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justin pearson
Green Groups Rally Behind Tennessee's Justin Pearson for Congress
"Justin would be one of Congress' strongest voices protecting communities from Big Oil's pollution and climate disasters, while championing a just transition to affordable renewable energy."
Jul 30, 2026
A week away from Tennessee's Democratic primary, a coalition of national advocacy groups endorsed Justin Pearson, who is running to represent the state's 9th Congressional District in the US House of Representatives.
"Tennesseans deserve a champion who will stand up to corporate polluters and fight to ensure every community has a voice in shaping its future," said Brett Hartl, national political director at the Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund. "Justin Pearson understands that strong environmental protections depend on a healthy democracy where people, not powerful special interests, hold the power to protect their communities and natural heritage."
In addition to Hartl's group, Climate Hawks Vote, Food & Water Action, Friends of the Earth Action, GrayPAC, Jane Fonda Climate PAC, Oil Change Action, and US Mobilizing for Urgent Sustainable Transformation all endorsed Pearson, who currently represents the 86th District in the Tennessee House of Representatives.
Friends of the Earth Action president Erich Pica argued that "in Congress, Justin Pearson will serve Tennessee's 9th Congressional District with integrity, devotion, and hope, at a time when this country needs all three."
"He will fight to build the green economy, securing not only jobs but also a livable world for our children and grandchildren," Pica continued. "He will work to ensure that everyone has access to healthcare, affordable housing, and clean air and clean water. He will lead on the climate crisis while others barely talk about it."
Pearson previously garnered national attention in April 2023 when he and state Rep. Justin Jones (D-52) were expelled from the GOP-controlled Tennessee House for protesting against gun violence; both ultimately won back their seats.
Since Pearson launched his campaign for Congress, demanding not only stricter gun laws but also a higher minimum wage, climate justice, affordable housing, Medicare for All, protections for immigrants, and an end to spending taxpayer dollars on war, he has picked up support from progressive organizations and leaders, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Democratic Reps. Maxwell Frost (Fla.), Ro Khanna (Calif.), Summer Lee (Pa.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY), Ayanna Pressley (Mass.), Delia Ramirez (Ill.), and Rashida Tlaib (Mich.).
Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez introduced the Artificial Intelligence Data Center Moratorium Act in March, and earlier this month, Pearson joined AOC, Lee, and Pressley in southwest Memphis, near a data center owned by billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceXAI and used by Anthropic. As with other communities across the country that are home to such facilities, locals are concerned about air pollution and water use.
"Justin Pearson is the kind of leader that is sorely needed in Washington. He is a genuine champion for working families, for civil rights, and for environmental justice," Thomas Meyer, deputy political director at Food & Water Action, said Thursday. "Justin's principled stand against corporate polluters, from oil and gas pipelines to Elon Musk's data center, shows that he isn't afraid to take on difficult and important fights."
💥 We’re proud to endorse Justin Pearson, a data center fighter + voting rights champ running for Congress in TN. As an organizer + state rep, Justin fought to protect his community from polluting fossil fuel projects, including an X/AI data center. Now, he's ready to take that fight to Congress.
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— Oil Change Action (@oilchangeaction.org) July 30, 2026 at 11:00 AM
The fight for the seat Pearson hopes to hold has been a key factor in Democrats' efforts to reclaim control of Congress and Republicans' attempts to keep their slim majorities, including by redrawing political maps to favor the GOP, at the command of President Donald Trump.
After the US Supreme Court's right-wing supermajority issued an April ruling that further gutted the Voting Rights Act, Tennessee Republicans "rushed to be the first to shamelessly capitalize on it," targeting the state's only majority-Black district, where Pearson is running. Despite a swiftly filed legal challenge, a three-judge panel recently allowed the rigged map to stand.
Climate Hawks Vote political director RL Miller declared Thursday that "the way we fight back against Republican gerrymandering of states like Tennessee is by electing voting rights champions."
"The way we fight back against polluters is by electing environmental justice champions," Miller said. "Justin Pearson stands for everything that matters in American politics right now, and Climate Hawks Vote is thrilled to endorse him."
