Steve Cohen announced Friday morning that he is withdrawing from the race for Tennessee’s 9th Congressional District, a seat he has represented for more than 19 years. He said the state General Assembly’s redrawing of the Memphis-area map last week left his majority-Black district split into three Republican-leaning districts.

The deadline to file to run in the redrawn District 9, District 5 and District 8 was noon Friday, putting the announcement in the middle of a fast-moving filing window. WREG planned to stream Cohen’s news conference live from his Washington office at 10 a.m. Friday.

Cohen’s decision removes one of the area’s longest-serving political figures from a race that had already been upended by the new map. The redistricting affected not only District 9 but also two other Memphis-area seats, changing the landscape for candidates trying to get on the ballot before the filing deadline closed.

The issue now is not whether the map changed the contest — Cohen says it did — but who steps into the districts he leaves behind and how quickly the reshaped races settle before noon. For voters in Memphis, the fight over representation has moved from the drawing table to the filing deadline.