(AURN News) — Tennessee state Rep. Justin Pearson, D-Memphis — one of the “Tennessee Three” lawmakers expelled in 2023 after a gun control protest — has announced he is running for Congress, according to The Associated Press.
The 30-year-old Democrat launched his campaign Wednesday from a Memphis park near his childhood home, declaring a challenge to longtime U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, 76, for Tennessee’s 9th Congressional District — the state’s only Democratic-leaning seat.
Pearson, a former environmental justice activist, gained national recognition when he and state Reps. Justin Jones, D-Nashville, and Gloria Johnson, D-Knoxville, protested gun violence following a Nashville school shooting.
While Pearson and Jones were expelled and later reinstated, Pearson has continued to call for gun reform and poverty reduction, saying, “We can’t afford more of the same — it’s time for a new vision.”
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