In addition to highlighting his fight against the recent map rigging, Allie Rosenbluth, campaign manager at Oil Change Action, stressed that Pearson does not accept fossil fuel money or contributions from corporate political action committees.
"We are proud to endorse Justin Pearson, who has spent his career fighting for racial, economic, and environmental justice," she said. "He doesn't back down in the face of entrenched interests' efforts to suppress working people's political power, like Republicans' racist redrawing of his district. If elected, Justin would be one of Congress' strongest voices protecting communities from Big Oil’s pollution and climate disasters, while championing a just transition to affordable renewable energy."
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'This Moment Calls for a True Fighter': Progressive Group Backs Justin Pearson for Congress
"Justice Democrats is so proud to endorse Justin J. Pearson to bring people-first leadership to Tennessee's only Democratic district," said the group's executive director.
Oct 08, 2025
Tennessee state Rep. Justin J. Pearson, currently running to represent the 9th Congressional District in the US House of Representatives, was endorsed Wednesday by the national progressive group Justice Democrats, which said his history of fearless leadership is precisely what the country needs to combat the authoritarian push by Republicans, including President Donald Trump.
"Justice Democrats is so proud to endorse Justin J. Pearson to bring people-first leadership to Tennessee's only Democratic district," said the group's executive director, Alexandra Rojas, in a statement.
The candidate said he was "honored" to have the group's support, and its investment gives him "the opportunity to join the ranks of progressive, working-class champions" in Congress, pointing to Reps. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) and Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.).
"We look forward to fighting alongside them in their visionary efforts to identify, nurture, and uplift bold, progressive, and courageous leaders to help our country overcome corporate greed, white supremacy, patriarchy, inequality, authoritarianism, and other attacks on democracy," he added.
"The communities and rising young leadership Justin represents in the 9th are on the frontlines of Donald Trump and Elon Musk's war on working families."
Pearson, who represents the 86th District in the Tennessee House of Representatives, which includes parts of Memphis, garnered national attention as one of the "Tennessee Three" in 2023, when the chamber's Republicans expelled him and Rep. Justin Jones (D-52) over their protest for stricter gun laws in the wake of the deadly Covenant School shooting in Nashville. Local officials quickly reinstated both men.
The 30-year-old's congressional campaign comes as Trump has sent National Guard troops to multiple US communities, and The Associated Press reports that they "could also be in Memphis by Friday." Pearson is among the local elected officials who have spoken out about sending soldiers to the city.
"The communities and rising young leadership Justin represents in the 9th are on the frontlines of Donald Trump and Elon Musk's war on working families," said Rojas. "They are showing the country, like so many other major cities under attack, what it means to truly come together to protect one another, not roll over, and fight back."
"This district does not have time to wait or keep going with the same status quo leadership that has governed for decades," she continued. "Tennessee voters need more than congressional letters and tweets—they need a congressperson that will fight with every tool at their disposal to deliver real, tangible change with solutions as big as the crises we face."
Justice Democrats shared a launch video on social media, arguing that "this moment calls for a true fighter like Justin."
"He is part of a wave of working-class, progressive candidates who are vital in the federal fight to take on Trump's authoritarianism, realign the Dem Party, excite our base, and turn out who we need to win up and down the ballot," said the group—which is also supporting Donavan McKinney's primary challenge to Rep. Shri Thanedar in Michigan's 13th District and Angela Gonzales-Torres in her race against Congressman Jimmy Gomez in California's 34th District.
In an interview published Wednesday, Pearson spoke with The Nation's Chris Lehmann about his Democratic primary challenge to 10-term incumbent Rep. Steve Cohen. According to the magazine's DC bureau chief, the Memphis native expressed gratitude for the congressman's service but emphasized his "working-class background against Cohen's status as a veteran Capitol Hill insider who recently purchased a condominium in Washington," and added that "he would diverge from Cohen's stalwart support for Israel in Congress."
Lehmann noted that "Justice Democrats, in the tradition of campaign advocacy groups, goes after Cohen more directly in its statement endorsing Pearson," calling out the 76-year-old incumbent for "cashing checks" from corporate political action committees while embracing "the model of the average absentee congressman."
