CNN
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Two Democratic members of the Tennessee House of Representatives have been expelled while a third member was spared in an ousting by Republican lawmakers that was decried by the trio as oppressive, vindictive and racially motivated.
Protesters packed the state Capitol on Thursday to denounce the expulsions of Reps. Justin Jones and Rep. Justin Pearson and to advocate for gun reform measures a little over a week after a mass shooting devastated a Nashville school.
Following their expulsion – which House Republicans said was in response to the representatives’ leadership of gun control demonstrations on the chamber floor last week – Jones and Pearson called for protesters to return to the Capitol when the House is back in session on Monday.
Rep. Gloria Johnson, who is White and survived the Thursday ousting, slammed the votes removing Jones and Pearson, who are Black, as racist. Asked by CNN’s Alisyn Camerota why she believes she wasn’t expelled, Johnson said the reason is “pretty clear.”
“I am a 60-year-old White woman, and they are two young Black men,” Johnson said. She added that Pearson and Jones were questioned in a “demeaning way” by lawmakers before their expulsion.
Following the three representatives’ demonstrations last Thursday, Republican House Speaker Cameron Sexton called their actions “unacceptable” and argued that they broke “several rules of decorum and procedure on the House floor.”
Historically, the Tennessee House had only expelled two other representatives since Reconstruction, and the move requires a two-thirds majority vote of the total membership.
Thursday’s expulsions have been criticized by Democratic politicians and civil liberties groups who say voters in Jones’s and Pearson’s districts have been disenfranchised. Others, including Jones, have said the move distracts from the real problem of gun violence.
“Rather than address the issue of banning assault weapons, my former colleagues, a Republican supermajority, are assaulting democracy,” Jones told CNN. “And that should scare all of us across the nation.”
President Joe Biden in a statement Thursday called the expulsions “shocking, undemocratic and without precedent” and criticized Republicans for not taking greater action on gun reform.
“Rather than debating the merits of the issue, these Republican lawmakers have chosen to punish, silence, and expel duly-elected representatives of the people of Tennessee,” the president said.
Here’s what we know about the expulsions and what happens next.
After a shooter killed three 9-year-old students and three adults at a private Christian elementary school in Nashville last week, Jones, Pearson and Johnson staged a demonstration on the House floor calling for gun reform and leading chants with a bullhorn.
Jones said he and the other lawmakers had been blocked from speaking about gun violence on the House floor that week, saying that their microphones were cut off whenever they raised the topic, according to CNN affiliate WSMV.
On Monday, three resolutions were filed seeking the expulsions of Jones, Pearson and Johnson. The three members had already been removed from their committee assignments following the protest.
The resolutions, filed by Republican Reps. Bud Hulsey, Gino Bulso and Andrew Farmer, said that the lawmakers “did knowingly and intentionally bring disorder and dishonor” to the House.
Tennessee Republican Caucus Chair Jeremy Faison told CNN that the caucus believed the issue did not need to be considered by an ethics committee and accused Jones and Pearson of having a “history” of disrupting floor proceedings.
“It’s not possible for us to move forward with the way they were behaving in committee and on the House floor,” Faison said. “There’s got to be some peace.”
The chair of the Tennessee Democratic Party, Hendrell Remus, called the move a “direct political attack” on the party.
“Their expulsion sets a dangerous new precedent for political retribution,” a statement from the party said. “The day that a majority can simply expel a member of the opposing party without legitimate cause threatens the fabric of democracy in our state and creates a reckless roadmap for GOP controlled state legislatures across the nation.”
Prior to the vote, Pearson publicly shared a letter he sent to House members in which he said he took accountability for “not following decorum” on the House floor but defended his actions.
“My walk to the House floor in a peaceful and civil manner was not an insurrection. I wanted to listen and respond to the voices of Tennesseans who were not give the opportunity to speak in meaningful dialogue with us,” Pearson wrote, according to an image of the letter he shared on social media.
Following their removal, pictures and profiles of Pearson and Jones have been pulled from the Tennessee General Assembly’s website and their districts have been listed as vacant.
More about the three representatives:
Rep. Justin Pearson:District: 86
Age: 28
In office: 2023-
Issues: Environmental, racial and economic justice
Of note: Successfully blocked oil pipeline from being built in south Memphis
Recent awards: The Root’s 100 Most Influential Black Americans (2022)Rep. Gloria Johnson:District: 90
Age: 60
In office: 2013-2015, 2019-
Issues: Education, jobs, health care
Of note: Successfully organized in favor of Insure Tennessee, the state’s version of Medicaid expansion
Recent awards: National Foundation of Women Legislators Women of Excellence (2022)Rep. Justin Jones:District: 52
Age: 27
In office: 2023-
Issues: Health care, environmental justice
Of note: Wrote “The People’s Plaza: 62 Days of Nonviolent Resistance” after helping to organize a 2022 sit-in
Recent awards: Ubuntu Award for outstanding service, Vanderbilt Organization of Black Graduate and Professional Students (2019)
Tennessee law allows for the appointment of interim House members to fill the seats of expelled lawmakers until an election is held. According to Johnson, it is possible for Jones and Pearson to be appointed back into their seats.
“I think we might have these two young men back very soon,” Johnson said Thursday. “It is my promise to fight like hell to get both of them back.”
Pearson said he hopes to “get re-appointed to serve in the state legislature by the Shelby County Commissioners, and a lot of them, I know, are upset about the anti-democratic behavior of this White supremacist-led state legislature.”
Speaking to a crowd following their expulsion, Pearson and Jones insisted they would persist in advocate for gun control measures and encouraged protesters to continue showing up to the Capitol.
“They thought they won today, but they don’t realize what they started,” Jones said. “They started a movement they can’t stop.”
The former representatives also tore into Republican lawmakers for what they said was an attack on democracy.
“We demand that democracy be for everybody, not just for rich White men in suits, not just for rich White people who got these positions of power perpetuating the status quo,” Pearson said.
The House had only previously expelled two state representatives in the last 157 years. The first, in 1980, was a representative found guilty of accepting a bribe while in office, and the most recent was in 2016 when another was expelled over allegations of sexual harassment.
Democratic Rep. Joe Towns called the move a “nuclear option.”
“You never use a sledgehammer to kill a gnat,” Towns said. “We should not go to the extreme of expelling our members for fighting for what many of the citizens want to happen, whether you agree with it or not.”
The executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee, Kathy Sinback, called the move in a statement a “targeted expulsion of two Black legislators without due process.”
She continued, “It raises questions about the disparate treatment of Black representatives, while continuing the shameful legacy of disenfranchising and silencing the voices of marginalized communities and the Black lawmakers they elect.”
