Justin J. Pearson appointed to House seat in 7-0 vote
Tennessee State Rep. Justin Pearson celebrates with friends and family outside of the Vasco A. Smith Jr. County Administration Building in Downtown Memphis April 12, 2023. (Patrick Lantrip/The Daily Memphian)
Justin J. Pearson is on his way back to the state House with an appointment Wednesday, April 12, by the Shelby County Commission.
He was expelled from his District 86 seat Thursday, April 6, for violating the House’s rules of decorum.
Pearson was appointed by a vote of 7-0. Voting yes were Henri Brooks, Edmund Ford Jr., Erika Sugarmon, Charlie Caswell, Shante Avant, Miska Clay-Bibbs and Mickell Lowery.
None of the four Republican county commissioners were in attendance. Democrats Britney Thornton and Michael Whaley were absent.
Republican commissioner David Bradford had said last week he would not be present for the meeting. The other three Republican commissioners — Mick Wright, Brandon Morrison and Amber Mills — were present for committee sessions earlier Wednesday.
Wright issued a written statement just before the special meeting saying he could not “in good conscience contribute to what I see as a breakdown in our representative system of government. Therefore I leave this decision in the hands of my Democratic colleagues.”
Sugarmon urged Pearson to “keep up the good trouble.”
After the vote, Pearson told commissioners and those who packed the commission chambers, “Nashville thought they could kill democracy.”
“We’ve got a problem in Nashville and it’s called a promise they are holding onto with the status quo,” he said. “Their allegiance is to the National Rifle Association.”
Pearson, along with Democratic reps Justin Jones from Nashville and Gloria Johnson from Knoxville, spoke without permission March 30 in support of legislative gun reform. Pearson and Jones used a bullhorn during the incident, which was in response to protests underway at the state Capitol.
Wednesday’s commission appointment was the second one for Pearson in the span of a few months.
Commissioners appointed him to the seat in January, the day after he won the special Democratic primary election to fill the vacancy created by the October death of veteran state Rep. Barbara Cooper.
He was sworn in Feb. 9 on an interim basis and officially sworn in March 27.
While Pearson returns to his seat by appointment, he and Jones will still have to run again for their seats in special elections — primary and general — to be called by Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee.
Shelby County commissioners have said the special election is likely to cost just under $1 million based on the cost of past elections.
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Justin J. Pearson Tennessee Legislature Shelby County CommissionBill Dries on demand
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Bill Dries
Bill Dries covers city and county government and politics. He is a native Memphian and has been a reporter for almost 50 years covering a wide variety of stories from the 1977 death of Elvis Presley and the 1978 police and fire strikes to numerous political campaigns, every county mayor and every Memphis Mayor starting with Wyeth Chandler.
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