"His lack of engaged and active representation has lowered expectations Memphians have for their congressperson," Justice Democrats said, "further eroding civil engagement and inspiring political cynicism in a working-class community already under attack on all sides."
In addition to Justice Democrats, Pearson is backed by Leaders We Deserve, a group led by former Democratic National Committee Vice Chair David Hogg, who said in a statement, "In this moment of crisis, I'm calling on Rep. Steve Cohen to pass the torch to Justin J. Pearson—a transformational leader who can inspire a new generation."
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Trump Deploying National Guard to Memphis Called 'Cruel Intimidation Tactic'
“When military troops police civilians, we have an intolerable threat to individual liberty and the foundational values of this country,” said the head of the ACLU's National Security Project.
Sep 16, 2025
Leaders at the ACLU on Tuesday joined other rights advocates and elected Democrats in condemning US President Donald Trump's decision to deploy the National Guard to Memphis with a Monday order he signed beside Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee.
“When military troops police civilians, we have an intolerable threat to individual liberty and the foundational values of this country,” said Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU's National Security Project, in a statement.
“President Trump may want to normalize armed forces in our cities, but no matter what uniform they wear, federal agents and military troops are bound by the Constitution and have to respect our rights to peaceful assembly, freedom of speech, and due process," Shamsi continued. "State and local leaders must stay strong and take all lawful measures to protect residents against this cruel intimidation tactic.”
While Lee expressed his gratitude to Trump for the order, some other elected officials in Tennessee have spoken out since Trump previewed his plans for Memphis on "Fox & Friends" last Friday.
The Associated Press reported on local opposition Monday:
“I did not ask for the National Guard, and I don’t think it’s the way to drive down crime,” Memphis Mayor Paul Young told a news conference Friday while acknowledging the city remained high on too many “bad lists.”
Young has also said that now the decision is made, he wants to ensure he can help influence the Guard’s role. He mentioned possibilities such as traffic control for big events, monitoring cameras for police and undertaking beautification projects.
At a news conference Monday, some local Democrats urged officials to consider options to oppose the deployment. Tami Sawyer, Shelby County General Sessions Court Clerk, said the city or county could sue.
State Rep. Justin Pearson (D-86), whose district includes parts of the city, declared, “We need poverty eradication, not military occupation!”
Denouncing Trump's targeting of Memphis on MSNBC, Congressman Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) said that "having the National Guard here is unnecessary and it is a stunt. It's just a Trump show, to show his power and his force."
"I think this may be the first representation of his changing the Department of Defense to the Department of War, because he likes to put the National Guard at his direction, as his being the great warrior, into cities and going to war," he added.
According to a White House fact sheet, Trump's memorandum tasks Secretary of War Pete Hegseth with requesting Lee "make Tennessee National Guard units available to support public safety and law enforcement operations in Memphis," and further directs Hegseth to "coordinate with state governors to mobilize National Guard personnel from those states to support this effort."
The order also "establishes a Memphis Safe Task Force tasked with ending street and violent crime in Memphis to the greatest possible extent, including by coordinating closely with state and local officials in Tennessee, Memphis, and neighboring jurisdictions to share information, develop joint priorities, and maximize resources to make Memphis safe and restore public order."
🪡Governor Bill Lee, Senator Marsha Blackburn, Rep. David Kustoff, and Sen. Brent Taylor have chosen fear-mongering and authoritarianism over real solutions. They voted to gut healthcare and food security from Memphians. Sending troops will not fix the failures they created.
— Indivisible Memphis (@indivisiblememphis.bsky.social) September 14, 2025 at 10:19 PM
Trump has already deployed the National Guard to Washington, DC, and Los Angeles, California, and threatened to do so in Chicago, Illinois, where his deadly "Operation Midway Blitz" targeting immigrants is already underway.
"Expanding military involvement into US civilian law enforcement is dangerous and unwarranted," Tanya Greene, US program director at Human Rights Watch, said Tuesday. "The Trump administration's continued deployment of military forces in cities with populations primarily comprised of people of color, like Memphis, risks exacerbating violence against immigrants, unhoused people, and poor people in general."
