Outspoken Tennessee State Rep. Justin J. Pearson announced Wednesday that he is running for Congress to represent the Memphis area in Washington, D.C. To do so, Pearson is launching a primary challenge against the state’s lone Democratic representative. The move, endorsed by progressives, comes as Memphis braces for the National Guard as President Donald Trump targets the city for his latest intervention.
Pearson debuts ‘Us’ campaign for Congress
Pearson declared his candidacy to represent Tennessee’s 9th District, the state’s only Democratic one. In his announcement news release, Pearson said, “For too long, our district has been told to ‘keep going’ with the same leadership and the same outcomes, even as Memphis’s poverty rate at 22.6% is nearly double the rate for all Tennesseans.” Pearson mentioned, “We can’t afford more of the same. It’s time for a new vision — one that matches the scale of our challenges with the urgency our people deserve.”
His platform emphasizes workers’ rights, affordable housing, gun control and access to healthcare. In a launch video centered around the theme “Us,” Pearson touted his Memphis roots, his track record of standing up to powerful interests and his ability “to build brides across race, identity, ethnicity and generations.”
Justice Democrats support as Pearson launches primary challenge against incumbent
Pearson launched his primary challenge with the endorsement of the progressive Justice Democrats. The organization celebrated Pearson as “a tireless champion for common sense gun legislation, environmental justice, and labor rights and living wages for working families.” The organization also criticized Pearson’s primary opponent, incumbent Steve Cohen, who has served in Congress since 2006, as an “average absentee Congressman” who “rarely shows up in the community, campaigns for support, or holds town halls — taking incumbency in Tennessee’s only Democratic district for granted at the expense of his own voters — while still cashing checks from corporate PACs.”
Pearson steps up for Memphis as Trump and the National Guard prepare to step in
As Blavity reported, Pearson gained national prominence after he and fellow State Rep. Justin Jones were expelled from the Tennessee legislature after protesting for gun reform. Their expulsion — a punishment not shared by an older, white female colleague who protested alongside them — drew widespread criticism. Both soon regained their seats in special elections and have been vocal advocates for progressive causes in the Republican-majority state. Recently, Peason has criticized the Trump administration for its plans to send federal troops into Memphis, just as the administration has done or intends to do to other Democratic-controlled cities around the United States. Pearson called the National Guard deployment to Memphis “nothing more than a power play for more authoritarianism from this administration,” and he accused Trump and his Republican allies in Tennessee of “perpetuating the lie about Black criminality” to justify the intervention.
If successful, Pearson would present a progressive voice in Congress as the Trump administration seeks to impose its will on Memphis and other cities nationwide. To get there, however, Pearson will have to upset a long-term incumbent Democrat and convince voters that he’s the best candidate to represent a blue oasis in a red state. With today’s launch, Pearson is declaring that he is the right person to push “us” forward.