A Split Party

On the first day of early voting, two candidates for the newly redrawn Congressional District 9 held parallel press conferences that showed competing visions of what Democratic leadership could look like in Tennessee. One candidate promised to seek radical change, while the other promised to follow in the footsteps of outgoing U.S. congressman Steve Cohen. 

State Rep. Justin J. Pearson was joined by Boxtown residents alongside Democratic congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley at the Colossus 1 data center in Southwest Memphis, where he called for action against “environmental racism.” 

Across town, State Sen. London Lamar joined Cohen in his Midtown living room, where she described Pearson as someone who gives “performative good speeches and can’t pass one single bill” and herself as someone who can “actually get things done.”

Progressive Democrats have won primaries over their more establishment opponents across the country, reflecting an electorate that has grown frustrated with a worsening affordability crisis and how lawmakers have responded. It’s unclear if that anti-establishment wave will sweep through Tennessee, however, where traditional Democrats have historically performed better than their more progressive counterparts. 

Lamar and Pearson are widely viewed as the frontrunners in District 9’s Democratic primary. The two have much in common: They’re both young, Black Memphians who have focused on affordability to appeal to the sprawling district. They both want data center moratoriums, an increase to the minimum wage, universal healthcare, and universal child care. 

But the two have taken different approaches to getting things done: Lamar touts her record of working within a Republican-controlled system to pass legislation that impacts her community. Pearson, who hasn’t passed his own bills in the Republican-controlled statehouse, has instead used his growing national platform and local organizing to push for change. 

Who voters choose will signal if Tennessee Democrats are more willing to support anti-establishment figures who directly challenge those in power, experts say.

Pearson has been backed by some of the party’s leading progressive figures and groups, including Ocasio-Cortez and Pressley, both of whom joined him for a large rally July 17th. He’s also been endorsed by the Working Families Party and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, alongside many of his Tennessee Senate and House colleagues and the Shelby County Young Democrats. 

Lamar’s endorsements have included Cohen, Memphis Mayor Paul Young, Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris, former U.S. congressman Harold Ford Sr., former Memphis Mayor A C Wharton Jr., and State Sen. Raumesh Akbari. 

Lamar, who says she has a “big tent Democratic agenda,” is running on her record in the Tennessee House and Senate, where she’s passed 23 pieces of legislation. Pearson, who calls himself “a practical, principled progressive,” is running on his record of organizing against people in power and refusing to take corporate donations. 

The new district spans from the reliably blue Memphis into rural parts of Tennessee and the outskirts of Nashville. It is whiter and more Republican than the current district represented by Cohen, posing an additional challenge for the two Memphians. 

“The Democratic Party is not a monolith,” said Willie Simon, chairman of the Shelby County Democratic Party. “London has learned to be a chameleon and navigate through [Republican control]. Justin chooses not to become a chameleon. He wants them to notice that there is a change coming and to acknowledge that change needs to happen.”

Candidates clash on law enforcement, tactics

As elected officials, Lamar and Pearson take diverging approaches to their public comments. Pearson is blunt in his critiques of Republicans, law enforcement, and even his own party. He’s also willing to violate statehouse norms as he did when he participated in a gun violence protest that led to his expulsion. 

Lamar is more conciliatory in her approach to disagreement and avoids harshly criticizing the Democratic Party. Lamar is also a vocal supporter of law enforcement, which she highlighted during a candidate forum hosted by the Shelby County Democratic Party in late June. 

“There are a lot of good veterans who are now serving our police forces, and … I show them respect because they do protect our community,” Lamar said. “But unfortunately, my opponents on the other side have shown them nothing but disrespect, calling them boys, belittling them, getting in [their] faces, talking smack about them.”

Lamar was referring to an incident that occurred in Nashville during the redistricting fight. State troopers, while forcing viewers out of the House balcony, had grabbed Pearson’s brother, KeShaun Pearson, and began to physically remove him.

“Get the fuck back,” Pearson yelled at one of the troopers. “Boy, what the fuck is wrong with you?” 

KeShaun Pearson was taken to jail, but released without charges. 

The Rev. Earle Fisher, founder of #UPTheVote901 and an expert in rhetoric and communication, said some voters view candidates like Pearson “as authentic and they appreciate the authenticity even if they disagree with their stance and their posture. 

