'Tennessee Three' Democrat announces bid for Congress against longtime representative from Memphis

Audio By Carbonatix

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — One of three Tennessee lawmakers who drew national attention in 2023 when Republicans in the Tennessee Legislature moved to expel them following a gun control protest is running for Congress, he announced Wednesday.

Democratic state Rep. Justin Pearson went to a Memphis park near the neighborhood where he grew up to announce that he will challenge longtime Democratic congressman Steve Cohen to represent the majority-Black city in 2026. The winner likely would have a clear path to represent the state's 9th Congressional District, the state's only jurisdiction that leans Democratic under congressional lines drawn by Republicans.

Pearson is 30 and Cohen is 76, and was first elected to Congress in 2006 after serving in the Tennessee Senate.

Pearson is one of three members of the Tennessee House who received national attention in 2023 after being the target of a rare expulsion vote following a gun control protest inside the Legislature.

Pearson worked as an environmental justice activist before he won a seat in the Tennessee House in 2023 in a special election to replace a legislator who died. Months later, he joined fellow Democratic Reps. Gloria Johnson and Justin Jones in a protest for more gun control on the state House floor.

The demonstration took place just days after a fatal shooting in Nashville at a private Christian school where a shooter killed three children and three adults. As protesters flooded the Capitol building to demand that the Republican supermajority enact some restrictions on firearms, the three lawmakers approached the front of the House chamber with a bullhorn, and joined the protesters’ chants and cries for action.

Republican lawmakers declared that their actions violated House rules and moved to expel the “Tennessee Three” — an extraordinary move that’s been taken only a handful of times since the Civil War. Pearson and Jones, who are Black, were both expelled by the predominantly white GOP-dominated caucus, while Johnson, who is white, narrowly avoided expulsion.

A polio survivor, Cohen is a 10-term incumbent who has won nearly every election with more than 70 percent of the vote. One of his biggest challenges came when he defeated Willie Herenton, Memphis' first Black mayor, in the Democratic primary in 2010.

Cohen was a staunch ally of Democratic Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and he is a frequent critic of Republican President Donald Trump. He has consistently secured funding for large Memphis entities like St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, the University of Memphis, Memphis International Airport and the city's public transportation system. Cohen has served on the House Judiciary and Transportation and Infrastructure committees, and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

After the expulsion, both Pearson and Jones were reinstated to the Legislature by officials in Memphis and Nashville. They were re-elected to the state House in August 2023.

Since then, Pearson has remained vocal in his support of gun control laws and reducing poverty.

“Poverty persists across neighborhoods and we’ve seen significantly less federal investment compared to other communities in Tennessee,” Pearson said in a statement released before the news conference. “We can’t afford more of the same. It’s time for a new vision.”

Cohen's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Pearson also has criticized the presence in Memphis of Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company, xAI. Pearson and others contend the company's use of high amounts of power and water are leading to pollution and other environmental hazards. The company has fought back against those claims.

Both Cohen and Pearson have expressed concern with the planned arrival of the National Guard in the city as part of a federal crime task force ordered by President Donald Trump.