"While communities desperately need food, affordable housing, and healthcare," she added, "hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars are being squandered on these deployments."
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Tennessee GOP Shuts Down Debate, Passes Bill Allowing Handguns for Teachers
"Instead of protecting kids," said one Democratic lawmaker, "they've protected guns again."
Apr 24, 2024
A Democratic leader in the Tennessee House on Tuesday warned that a bill pushed through by Republicans to permit teachers to carry concealed handguns was "nothing but a bad disaster and tragedy waiting to happen," after the GOP cut off a debate and refused to include amendments that aimed to add safety measures to the legislation.
House Bill 1202 passed in a 68-28 vote, and Republican Gov. Bill Lee, who has never vetoed legislation, is expected to sign it, clearing the way for the state to require school districts to allow teachers to carry firearms without notifying students' parents.
According to The Tennessean, the legislation does not allow schools or school districts to opt out of the program and requires administrators "to consider every individual who wants to carry."
The legislation was passed just over a year after a shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville killed six people, including three children.
"Our children's lives are at stake," said House Democratic Caucus Chair John Ray Clemmons (D-55).
After last year's shooting, the Tennessee Legislature garnered national attention when Republicans voted to expel expel state Reps. Justin Jones (D-52) and Justin Pearson (D-86) for joining outraged students in a chant for gun control during a protest. Jones and Pearson were soon reinstated.
Following Tuesday's vote on arming teachers, Republicans voted to bar Jones from speaking in House proceedings for two days after he was accused of committing three rules violations, including recording on the chamber's floor—something a GOP member was also accused of doing.
Jones applauded Tennessee residents for speaking out against H.B. 1202 in the House chamber.
"Despite my Republican colleagues' best effort, the power of the people cannot and will not be stopped," said the lawmaker.
The GOP ended the debate over the legislation after one teacher, Lauren Shipman-Dorrance, cried out from the viewing section. Shipman-Dorrance was removed by state troopers on orders from House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R-25).
After the bill passed overwhelmingly—despite four Republicans who joined the Democrats and three who abstained—the remaining protesters chanted, "Blood on your hands!" before the GOP ordered state troopers to remove them.
Sarah Shoop Neumann, whose children attend Covenant Day School, delivered a letter with more than 5,300 signatures to the House on Monday demanding that lawmakers defeat the bill and warning that the legislation "ignores research that shows the presence of a gun increases the risks posed to children."
Shoop Neumann told The Tennessean that the bill's passage was "disgraceful."
"We worked with the Senate and representative sponsors of this bill to make it even a little bit safer—anything, really—and I'm utterly disappointed that that was not taken into consideration," she told the outlet.
Kris Brown, president of gun violence prevention group Brady, pointed out that "multiple teachers were armed at [the Covenant School], yet that was not enough to stop six children and school employees from being murdered."
"The Tennessee Legislature has just dishonored all who were killed at the Covenant School shooting last year by choosing to promote the proliferation of firearms in classrooms," said Brown. "H.B. 1202 is especially egregious as it has no safe storage requirements, meaning firearms could potentially fall into a child's hands."
"If we want to be free of this uniquely American crisis, we cannot continue to perpetuate the deadly norms that got us here by adding more unsecured firearms in spaces where children should be safe to learn and grow," she added. "We urge Gov. Lee to veto this bill and ask him to work alongside us, teachers, and gun safety advocates to craft meaningful reforms across the Volunteer State."
Democrats proposed amendments to require that teachers lock up their handguns and only remove them during a security breach, that teachers be held civilly liable for using their guns, and that schools inform parents if guns are on campus, but the GOP rejected all of the proposals.
"I can assure you these people have never experienced an actual working high school classroom or they wouldn't be passing this nonsense," said one Tennessee teacher. "A child will die because of this."
Pearson said the passage of the bill marked "an awful day for Tennessee, our kids, our teachers, and communities."
"Instead of protecting kids," said the lawmaker, "they've protected guns again."
