Nashville officials prepare to vote on expelled lawmakers

Nashville officials are poised to vote Monday to reinstate one of the two Black Democratic lawmakers expelled by Republican colleagues for their gun control protest on the Tennessee House floor after a deadly school shooting – essentially, sending him back to the office after a long weekend.

Nashville’s metro council has called the meeting to address the vacancy left by the expulsion on Thursday of former Rep. Justin Jones. Many council members have publicly commented that they want to send Mr. Jones back to the statehouse. The vote will happen as state lawmakers hold their first floor sessions since last week’s expulsion votes.

Mickell Lowery, the chair of the Shelby County Commission, said in a statement Sunday that the panel will consider at a meeting Wednesday whether to reappoint Justin Pearson, who is from Memphis, to his seat.

Mr. Lowery said he understands the need to respond to those who “transgressed the rules” of the state House of Representatives.

“However, I believe the expulsion of State Representative Justin Pearson was conducted in a hasty manner without consideration of other corrective action methods. I also believe that the ramifications for our great State are still yet to be seen,” he said.

Both former lawmakers told NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday that they want to return to their positions as lawmakers. 

Special elections for the seats, which have not yet been set, will take place in the coming months. Mr. Jones and Mr. Pearson have said they want to be reappointed and plan to run in a special election.

At the Statehouse, meanwhile, it’s unclear how House Republicans would respond to seeing the lawmakers they kicked out sent right back. House Speaker Cameron Sexton has said lawmakers will go through the process if or when they are reappointed.

Mr. Jones and Mr. Pearson have quickly drawn prominent supporters. President Joe Biden spoke with them, and Vice President Kamala Harris visited them in Nashville.

A third Democrat targeted for expulsion, Rep. Gloria Johnson of Knoxville, has also garnered national attention. Ms. Johnson, who is white, was spared expulsion by a one-vote margin. Republican lawmakers justified splitting their votes by saying Ms. Johnson had less of a role in the protest – she didn’t speak into the megaphone, for example.

The protesting lawmakers had called on Republicans to pass some sort of gun control legislation in the aftermath of the Nashville school shooting that killed six people, including three young children and three adults working at the school. The shooter was killed by police.

Ms. Johnson has also suggested race was likely a factor in why Mr. Jones and Mr. Pearson were ousted but not her, telling reporters it “might have to do with the color of our skin.”

GOP leaders have said the actions – used only a handful of times since the Civil War – had nothing to do with race, and instead were necessary to avoid setting a precedent that lawmakers’ disruptions of House proceedings through protest would be tolerated.

The expulsions have made Tennessee a new front in the battle for the future of American democracy.

“You know, we will continue to fight for our constituents,” Mr. Jones said. “And one thing I just want to say ... is that this attack against us is hurting all people in our state. You know, even though it is disproportionately impacting Black and brown communities, this is hurting poor white people. Their attack on democracy hurts all of us.”

This story was reported by The Associated Press.