Tennessee Democrat Justin Pearson voted back in state House

The second Tennessee Democrat expelled from the state House of Representatives last week for disrupting proceedings in the chamber was restored to his seat Wednesday after a unanimous vote.

Rep. Justin Pearson (D-Memphis) will return to serve the 86th District following the special vote by the Shelby County Board of Commissioners.

“Nashville thought they could silence democracy,” said the 28-year-old, whose political persona has undergone a series of changes in recent years. “You can’t expel hope, you can’t expel justice.”

The board has 13 members, but only seven, all Democrats, were present for the vote to reinstate Pearson.

The Republican-led Tennessee House ousted Pearson by a 69-26 vote April 6, moments after voting to expel state Rep. Justin Jones (D-Nashville) by a 72-25 vote.

Jones was sworn back in at the state House Monday after Nashville’s Democrat-controlled Metro Council also unanimously voted to reinstate him. Pearson could be sworn back in as early as Thursday.

Both will serve as interim lawmakers until a special election on a date to be announced by Republican Gov. Bill Lee.

The GOP maintains a 75-23 majority in the House, and narrowly missed the two-thirds threshold to expel a third Democratic representative, Gloria Johnson, who serves a district in Knoxville.

The “Tennessee Three,” as they’ve been nicknamed by admirers, stormed into the Capitol with protesters and then took to the House floor in the wake of the March 27 shooting at Nashville’s Covenant School that killed three adults and three children.

The trio demanded tighter gun control measures as part of their protest, which halted House proceedings and forced the chamber into recess.

Jones stood in the well alongside Pearson and Johnson, shouting through a bullhorn “No action, no peace” and holding up a political sign, which also violated House rules.

Republicans introduced three resolutions last week to expel the Democrats for their “disorderly behavior” during the March 30 protest.

“It’s never been about change,” Tennessee House Republicans tweeted about the Democrats as they prepared the expulsion vote. “Their only interest is being in the spotlight.”

The Nashville shooter, Audrey Hale, who identified as transgender and had once attended the private Christian school she targeted, had legally purchased all three of the guns she used in the attack.