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'Vote Them Out': Tennessee GOP Ends Special Session Without Major Gun Reforms
"The biggest consequence from this whole session is the embarrassment of the General Assembly through offensive measures used to keep people out of the building, silence members of the House, and eject grieving moms from committees," said one Democratic lawmaker.
Aug 29, 2023
The Tennessee General Assembly's special session on public safety ended Tuesday with weeping parents and chants of "vote them out" after the Republican-controlled Legislature refused to pass significant gun violence prevention measures.
GOP Gov. Bill Lee
called the special session earlier this month amid mounting demands for stricter state gun laws in the wake of a shooter killing three children and three adults at the Covenant School, a Christian elementary school in Nashville, in March.
"We had high hopes that after the shooting at Covenant School, politicians would understand the urgent need to prevent another senseless tragedy. They had the opportunity to do the right thing and once again, they failed to act," said Zack Maaieh, head of the Students Demand Action Tennessee chapter and a student at Vanderbilt University, in a statement.
"Despite their inaction, we showed the power of our voices—refusing to back down even as mothers were being forcibly removed from hearings—and lawmakers were forced to reject a bill to arm teachers and put more guns in our schools," Maaieh continued. "But we aren't going anywhere—we'll be back in January, showing out in droves to demand that lawmakers advance gun safety laws that protect our right to live and if they refuse to listen, we'll come for their seats next November."
The Washington Post noted that "even before the session began, GOP leaders quashed Lee's proposal for an extreme-risk protection order law that would have prevented mentally unstable individuals from possessing guns for a limited period."
According to the Tennessee Lookout:
Ultimately, the Senate concurred with a House version of a weapons storage bill that will offer sales tax breaks on gun safes and gun locks, in addition to spending $1.1 million for a public service campaign to give away gun locks.
As part of an agreement to adjourn, the Senate also opted to pass the House's version of a spending bill that will put $30 million toward safety upgrades at state universities, $12 million toward behavioral health staff, and $4 million into behavioral health safety grants, in addition to $50 million for community mental health agencies, with the latter money coming from a TennCare fund. Another $10 million will be spent on school safety officers, mainly for charter schools.
The Senate also went along with House versions of a human trafficking bill and a measure to codify the governor's executive order on background checks.
"While we are encouraged by proposals meant to promote the secure storage of firearms, this session fell woefully short, so we're tracking votes, we're taking names, and we will show up to the ballot box to vote out lawmakers who refuse to take action to save lives," said Moms Demand Action volunteer Leeann Hewlett.
Sarah Shoop Neumann, a Covenant mother who sobbed outside the House chamber Tuesday morning, responded similarly, telling The Tennessean, "We held a special session following the extraordinary tragedy of a mass shooting that took place at the Covenant School, and we took no meaningful action."
"The divisiveness we have all witnessed makes us long for a unified community. We need legislators on both sides of the aisle to be able to have respectful, thoughtful debate regarding potential solutions to end gun violence," she said, adding that legislators who don't want to work together "do not deserve a seat in the House or the Senate."
"We will work towards ensuring every one of those seats is replaced by someone who has a true desire to listen to their constituents over firearm association lobbyists," she vowed. "We will be back in January."
Describing the special session as "a farce," State Sen. Jeff Yarbro (D-21) said that "the biggest consequence from this whole session is the embarrassment of the General Assembly through offensive measures used to keep people out of the building, silence members of the House, and eject grieving moms from committees."
As Common Dreams previously reported, the Tennessee House's GOP supermajority on Monday barred state Rep. Jones (D-52) from speaking after House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R-25) determined that he violated the chamber's rules—which came shortly after the Democratic lawmaker announced plans to call for a vote of no confidence targeting the Republican speaker.
A member of the "Tennessee Three," Jones was expelled from the House in April alongside Rep. Justin Pearson (D-86) over a gun control protest at the chamber; Republican lawmakers narrowly voted against also expelling Rep. Gloria Johnson (D-13).
