As the current representative of Tennessee's 9th district, Democratic Congressman Steve Cohen has emerged as a tactful candidate with goals in mind to help improve the lives of its constituents through its representative style and its house-style. Theory I: redistricting, gerrymandering, and candidate emergency A congressional district is an electoral division of a state, which elects and has the right to send a member to the House of Representatives of the United States. Districting is the initially established district, while redistricting is the process of drawing district boundaries after the decennial census and new demographic changes. Redistricting is a political process that affects the fortunes of sitting members of the House, state legislators, governors, lobbyists, leaders of racial and ethnic groups, and congressional leadership, due to its impact on the state legislature. The state legislature determines which party dominates its congressional delegation and which party gains control of the House majority. For this reason, districting is a tool generally used by politicians to seek personal, partisan and factional advantages. Davidson et al. assert that redistricting is typically a state responsibility carried out by the legislature, barring help from federal courts throughout the process. The congressional district is governed by two federal statutes. The first is the 1967 statute requiring all 50 states eligible for one or more seats to create districts each represented by a single member. The second is the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which requires that districts not dilute the representation of racial minorities. In addition to these statues, the Supreme Court built the Constitution to require districts to... middle of paper... n Memphis, I think the racial diversity displayed by all of my key aides has helped in some way.” First by Congressman Cohen, Congressman Ford, both Sr. and Jr., represented the 9th District until 2006. Would shifting races lower voter turnout rates during elections? The turnout rates of African American representatives compared to those of Cohen show small marginal differences. During presidential election years, Ford men were elected at high rates, while, as in midterm elections, voters reelected representatives but with lower turnout rates. Likewise, Cohen maintained and in some cases surpassed the previous voter turnout rates of Ford Sr. and Jr. In 2008 both Steve Cohen and Jake Ford, Harold Ford Sr.'s son, ran for House, Cohen he received 198,798 votes out of 226,282 total. votes, beating Jake Ford by a wide margin of 187,795 votes.