Tennessee's 9th congressional district

Beginning in 2023, the district covers most of Shelby County, where the city of Memphis is located. It also includes just under half of Tipton County.

It begins north on the border with Lauderdale County and encompasses part of Covington. It then travels south to the district's anchor city of Memphis. Nearly all of Memphis is in the 9th, although most of the city's eastern portion spills over into the 8th. The district then juts out east to grab Cordova, but mostly avoids Bartlett and Germantown. The district is bounded on the west and south by Arkansas and Mississippi respectively.

Results under old lines (2013-2023)

Arguably, the district's current characteristics began to take shape in 1925 — the first year a congressional district consisted exclusively of Shelby County.

A congressional district was perfectly coextensive with Shelby County from 1925 until 1966, numbered as the 10th from 1925 to 1933 and from 1943 to 1953, then the 9th from 1933 to 1943 and the 9th from 1953 to 1966.

In 1966, the Supreme Court case Baker v. Carr took effect. In that ruling, the court laid out a "one man, one vote" standard. Prior to 1966, the 9th was nearly ten times larger in population than the nearby 7th and 8th.

1967 was the first year where the district covered merely a fraction of Shelby County rather than the county's entirety. In that election, the district chose former US Senate Republican nominee Dan Kuykendall. The district was renumbered the 8th in 1973 and was pushed further into Memphis. In 1974, in the midst of Watergate, Kuykendall supported Nixon throughout the scandal, and was subsequently defeated by Democrat Harold Ford Sr., whose family had strong political ties in Memphis dating back to at least the 1920s.

The district has voted Democratic in every congressional race since 1974. The Democrats consolidated their hold on the seat when the 1980 census saw it become the 9th once again. Since then, it has been drawn as a black-majority district.

Ford served in Congress for 22 years, when he was replaced by his son — Harold Ford Jr. — in 1997. The younger Ford served for ten years, until he mounted an unsuccessful bid for US Senate. Concurrent to Ford's senate bid, the district chose state senator Steve Cohen over Ford's brother Jake.[5] Cohen is noted for being Tennessee's first Jewish congressman, and has been elected seven times for a little over fourteen years in Congress.

• Tennessee's congressional districts
• List of United States congressional districts

• Martis, Kenneth C. (1989). The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company.
• Martis, Kenneth C. (1982). The Historical Atlas of United States Congressional Districts. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company.
• Congressional Biographical Directory of the United States 1774–present

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