The “Tennessee Three” got bumped from prime time on the main stage Thursday, Aug. 22, at the Chicago Democratic National Convention.

The three state House members, including Memphian Justin J. Pearson, were expected to be part of the Thursday night push against gun violence leading up to Vice President Kamala Harris accepting the Democratic presidential nomination.

The convention heard from several other speakers on the issue of gun violence and gun control, and its three previous nights saw key speakers delayed to the edge of television’s prime-time window and beyond. On Thursday, Harris took the stage during the 9 p.m. hour.

State House Democratic leader Karen Camper of Memphis got closest to the podium ahead of the climactic moment of the convention and the traditional balloon drop that followed Harris’ address.

Camper, a retired U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer with 21 years in the service, was among a group of veterans who came on stage during Arizona Congressman Ruben Gallego’s speech.

Pearson was a visible and vocal presence throughout the Chicago convention’s four days. He has become a booster of local, state and national Democratic campaigns as he seeks a second term in the state House.

Pearson, along with Knoxville Democrat Gloria Johnson and Nashville Democrat Justin Jones, were threatened with expulsion in 2023 by Republican House Speaker Cameron Sexton for speaking from the House floor in favor of gun control without being recognized.

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Sexton pursued expulsion proceedings against all three. The House voted to expel Jones and Pearson but not Johnson. The two men were later reappointed to their seats and then won special primary and general elections.

The Tennessee delegation was the first group of delegates to caucus online and switch their support to Harris the same day in July that President Joe Biden called off his reelection bid.

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With the 1980s Dolly Parton hit “9 to 5” playing in the background, Tennessee Democratic Party chairman Hendrell Remus and Pearson formally announced the state delegates’ votes during the convention’s Tuesday roll call.

Clustered around them were Memphis City Council Chairman JB Smiley Jr., U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen and state Democratic Senators Raumesh Akbari and state Senator London Lamar.

In 90 seconds, Pearson used the brief, nationally televised moment to describe the political plight of Democrats in a state that has been carried by the Republican presidential nominee since 2000.

“From the bluffs of Memphis to the peaks of Mountain City, the movement for justice rooted in love in Tennessee is still strong,” he said. “It is a movement where kids are free from gun violence. It is a movement where women have the right to choose.”

“It is a movement where working people get access to economic opportunity, a movement where those who have been pushed to the periphery are brought to the center. A movement where those who have been pushed down are lifted up.”

Further back in the delegation was Memphis Mayor Paul Young who posted earlier in the convention about the presence of Memphis-based A&R BBQ near the convention site.

On Thursday’s last day of the convention, Cohen posted on X about a 1960 visit to Memphis by future President John F. Kennedy that impacted his political trajectory as a child.

He posted that as he reacted to news that Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was considering dropping out of the presidential race to endorse Trump.

Cohen called it “a treasonous act to the Kennedy name and antithetical to their spirit. Shame.”

The Chicago convention is Cohen’s ninth. As the top elected Democratic official in the state, Cohen will lead the local version of the Harris-Walz campaign — a campaign he described as “fighting for the soul of America.”

Johnson stood to gain the most among the Democratic elected officials at the convention because of her challenge to Republican U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn on the Nov. 5 ballot.

It’s a race that is not among those Democrats at the national level have focused on to maintain the narrow majority they have in the Senate.

She, Jones and Pearson were seated together during Harris’ speech.

A follower on X suggested that Johnson post the remarks she was going to make from the main stage.

Johnson has argued that national attention and fundraising could help make her challenge more potent against a Republican incumbent who is a vocal supporter of former President Donald Trump.

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Johnson recalled how Harris cleared her schedule to come to Nashville the day after the expulsion votes.

“That meant so much to us,” Johnson said in an online interview Wednesday outside the convention hall with Shannon Watts, founder of the gun control group Moms Demand Action. “It was such a good feeling for Tennesseans.”

Johnson also accused the Republican super majorities in the legislature of encouraging three recent marches by neo-Nazi groups in Nashville.

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“I see a lot of racism. I see it in committee, on the House floor. I see it everywhere and we have to call it out,” she told Watts. “You have to call out their lies. You have to call out all of these things that are happening.”

As the convention moved to its conclusion Thursday, Tennessee partisans on both sides of the party line, including Blackburn, sparred on social media.

As Harris spoke in Chicago, Blackburn treated the Vice President as the incumbent.

For most of the month, Tennessee Democratic Party leaders have made X posts challenging Blackburn to debate Johnson.

Republican U.S. Sen. Bill Hagerty, meanwhile, referred to Harris as “a Trojan horse for the socialist left” in a series of convention posts.