Members of the Shelby County Board of Commissioners voted to reinstate former state Rep. Justin Pearson after he was expelled by the Tennessee House of Representatives last week.
Pearson will resume his post representing the Memphis district and regain his seat in the House.
Although the vote led to a celebration, Pearson had warned of rumors that the GOP-majority Legislature will withhold over $300 million in funding to Shelby County if he is reinstated — leaving him uncertain about what will happen in Wednesday’s vote.
Pearson and his colleague Justin Jones were expelled from the House on Thursday, April 6, by Republicans who said they broke decorum rules by staging a demonstration for gun reform on the House floor. Jones was reinstated on Monday, April 10 after the Metropolitan Council of Nashville and Davidson County unanimously voted for him to assume the interim position for his vacant seat.
“When we went to the well of the House myself, Rep. (Gloria) Johnson and Rep. Jones, we said we have an allegiance to a people, people who are tired of business as usual,” Pearson said while surrounded by a cheerful crowd on Wednesday. “We do not speak alone. We speak together. We fight together. So a message for all the people in Nashville who decided to expel us: You can’t expel hope. You can’t expel our voice. You sure can’t expel our fight.”
Pearson was elected to the House in January during a special election and was only recently sworn in before he was ousted from his seat.
Mickell Lowery, chairman of the Shelby County Commission, initially released a statement calling for the vote.
Lowery noted that the protest at the State Capitol that caused Pearson’s expulsion was “understandable given the fact that the gun laws in the State of Tennessee are becoming nearly non-existent.”
Adding, “It is equally understandable that the leadership of the State House of Representatives felt a strong message had to be sent…
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