Justin J. Pearson, one of two Black Democratic lawmakers expelled by the GOP-led Tennessee House last week, said on Tuesday the same Republicans are threatening to withhold more than $300 million from the Memphis-area district he represents.
On Monday, Justin Jones, the other member of the “Tennessee Three” who was ousted on April 6 for speaking out against gun violence in the wake of March’s mass shooting at a private school in Nashville, was unanimously reelected by the Nashville Metro Council and thus will be serving as his own “interim” replacement.
Speaking to Politico journalist Jackie Padilla, Pearson said, “I’m hopeful that I’ll be reinstated tomorrow. The truth is, state legislators and people at the Governor’s office, I’ve been told, are threatening to withhold over $300 million of funding to Shelby County in Memphis if I am reinstated.”
Pearson continued, “But the voices of the people are clear. They want, and deserve to have, restoration of representation. Their representation in District 86 was taken from them because their representatives stood up and spoke up for six people in Nashville who will never have the chance to speak again because they were killed by gun violence… Because we decided to speak up, they [GOP members] said their response was not to do something about gun violence, not to pass an assault weapons ban, not to have red flag laws, not to have gun safety storage laws, but to expel the voices who advocate for those things.”
TheWrap has reached out to the Tennessee Republican Party for comment about Pearson’s comments.
Democratic Rep. Gloria Johnson, who is white, joined both of her younger colleagues for the protest and continues to support them. She narrowly survived a vote for her expulsion.
President Joe Biden is among those who have condemned the expulsion. He called it “shocking, undemocratic, and without precedent.” He met virtually with Jones, Pearson and Johnson on Friday.
Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to Tennessee to meet with all three Democrats on Saturday. She delivered a speech at Fisk University in Nashville, in which she said, “A democracy says you do not silence the people, you do not stifle the people, you do not turn off their microphones when they are speaking. These leaders had to get a bullhorn to be heard.”