Both Jones and Pearson were ultimately reelected to their seats. Carrying signs demanding action on gun violence, the pair attempted to approach as the special session ended Tuesday—and the speaker appeared to shoulder-check Pearson.
The Lookout reported that Pearson said Sexton "leaned his shoulder into me and then one of his minions pushed me toward the clerk," while the speaker claimed his security guard nudged him into Pearson and the lawmaker then pushed him.
"It looks like Justin Pearson could file charges for that assault the speaker committed as well as Jason Zachary," Johnson said on social media, referring to a Republican from District 14. "The speaker literally tucked his shoulder to go in on Rep Pearson."
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'Sixty Years Since the March on Washington and We Are Still Demanding Jobs and Freedom'
'Our legacy of resistance & building never ends'
Aug 26, 2023
Tens of thousands of Americans converged on Washington Saturday to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, a turning point in the 1960s U.S. civil rights movement at which Martin Luther King Jr gave his galvanizing "I have a dream" speech.
Organizers say today's march was not a commemoration but a continuation of the demands made in 1963.
Martin Luther King Jr.'s only grandchild Yolanda Renee King, 15, told the gathering that if she could speak to her grandfather today, she would say, "I am sorry we still have to be here to rededicate ourselves to finishing your work."
"Sixty years ago, Dr. King urged us to struggle against the triple evils of racism, poverty, and bigotry," she said. "Today, racism is still with us. Poverty is still with us. And now gun violence has come for our places of worship, our schools, and our shopping centers."
"When people say my generation is cynical, we say cynicism is a luxury we cannot afford," she said. "I believe that my generation will be defined by action, not apathy."
“We have made progress, over the last 60 years, since Dr. King led the March on Washington,” said Alphonso David, president and CEO of the Global Black Economic Forum. “Have we reached the mountaintop? Not by a longshot.”
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'The People Have Spoken': Both Expelled Tennessee Democrats Win Back Their Seats
"We will organize, mobilize, and activate to work tirelessly for the day when there are no more calls to respond to mass shootings and gun violence," said state Rep. Justin Pearson.
Aug 04, 2023
Two Tennessee Democrats who were expelled by the GOP-controlled state House earlier this year for taking part in a gun control demonstration on the chamber floor won special elections for their seats on Thursday, handily fending off Republican opponents.
State Rep. Justin Jones, who represents Nashville, defeated GOP challenger Laura Nelson with nearly 80% of the vote. State Rep. Justin Pearson of Memphis defeated his Republican opponent, Jeff Johnston, with more than 90% of the vote.
"The people have spoken," Jones wrote following his victory, directing his message at Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton, a Republican who led the charge to expel Jones and Pearson.
"See you August 21st for special session," Jones added, referring to an upcoming session called by Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee to address gun violence.
The Tennessee House voted to expel Jones and Pearson in April after the pair and fellow state Rep. Gloria Johnson—who was not expelled—took to the chamber floor with a bullhorn to demand gun control legislation in the wake of a deadly mass shooting in Nashville.
Republicans decried the floor action as a breach of decorum rules and swiftly voted for Jones and Pearson's expulsion. A vote to expel Johnson, who is planning to challenge U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) next year, fell just short of the two-thirds majority needed.
The expulsion of Jones and Pearson sparked national outrage, with hundreds of state lawmakers and rights groups across the U.S. condemning Republicans' move as an anti-democratic effort to silence gun control supporters. Tennessee has the 12th-highest gun death rate in the U.S., according to the advocacy group Everytown.
Within days of the expulsion vote, county officials reappointed Jones and Pearson on an interim basis, setting the stage for Thursday's special election.
In a statement late Thursday, Pearson said that "this is only the beginning for this movement."
"We will organize, mobilize, and activate to work tirelessly for the day when there are no more calls to respond to mass shootings and gun violence," said Pearson. "I look forward to heading back to the Tennessee state capitol August 21 for the special session on gun legislation. We, the people, will march, rally and work to pass legislation."
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Climate Campaigners Stage Blockade at White House Correspondents Dinner
"We disrupted the rich and powerful because Joe Biden's approval of deadly new oil and gas projects is killing the planet," said the campaign group Climate Defiance. "We will continue to disrupt until we end fossil fuels."
