Justin Jones, one of the two expelled Tennessee lawmakers, reinstated by Nashville council

The Nashville Metro Council on Monday unanimously voted in favor of reinstating Tennessee state Rep. Justin Jones back into office just days after he was ousted for calling for gun reform on the chamber floor. 

In a 36-0 vote, Jones was elected the interim successor for the vacancy created in Tennessee’s 52 District by his removal from the state’s General Assembly last week. 

“This afternoon’s vote is unprecedented but so was the action taken to expel members of the legislature,” Nashville Mayor John Cooper said in the Metro Council chamber before the vote.

“Voters in District 52 elected Justin Jones to be their voice in the statehouse, and that voice was taken away this past week. So let’s give them their voice back,” said Cooper, calling for the council to vote unanimously in favor of reinstating Jones. 

Jones, 27, was one of the two black Democratic lawmakers expelled by the Republican-controlled Tennessee General Assembly after a gun control protest on the House floor after a deadly school shooting. 

State Rep. Gloria Johnson, 60, survived her expulsion vote last week, but Jones and former state Rep. Justin Pearson, 29, were booted from the body over the protest, which Republicans say violated decorum rules. 

Pearson, who represents a district in Memphis, could be reappointed at a Wednesday meeting of the Shelby County Commission.

Special elections for both seats will take place in the coming months.

Jones and Pearson have said they want to be reappointed and plan to run in a special election.

President Biden spoke to the so-called “Tennessee Three” last week and invited them to the White House.

Vice President Kamala Harris met with the three lawmakers in Nashville, as well. 

The protesting lawmakers had demanded that Republicans pass gun control measures in the wake of a deadly March 27 shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville which killed three children and three staff members. 

Johnson suggested that race was a factor in why she was not voted out but Jones and Pearson were, telling reporters the expulsion votes “might have to do with the color of our skin.” GOP leaders in the statehouse denied the charge.