NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Two former Black Democratic lawmakers fired by Republican colleagues in Tennessee say they want to be reappointed, then re-elected to their seats, after being fired for a protest on the House floor. urges passage of gun control measures in the wake of a deadly school shooting.
The Nashville metro council is likely to re-appoint Justin Jones to the seat during a special called meeting on Monday. Mickell Lowery, the chairman of the Shelby County Commission, said in a statement Sunday that the panel will consider at a meeting Wednesday whether to reappoint Justin Pearson, who is from Memphis, to his seat.
Lowery said he understands the need to address “rule breakers” in the state House of Representatives.
“However, I believe that the firing of State Representative Justin Pearson was done in a hasty manner without consideration of other corrective action methods. I also believe that the consequences for our great State are not yet to be seen,” he said.
The two former lawmakers told NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday that they want to return to their positions as lawmakers. Special elections for the seats, which have not yet been scheduled, will follow in the coming months.
Deportations make Tennessee a new battlefront for the future of American democracy. Former lawmakers quickly attracted prominent supporters. President Joe Biden spoke with them and Vice President Kamala Harris visited them in Nashville.
“You know, we’re going to continue to fight for our constituents,” Jones said. “And one thing I just want to say … is that this attack against us will harm all the people of our state. You know, even though it disproportionately affects Black and Brown communities, it hurts poor whites. Their attack on democracy hurts us all.
In separate votes Thursday, the GOP supermajority ousted Jones and Pearson, a move that left about 140,000 voters in the primarily Black districts of Nashville and Memphis without representation in the House.
Pearson and Jones were fired in retaliation for their role in last week’s protest, which came after a school shooting in Nashville that killed six people, including three young students and three adults who worked at school. The shooter was killed by the police.
The third Democrat, Rep. Gloria Johnson of Knoxville, survived ouster by a one-vote margin. Johnson is white, sparking an outcry of disparate outcomes for two young, black lawmakers. Republican lawmakers who split their votes cited Johnson’s points on the floor that his role in the protest was smaller — he didn’t speak into a megaphone, for example.
Johnson also suggested that race may have been a factor in why Jones and Pearson were fired but he was not, telling reporters that it “probably had something to do with the color of our skin.”
Republican House Speaker Cameron Sexton said that was a “false narrative.”
“Unfortunately, he’s trying to put racism in the politics of it, which has none of it,” Sexton told Fox News on Friday.
GOP leaders say impeachment actions — used only a handful of times since the Civil War — are necessary to avoid setting a precedent that lawmakers who disrupt House proceedings through protest are allowed. .
Pearson said the statehouse is a “toxic work environment.” He noted the scrutiny he received for wearing a black dashiki – a tunic-like garment originating in west Africa – for the session, rather than a suit and tie.
“It’s about those of us who don’t belong to the institution because they’re afraid of the changes that are happening in our society, and the voices that are being raised,” Pearson said on Meet the Press.
