Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) will retire from the House after 20 years, following a redistricting push by Tennessee Republicans that carved up his Memphis district, ending his re-election campaign, Cohen announced on Friday.

Cohen, 76, was the first Jewish person to represent Tennessee in Congress, and long stood out as a white, Jewish lawmaker representing a majority-Black district in the South, a rare profile in Congress. Prior to the redistricting move, which was fueled by a recent Supreme Court decision allowing states to eliminate some majority-minority districts, Cohen faced a challenge from far-left state Rep. Justin Pearson.

The longtime congressman voiced his frustration with the redistricting process, finalized just a week ago, at an Anti-Defamation League event in Washington, D.C. earlier this week.

“I was the first Jewish congressman elected in Tennessee. Served 20 years in Congress, and I was redistricted out of my seat, which was a majority African American seat, by the mamzers in the Tennessee General Assembly,” Cohen said, using the Hebrew word for bastard. “And there are a whole bunch of ‘em.”

He went on to recount the prejudice he faced earlier in his career as a Jewish candidate.

“In 1994, I ran for governor. I went to a little radio station in Dixon, Tenn. One-person radio station. Gravel road. Came in, talked to the man for a while and he said, ‘Son, you Jewish?’ I said, ‘Yes sir.’ He said, ‘Goooood luck!’” Cohen continued. “It ain’t changed a lot since then. Be careful. There’s a lot of mamzers out there. They don’t know us, but they don’t like us.”

Cohen told reporters in an emotional press conference on Friday that the decision to drop out of the race was “by far the most difficult moment I’ve had as an elected official.” He said he had considered running for one of the newly drawn districts, but that none of the seats were similar to his current Memphis-based district.

He said that if state courts block the redistricting process until 2028, he would run again in his current seat.

Cohen said that the new maps were drawn specifically to defeat him, the only Democratic member of the state’s delegation and that he did not feel he could properly represent the far-flung, GOP-friendly areas now incorporated into Memphis-area seats.

The veteran lawmaker has long been a voice on Capitol Hill against antisemitism and in support of Israel, though he took some stances more critical of Israel during the war in Gaza, including signing a letter accusing Israel of violating U.S. arms sales law. He told Jewish Insider he had considered but resisted pressure to back cutting off weapons sales to the Jewish state.

Cohen reiterated in his press conference on Friday that he was confident that he would be able to fend off the challenge from Pearson under the original district lines — as he has beaten numerous Black challengers over his time in office.

Cohen joins several other prominent Jewish and non-Jewish Democrats strongly supportive of Israel whose political futures have been thrown into question by the ongoing mid-decade redistricting wave across the country.

Fellow Jewish Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) and Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) are also facing uncertain re-election campaigns after Republicans redrew the Florida Congressional map in a more partisan manner.