TN-07: Dixie, Copeland square off in Democratic primary for redrawn 7th District
In a race to capture the newly-drawn 7th Congressional District seat in Tennessee, state Rep. Vincent Dixie and businessman Darden Copeland are taking slightly different strategies in the Democratic primary with the ultimate goal of unseating the Republican incumbent.
Dixie, who represents House District 54 in northern Davidson County, and Copeland, a former political operative who owns Calvert Street Group public affairs firm, started running after the Tennessee legislature voted to redraw congressional districts, at President Donald Trump’s request, on the heels of a U.S. Supreme Court decision that gutted a provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that protected majority-minority districts.
Dixie, a bail bondsman and the first Black lawmaker to become chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, said recent gerrymandering movies affecting Memphis and Nashville not only diluted Black voters with rural Republicans but “eliminated the Democratic voice,” which makes up about 40% of the state’s vote.
Rolling back the Voting Rights Act, which provided opportunity to his grandmother and mother to vote, undercuts democracy, he said.
https://tennesseelookout.com/2026/07/06/dixie-copeland-square-off-in-democratic-primary-for-redrawn-7th-district/