Nashville-area board may send expelled Tennessee lawmaker back to statehouse

[April 10, 2023]  By Daniel Trotta

(Reuters) - A Nashville-area county council may return to the statehouse one of two Democratic Tennessee lawmakers who were expelled from the chamber last week over a gun control protest when it meets on Monday to fill the vacant seat.

Republicans who control the state House of Representatives on Thursday voted to kick out Justin Jones and James Pearson, two Black men who recently joined the legislature, over their rule-breaking protest on the House floor on March 30.

At least 29 of the 40 members of the Metropolitan Council for Nashville and Davidson County have said they back appointing Jones as an interim representative for his previous seat until a special election can be held, The Tennessean reported. Returning Jones would send a pointed message to the Republicans who accused him of violating decorum.

On Wednesday, a Memphis-area board of commissioners will consider reappointing Pearson to the seat he was removed from.

Jones and Pearson both said on Sunday they hoped to be reappointed and that they would run again in special elections.

Jones, Pearson and Gloria Johnson, a white representative, led the statehouse floor protest to demand stricter gun control laws after the March 27 school shooting in Nashville that killed three 9-year-old school children and three adults on the school staff.

Republicans also targeted Johnson but came up one vote short of the two-thirds majority needed to oust her.

The expulsions have become a rallying cry for Democrats nationally on the issues of gun violence prevention and racial equality, and an opportunity to push back against Republican dominance at the state level.

While Democrats are competitive nationally, winning the popular vote in seven of the past eight presidential elections, Republicans control many of the statehouses where they have large majorities and where issues such as abortion and gun control are often decided.

Rep. Justin Jones gestures as he arrives to attend an address by U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris after the Tennessee House of Representatives voted to expel two Democratic members, representatives Justin Pearson and Justin Jones, for their roles in a gun control demonstration at the Tennessee State Capitol, in Nashville, Tennessee, U.S., April 7, 2023. REUTERS/Cheney Orr/File Photo

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris flew to Nashville on Friday to support the three Tennessee lawmakers targeted for expulsion.

"The issue, which gets back to these three, is that we need leaders who have the courage to act at statehouses and in Washington, D.C., in the United States Congress," Harris, who is Black and Asian American, told a gathering at Fisk University, a historically Black school that Jones attended. "Have the courage to act instead of the cowardice to not allow debate."

The Nashville-area Metropolitan Council called a meeting for 4:30 p.m. CDT (2130 GMT) on Monday to announce the vacancy of Jones' seat, discuss the rules for filling vacancies and possibly vote for an interim successor, according the agenda.

In Shelby County, which includes Pearson's Memphis district, the chair of the county board of commissioners announced on Sunday that a special meeting had been called for Wednesday to consider reappointing Pearson to his seat.

The board of commissioners appointed Pearson, 28, in January to fill a legislative vacancy. He then won a special election in March. A Memphis native, he previously worked as a community organizer and activist who participated in protests against an oil pipeline through Memphis that was canceled, according to his campaign biography.

Jones, 27, was elected to the House of Representatives last year. He attended Fisk on the John R. Lewis Scholarship for Social Activism and has been arrested more than a dozen times for nonviolent protests, according to his campaign biography.

(Reporting by Daniel Trotta and Gabriella Borter; Editing by Donna Bryson, Josie Kao and Christian Schmollinger)

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