WASHINGTON — Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, who has served in the House for more than 32 years, announced his retirement Tuesday, hours after Republican lawmakers in Tennessee approved a redistricting plan that carves up his Nashville-area district.
“Despite my strength at the polls, I could not stop the General Assembly from dismembering Nashville,” he wrote in a statement posted to Twitter. “No one tried harder than me to keep the city whole.”
Cooper joins a raft of House Democrats who have announced retirements in recent weeks, as states finalize new congressional maps and Democrats face mounting obstacles in their attempt to retain the House majority in the midterms. Cooper is the 29th Democrat to announce plans to retire or seek another office at the end of the year, compared with 13 Republicans.
