Ousted Nashville Lawmaker Sent Back to Tennessee House by His City Council

Almost immediately after Rep. Justin Jones (D-Nashville) was expelled from the Tennessee House of Representatives on Thursday, the majority of Nashville’s Metropolitan Council said they would vote to reappoint him. On Monday, the council followed through on that promise, voting unanimously to send Jones right back into the chamber where he and two other lawmakers raised Republican fury by participating in a peaceful gun-control protest late last month.

The final tally was 36-0 with no abstentions.

Moments after the vote, Jones joined a group of what was estimated to be 1,000 protesters in marching to the state Capitol. Many joined in on a call-and-response chant: “Tell me what democracy looks like! This is what democracy looks like!”

Once the crowd reached the steps of the Capitol, the 27-year-old was sworn back into office to cheers.

“In a week after a mass shooting,” Jones told a reporter for Mother Jones amid the celebration, “it is so outrageous that the first reaction of this body is to expel me rather than to pass common sense gun laws.”

On March 30, Jones, along with Rep. Justin Pearson (D-Memphis) and Rep. Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville) took to the floor of the House with a bullhorn to lead protesters who had gathered in the gallery in chanting for gun reform.

The sprawling protest—during which no arrests were made and no damage was done to the state Capitol–was organized in the wake of a school shooting in Nashville that left six people dead, including three 9-year-old children.

Jones, Pearson, and Johnson were quickly blasted by House Republicans for breaking parliamentary procedure and bringing “disorder and dishonor to the House.” House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville) later characterized the move an “insurrection” similar to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

After deactivating the trio’s ID cards and stripping them of their committee assignments, the House voted on Thursday to expel Jones and Pearson, both of whom are Black, by margins of 72-25 and 69-25, respectively.

Pearson’s reappointment could come Wednesday at a meeting of a county board of commissioners in his district. Like Jones, Pearson has vowed to return to the state House, and has said he will run in the forthcoming special election to permanently re-fill the seat.

Pearson was present at Jones’ swearing-in on Monday, having told a crowd (through a bullhorn) shortly before, “They thought if they could kick out Rep. Justin Jones he’d never again be Rep. Justin Jones. But they were wrong.”

Johnson, who stood alongside Jones and Pearson but did not use the bullhorn, ducked expulsion by a single vote. When asked why she hadn’t been thrown out of the House alongside her colleagues, Johnson, who is white, told reporters, “It might have to do with the color of our skin.”

In the hours after Jones’ ouster, at least 29 members of Nashville’s Metro Council indicated to The Tennessean that they planned to back his reinstatement. He only needed a simple majority to be restored as state congressman.

In interviews with NBC News, council members said Friday that they had received hundreds of messages from constituents demanding Jones be reinstated.

The GOP-led State Legislature “removed the voice from 140,000 people who voted” for Jones and Pearson, council member Burkley Allen told NBC. “It’s a terrible precedent to set, that we disagree with you and you’ve disrupted our House proceedings and therefore we’re expelling you. That’s not the way democracy works.”

“This is an affront both to lives lost and the will of the voters,” member Freddie O’Connell tweeted. “#TennesseeThree.”

Under the Tennessee State Constitution, filling an expelled lawmaker’s seat falls to the legislative body of that member’s county, which can appoint an interim successor until a special election can be held. The Nashville Metro Council is both the legislative body of the city and Davidson County’s consolidated government. Most of its members, council member Russ Bradford told NBC, are Democrats.

At Monday’s hearing, the Metro Council had to decide whether to suspend the rules that require city officials to wait four weeks to appoint an interim successor. The motion to suspend the rules went forward without objection, and the council was able to move forward with reinstating Jones.

During the meeting, Jones climbed onto a pew and led the packed room in a chorus of the hymn “I’ve Got a Feeling,” with the crowd singing, “Everything’s gonna be all right.”

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