State Representative Justin Jones (D-Nashville) on Tuesday was interviewed by Robert Reich, the political analyst and former U.S. Secretary of Labor during the Clinton administration, when both appeared to suggest the lack of political questions on the federal census means Tennessee lawmakers drew their new congressional map based entirely on race.
In an interview conducted after Tennessee state lawmakers and Governor Bill Lee approved a new congressional map in light of the U.S. Supreme Court decision reining in districts drawn based on their racial composition, Reich asked Jones how Republicans in the General Assembly were able to craft districts based on partisan leanings.
Reich’s remarks came after Jones noted the rapid pace of the special session called by Governor Bill Lee, which required lawmakers from across the Volunteer State to return to Nashville just days after the legislative session closed, and resulted in the passage of new maps in just one week.
“Within a couple hours, the committee voted to pass these maps, and the next morning there’s a vote on the House floor, and there was no analysis,” Jones told Reich.
Jones claimed Republicans offered minimal reasoning for the new map when prompted by Democrats, and specifically said they did not know the racial demographics of the new districts when asked.
Reich then seemed to highlight Jones’ response as potential evidence of race-based redistricting.
“This is partisan, and we just base this off the census, but if you look at the census, the census does not say what party you are, but it does say what race you are,” said Reich. He told Jones, “But if what you’re saying is true, if those districts were based upon and they had to be based upon race because that was the only census material, they don’t have a breakdown by party.”
The former Clinton administration member added, “So they could not have actually done it on a partisan basis. They had to have done it on a racial basis.”
Jones agreed with Reich’s analysis, but suggested that there would be little opportunity to seek redress with the high court.
“I know that, you know, there’s lawyers looking at it, but it’s unfortunate that we have a court that has aligned itself with being, you know, a force of backlash against multi-racial democracy,” said the Tennessee Democrat. “This court is a court that has upheld, you know, injustice.”
State House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville) appears to have directly contradicted their claim that lawmakers drew the new boundaries based “on a racial basis” in a May 6 post to social media.
The Supreme Court has opined that redistricting, like the judicial system, should be color-blind. The decision indicated states can redistrict based off partisan politics. Today, Tennessee joins other red and blue states in redrawing their congressional maps. @ltgovmcnally pic.twitter.com/lOeBf5tGMF
— Speaker Cameron Sexton (@CSexton25) May 6, 2026
“The Supreme Court has opined that redistricting, like the judicial system, should be color blind,” wrote Sexton, revealing Tennessee’s new congressional map. “The decision indicated states can redistrict based off partisan politics. Today, Tennessee joins other red and blue states in redrawing their congressional maps.”
Additionally, despite their suggestion that lawmakers only had racial demographics at their disposal to draw their districts due to the restrictions imposed by limited census questions, the Gerrymandering Project at Princeton University explains that computer algorithms can be used to determine partisan leanings.
The Gerrymandering Project’s algorithm alone is used to create 1 million potential redistricting plans for each state in a bid to help lawmakers draw fair districts. Online tools also allow members of the public to simulate lawmakers’ redistricting process.
Watch Reich’s full interview with Jones:
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Tom Pappert is a 2025 recipient of the Dao Prize and the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star. He also reports for the Star News Network. Follow Tom on X. Email tips to [email protected].
Image “State Rep. Justin Jones and Robert Reich” by Robert Reich and Inequality Media Civic Action.
Keep in mind this idiot Jones is from Oakland comifornia.
Jones spreading hatred again. No surprise
Yes, the article should correctly be titled Jones and Reich share THEIR misinformation about the redistricting. They suggest? No, they distort.
These two guys are idiots with no intellectual ability at all. Yes they used the census in order to obtain population numbers. The census does not tell political party. It didn’t have to! That information was already known. Why do you think that moron Cohen has been elected over and over?
So you’ve got a major Democrat city. Republicans don’t care what color they are, they care that it’s a Democrat city, and if you bunch them all together, you’re going to have a Democrat representative. That doesn’t take much sense to figure out, but of course these two have no sense. They live and breathe race hustling. So you split a Democrat city into three parts, bunch each part with a largely Republican section, and you don’t get an idiot like Cohen anymore.