The Tennessee House’s youngest Reps. Justin Jones, D-Nashville, and Justin J. Pearson, D-Memphis — who are both Black — have been expelled from the chamber for their participation in gun control protests last week on the House floor. Meanwhile, Knoxville Rep. Gloria Johnson, who is white, narrowly escaped the same fate.
The body deliberated Thursday for more than six hours about whether to expel the so-called Tennessee Three, capping off an acrimonious two weeks at the statehouse following the Covenant School shooting.
Blaise Gainey WPLN NewsReps. Gloria Johnson, Justin J. Pearson and Justin Jones held a press conference Monday, April 3, after participating in the gun control protest last week at the Tennessee Capitol.
Jones, Johnson and Pearson faced sanctions for breaking House rules on decorum among other violations.
Republicans hold a 75-seat supermajority in the House and needed only 66 votes to expel the Democrats.
“The world is watching Tennessee,” Jones said in his opening before a nearly party line vote, 72-25, in favor of expelling him. “What is happening today is a farce of democracy.”
Jones argued that the proceedings were a lynching — “not of me, but of the democratic process.”
“I want those of you to know when I came to the well, I was fighting for your children and grandchildren, too,” Jones said in his closing statement. “And to those that will cast votes here for expulsion, I was fighting for your children too — to live free from the terror of school shootings and mass shootings.”
Last Thursday, the trio of Democrats interrupted a floor session by using a megaphone to call for more gun control, days after a shooter killed six people, including three 9-year-olds, at a Nashville private school.
Brentwood Republican Gino Bulso said, when the three lawmakers used a bullhorn to protest, they disrespected the statehouse.
“So not to expel (Jones) would simply invite him and his colleagues to continue to engage in mutiny on the House floor — a mutiny which to this body and to this state has been unknown in its 227-year history since we adopted our constitution,” he said during deliberations.
Republican House Speaker Cameron Sexton in media interviews ahead of the session called the lawmakers “insurrectionists” and led the charge to eject the Democrats.
Rep. Gloria Johnson, speaking to This is Nashville on Wednesday, called the speaker’s actions unprecedented.
“This was not an insurrection,” Johnson said. “We’ve had skirmishes on the floor that have taken this long to resolve, and there were never any consequences.”
Ahead of the failed 65-30 vote to expel her Thursday, the Knoxville representative echoed Jones’ sentiment about protesting on behalf of their constituents.
“You’re silencing the voice of 70,000 Tennesseans that sent me here, that care deeply about gun violence, and we are continually silenced on the floor on those issues and more,” Johnson said.
The measure to remove Pearson came up last, and ended up 69-26 in favor of expulsion.
“We are not relinquishing our seat. With this vote, you are taking it,” he said in his opening statement. “You are disenfranchising the people of District 86. You are disenfranchising tens of thousands of people in our state. We are not giving anything away.”
To start the proceedings, House GOP members suspended the rules to play a seven-minute edited video of the trio’s protesting, which included footage from the Tennessee Holler and a House member who recorded in apparent violation of floor rules.
Blaise Gainey WPLN NewsRep. Justin Jones, D-Nashville, gives his opening statement ahead of the vote to expel him from the Tennessee House on Thursday, April 6.
The last time a Tennessee lawmaker was expelled was last year, when the Senate expelled Katrina Robinson, a Black woman, after she was convicted of fraud for misusing federal money.
In the House, the last member expelled from the chamber was Rep. Jeremy Durham, a white man, in 2016 for allegations of sexual abuse. That was preceded by a lengthy investigation from the state attorney general’s office. Before that, you have to go all the way back to 1980, when a House member was expelled for bribery.
It was noted by defenders of the Tennessee Three that there have been a lot of questionable behaviors in the years since then: the member who urinated on another’s chair and others who were accused of very serious crimes without being censored, much less expelled.
Despite rain, protestors showed up en masse at the capitol
Protestors began trickling onto the rain-soaked capitol steps Thursday morning to rally for the lawmakers ahead of the vote, holding signs, chanting and playing music.
Not everyone was let inside though, as the floor session began. One hundred and twenty-eight people are allowed to be in the gallery, and officials say both sides were full, meaning 256 managed to get in before the capitol shut its doors.
Jasmine Blue came out to the statehouse to protest the vote. She said even though the representatives were in the minority, hearing their voices had given her hope.
“I felt really devastated. I feel like these are really dark days in Tennessee,” Blue said. “And their voices are so needed.”
https://twitter.com/BlaiseGainey/status/1644037782170398723?s=20
While Thursday’s floor session began at 9 a.m., the expulsion vote began at the end of regular business around 1:20 p.m. The three lawmakers addressed their colleagues before each vote began.
The House started the session by debating a bill backed by Gov. Bill Lee, HB 0322, to address school security but not guns. The bill includes provisions budgeting $140 million to fund an armed officer at every school, requiring building doors to be locked and mandating active shooter drills.
“Whatever it takes to make sure they are safe at school — that they feel safe at school — yes, sir, we will fortify those schools,” said William Lamberth, R-Portland.
Democrats called the bill a “bandaid” that does not address the root problem of gun violence.
“Nowhere in this bill do I see the word guns … AR-15s … the thing that is traumatizing and terrorizing these young people,” said Jones, as he faced expulsion.
https://twitter.com/BlaiseGainey/status/1643968950919626752?s=20
Meanwhile, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre opened Thursday’s press briefing condemning the expulsion vote.
“The fact that this vote is happening is shocking, undemocratic and without precedent,” she said. “Across Tennessee and across America, our kids are paying the price for the actions of Republican lawmakers who refuse to take action on stronger gun laws.”
Jean-Pierre said that President Biden will continue to call on Congress to pass gun reform measures, including a ban on assault-style weapons and strengthened background checks.
President @JoeBiden and former President @BarackObama weigh in on #TNpol pic.twitter.com/cInUthrZCW
— Blaise L Gainey (@BlaiseGainey) April 7, 2023
Combined, Jones, Pearson and Johnson represented around 200,000 Tennesseans, and the decision leaves more than 130,000 constituents without a vote in the remaining weeks of the session.
Nashville school administrator Danielle Dorris is among them. She was at the state capitol during the expulsion proceedings to support Jones.
“This is the person we voted for, we elected and we are no longer represented by,” Dorris said. “And that is horrifying, because everyday I think about my students, I think about my school, I think about my teachers, and we do not have a person fighting to protect us anymore.”
Members of Nashville's Metro Council have already come out and said that they will reappoint @brotherjones_ to the @TNHouseReps. pic.twitter.com/8KbPvl4lxR
— Blaise L Gainey (@BlaiseGainey) April 6, 2023
Davidson County could hold a special election to fill the vacancy. Metro Council is holding a special meeting on Monday, where they may reappoint Jones back to the District 52 seat.
Council Inbox — Special Meeting on April 10 at 4:30 PM. pic.twitter.com/ssJVETo0k2
— Bob Mendes (@mendesbob) April 6, 2023
After the vote to expel them, Jones and Pearson both reactivated their fundraising sites.
Pearson could also run again. There is likely to be a special election for the seat vacated by him later this year.
This is a developing story. This post was last updated at 10:15 a.m. on Friday, April 7.
WPLN’s Alexis Marshall, Chas Sisk, Cynthia Abrams and Caroline Eggers contributed to this report.
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