Democrats sound alarm, saying Tenn. expulsion drama could spread
Call for vigilance in states where GOP dominates
WASHINGTON— After seeing Republicans in the state Legislature vote to expel two young, Black lawmakers from their ranks for protesting gun violence on the House floor, Black Democratic lawmakers in Tennessee have a warning for the rest of the country: This could happen in your state.
Representatives Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, of Nashville and Memphis, were out of office only days before local officials quickly and unanimously voted them back in last week as interim successors for their just-vacated seats, undercutting the Republican-led actions.
“What we have shown here … is that we do not speak alone. We speak together,” said Pearson at a meeting in Shelby County on Wednesday after being voted back into his role, to a roaring crowd. Jones was sent back to the State House last Monday. “We fight together. And so the message for all the people in
Nashville who decided to expel us: You can’t expel hope. You can’t expel justice. You can’t expel our voice. And you sure can’t expel our fight. We look forward to continuing to fight and continuing to advocate.”
The situation quickly garnered attention for being at the intersection of several national issues, from gun control — the lawmakers had been protesting in response to a school shooting at the end of March that left six people, including three kids, dead — to voter disenfranchisement to racism. Pearson and Jones were expelled while a third lawmaker, who is white and who had protested alongside them, survived the vote and kept her seat.
The connecting thread, said several of Jones’s and Pearson’s colleagues in interviews with the Globe, is the Tennessee Republican Party’s determination to keep a firm grip on power. And, they said, this attempt to throw out democratically elected officials is a mere testing ground for other states with conservative supermajorities.
“We just so happen to have the light shown on us for the last few weeks,” state Senator Charlane Oliver said. “What can happen in Tennessee can happen anywhere in the country. We should absolutely be alarmed and concerned that it can get this bad. There is unchecked power running rampant.”
The Tennessee Legislature has a recent record of dabbling in culture wars and racism.
Earlier this year, Tennessee reportedly became the first state to ban drag shows in public spaces. A white Republican lawmaker proposed adding lynching as a method of execution in the state; he later apologized. And another legislator proposed and then withdrew a bill that would have renamed a street honoring late Representative John Lewis of Georgia — a civil rights icon — for former president Trump.
Black lawmakers describe an atmosphere of microaggressions and the refusal of some Republicans to speak with them.
Several Republican officials, from the Legislature and state Republican Party, did not immediately return requests for comment or interviews on the expulsion of their Democratic colleagues. But the state House speaker, Cameron Sexton, equated the protests to an “insurrection.”
“We had three legislators believe they were above the rules and that the other 96 members’ constituents were lesser than their own,” tweeted Representative Andrew Farmer, a Republican who sponsored legislation to expel the members. “These three were not exercising their rights as legislators, they were performing as protestors.” The resolutions against them accused the Democratic lawmakers of “disorderly behavior,” including speaking without recognition, using a bullhorn, and displaying a sign with a political message.
The expulsion of Jones and Pearson was seen by many as overreach in a state where such drastic disciplinary measures against sitting lawmakers are rare in modern times, reported The Tennessean, and usually in response to crimes or scandals versus voicing dissent.
“A democracy says you don’t silence the people, you do not stifle the people, you do not turn off their microphones when they are speaking about the importance of life and liberty,” said Vice President Kamala Harris in remarks at Fisk University in Nashville on April 7.
Which is not to say that there wasn’t an immediate upside for Democrats, including the party outside of Tennessee.
Jones and Pearson became overnight stars of the Democratic Party, far exceeding the amount of attention that would normally be paid to elected officials at their level. Their social media influence grew significantly, with follower counts ticking dramatically skyward. Harris traveled to Tennessee and met with them and Gloria Johnson, the third lawmaker involved in the protest. President Biden called them and extended an invitation to the White House. The chair of the Democratic National Committee, Jaime Harrison, also from a southern state, spoke with them. And there’s already talk among Democrats of them being sent as surrogates across the country for party causes.
“I think their future is unlimited, depends on what they want to do, and whatever that is, they have my full support,” said Representative Sam McKenzie, the chair of the Tennessee Black Caucus of State Legislators.