commission to pick an interim senator after the governor calls a special election that must be set within 107 days of the order.
Analysts watching the tally called the race far closer than the presidential lean of the new district suggested and said both parties are likely to rethink how aggressive they can be with future Tennessee maps.
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