Apr 30, 2023
Members of the corporate media were greeted by hundreds of climate action organizers Saturday night as they arrived at the Washington Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C. for the annual White House Correspondents Dinner.
Youth-led direct action group Climate Defiance staged a blockade of the event to demand that President Joe Biden fulfill his campaign promise to end fossil fuel extraction on public lands.
The protest came weeks after the Biden administration approved Willow, the massive oil drilling project on federal lands in Alaska, and a month after an oil and gas lease sale of 1.6 million acres of offshore waters in the Gulf of Mexico went forward.
"The president promised us an end to new leasing on federal lands but failed to deliver. Now, he needs to hear from the voting bloc that delivered him the 2022 midterm elections," said Climate Defiance ahead of the protest, referring to research showing that voters between the ages of 18 and 29 were crucial to Biden's victory in 2020.
According to Pew Research, 62% of young voters support a complete phaseout of fossil fuels.
Climate Defiance is backed by the Climate Emergency Fund, a nonprofit run by climate psychologist Margaret Klein Salamon. The group was joined by organizers from the Sunrise Movement, which has helped push more than 100 Democratic lawmakers to co-sponsor Green New Deal legislation.
Documentarian Ford Fischer posted a video of a government vehicle attempting to drive through the protesters before retreating.
U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), a Green New Deal co-sponsor, thanked the demonstrators for the action as he walked past them, and climate scientist Peter Kalmus joined the group at one point, telling them, "You guys are on the right side of history... President Biden is on the wrong side of history [for] expanding the fossil fuels during a climate emergency."
Tennessee state Reps. Justin Jones (D-52) and Justin Pearson (D-86), who were recently expelled from the state House for participating in a gun control protest before being reinstated, also joined the campaigners to say that the interconnected fights "for democracy, climate justice, and an end to mass shootings require a coordinated emergency response."
"We're fighting a system that is trying to put the profits of the gun industry, the profits of the fossil fuel industry, the profits of the for-profit healthcare over the lives of our people," he said. "So we must stand together. We must let them know that if you come for one of us, you come for all of us."
"We disrupted the rich and powerful because Joe Biden's approval of deadly new oil and gas projects is killing the planet," said Climate Defiance after the blockade. "We will continue to disrupt until we end fossil fuels."
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GOP Cynically Recast Progressive State House Protests as 'Insurrection'
"It's as if they learned a word on January 6th for the first time and never figured out what it meant," quipped one critic.
Apr 28, 2023
Progressives are pushing back this week against Republicans' conflation of peaceful protests by Democratic state lawmakers defending their constituents' rights with the deadly insurrection effort on January 6, 2021 by supporters of then-President Donald Trump in service of subverting a presidential election.
After seven protesters were arrested Monday in the Montana legislature following Republican lawmakers' silencing of state Rep. Zooey Zephyr (D-100) over her impassioned defense of transgender and nonbinary children, a group of GOP legislators accused her of "encouraging an insurrection."
"Peaceful protest is not insurrection."
Although the demonstration was entirely peaceful, the Republicans—members of the Montana Freedom Caucus—blasted what they falsely called "the violent protesters" and urged "immediate disciplinary action" against Zephyr, who is transgender.
"They want to ring alarm bells and they want to compare this to January 6," Andy Nelson, the Democratic Party chair in Missoula County, Montana—which includes Zephyr's district—told the Associated Press. "There's absolutely no way you can compare what happened on Monday with the January 6 insurrection. Violence occurred that day. No violence occurred in the gallery of the Montana House."
It's not just Montana. Republican state lawmakers in Tennessee called it an "insurrection" and a "riot" when Democratic Reps. Justin Jones (D-52), Justin Pearson, and Gloria Johnson (D-90) took to the well of the legislative chamber to support thousands of Nashville-area students rallying outside for gun control measures following the March 27 Covenant School massacre. Republicans voted to expel Jones and Pearson from the legislature over the protests, though they were swiftly reinstated by municipal councils.
Republicans "are trying to dismiss the integrity and sincerity of what all these people are calling for," Tennessee Democratic Rep. John Ray Clemmons (D-55) told the AP. "They're dismissing what it is just to avoid the debate on this issue."
"My colleagues across the aisle have spent so much time trying to silence the minority party that anyone speaking up and amplifying their voice probably strikes them as insurrectionist, even though it doesn't resemble anything like it," he added.
Donald Trump Jr. and other Republicans also described a peaceful February protest at the Oklahoma State Capitol against a ban on gender-affirming healthcare for transgender youth as an "insurrection."
"Tennessee. Oklahoma. Montana. The GOP seems to want to redefine the word 'insurrection' to include literally any peaceful protest they don't like," tweeted independent journalist and transgender rights activist Erin Reed, who is also Zephyr's partner. "It's as if they learned a word on January 6th for the first time and never figured out what it meant."
Noah Bookbinder, president of the watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), asserted that "peaceful protest is not insurrection," and that such conflation "waters down the seriousness of the real insurrection we saw on Jan. 6, 2021."
Attorney and voting rights activist James Slattery tweeted, "I can't help but compare the recent Republican efforts to silence legislators in various states who are acting in good faith to advocate for their constituents—while at the national level the Republicans have done nothing to expel members of Congress who incited an insurrection."
According to a July 2022 Monmouth University poll, just 13% of Republican voters considered the January 6 attack an "insurrection"—down from 33% a year earlier. More than 6 in 10 respondents described the effort by Trump supporters to stop certification of President Joe Biden's Electoral College victory as an act of "legitimate protest."
Legal experts say "insurrection" has a very specific definition.
"Disrupting things is a far cry from insurrection," University of North Carolina law professor Michael Gerhardt told the AP. "It's just a protest, and protesters are not insurrectionists."
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GOP State Rep Who Voted to Expel 'Tennessee Three' Resigns Over Sexual Harassment of Intern
"He needed to be expelled," said one critic.
Apr 20, 2023
Tennessee Rep. Scotty Campbell, the vice chair of the state House Republican Caucus and a leader behind the effort last month to expel three Democrats who joined a gun control protest, resigned on Thursday weeks after a state House investigation found that he had sexually harassed at least one intern.
Campbell's resignation was met with frustration from supporters of the "Tennessee Three"—state Reps. Justin Jones (D-52), Justin Pearson (D-86), and Gloria Johnson (D-90)—who said the District 3 representative should have been expelled last month for his conduct instead of being permitted to stay in the House and vote to remove the three gun control supporters from the Legislature.
Until deciding to resign after being confronted by a local media outlet on Thursday, "Rep. Scotty Campbell saw no consequences as a result of his actions," said HuffPost editor Philip Lewis.
The state House Workplace Discrimination and Harassment Subcommittee alerted Speaker Cameron Sexton (R-25) on March 29 that it had determined Campbell violated House policy by harassing a legislative intern, telling the Republican leader that "discrimination in any form will not be tolerated."
Instead of removing Campbell from his committee assignments, censuring him, or taking other actions to hold him accountable, Sexton did not respond to the panel's findings and moved ahead days later with an effort to expel the three Democrats, after which only Jones and Pearson were ousted. The two lawmakers were quickly reappointed by municipal councils in their districts.
"If you were in court and behaved like those three did, you would have been found in contempt of court," Campbell argued during a debate over the expulsion motion.
NewsChannel 5 in Nashville revealed the committee's findings on Thursday and confronted Campbell about them.
According to the investigation, Campbell made comments to a legislative intern about her and another 19-year-old intern about "imagining they were performing sexual acts on one another." The Legislature has also spent "potentially thousands of dollars" in taxpayer money to move one of the interns out of her apartment building, where Campbell also lived, and to place her "in a downtown hotel for the remainder of her internship."
Campbell told NewsChannel 5 that had only had "consensual, adult conversations."
Hours after the outlet reported on the harassment, however, Campbell announced his resignation.
"He needed to be expelled," said Bryan Langan, a gun control advocate and former Democratic Tennessee Senate candidate.
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