“I have seen London maneuver in a way that I believe she thinks appeals to white voters in ways that I don’t think actually are persuasive,” said Fisher, who hasn’t endorsed a candidate in the race. “I think the way [Pearson] maneuvers is with the level of confidence that someone has when they know they have done the research and the facts, and the data and the truth is on their side.”

Dai Williams, an Orange Mound resident, said Lamar’s comments altered their view of the state senator.

“[Lamar] is too smart for me to believe she does not understand the racial dynamics [of that moment],” Williams said. “She is choosing the wrong side of history … I want the candidate that called that trooper a boy. I want a candidate that can go in there with all those racists and hold to the fact that he is a man and he is going to be respected. … Anything less is doing nothing for us here.”

The two candidates’ outlooks and strategies could play differently across the district. Meryl Rice, a Hardeman County resident who hosted a breakfast and a dinner for Lamar, said she anticipates that Lamar’s approach will resonate with the more conservative rural areas outside Memphis. 

“[Pearson] just comes across as being loud and in some cases offensive. … I want somebody that treats the other side with respect also,” Rice said. “I don’t think that he would be able to win some of the more conservative rural areas. I think that London would. We need somebody that’s more — that’s not just out there left, way out there left. We need that activism, yes, but it’s not going to play well in the more conservative areas of this district, which stretches all the way to Williamson County.”

At an NAACP meeting in Collierville in mid-July, Lamar and Pearson were asked to explain their biggest disagreements with their parties. Pearson said his main concern was the number of Democrats that take corporate PAC donations. He said because many established members of the Democratic Party take donations from the same sources that Republicans take donations from, they won’t be as motivated to make change.

Lamar said Democrats need to connect more with average voters to get them reinvested in the party’s message. She said the party talks too much about “divisive issues” that these voters don’t care about. Focusing on issues like affordability, jobs, healthcare, and education will help the Democratic Party start winning again, she said.

Candidates use personal stories to tackle maternal healthcare, environmental pollution 

Both candidates’ personal experiences have informed their approaches to getting things done. 

Pearson grew up in Southwest Memphis, an area deeply troubled by industrial pollution. He lost both of his grandmothers to cancer he believes was related to that pollution. Air pollution in Southwest Memphis was “similar to or even higher than the 90th or 95th percentile” when compared to the country’s most polluted cities, according to a 2013 study.

In 2019, Valero and Plains All American Pipeline announced plans to build a 49-mile-long oil pipeline through multiple majority-Black neighborhoods in Memphis. Pearson and others fought back with political pressure, public campaigns, and legal arguments, leading to the cancellation of the project. 

Later, he fought against Sterilization Services of Tennessee, which pumped toxic ethylene oxide into South Memphis. The plant was closed in 2023 after facing pressure from residents and advocates. 

“We know folks are running, are breathing better, and will live longer, because that facility is being closed and no longer pumping ethylene oxide into our neighborhoods, into our communities,” Pearson said in an interview with MLK50: Justice Through Journalism. 

He was elected to the statehouse that same year, then expelled from his seat when he participated in a gun violence protest after a mass school shooting in Nashville. The expulsion and his subsequent return to the statehouse gave him national recognition.

He hasn’t passed his own bills into law while in the statehouse, although he’s cosponsored several. Pearson said he’s been blocked by Republican leadership from passing bills due to his protest for gun control legislation and his willingness to speak out against powerful groups like the National Rifle Association.

“When you stand up to white supremacy, against misogyny, against transphobia, and all these things, you’re not typically rewarded for that,” Pearson said. “When you stand up to the NRA within the first couple of months of being in elected office, you don’t get rewarded for that.”

But Pearson said he’s brought change in other ways. “Our movement pushing and pressuring the governor” led Gov. Bill Lee to sign an executive order requiring background checks for firearm purchases, he said.

Lamar was elected to the statehouse in 2018, then appointed to the state senate in 2022. She has chaired the Tennessee Senate Democratic Caucus and held roles on multiple committees. 

She has had more success getting new laws on Tennessee’s books. She’s passed 23 bills in the state legislature, including legislation requiring the state health department to include maternal mental health disorders in continuing education programs and creating a study on certified nurse midwives. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee put money toward a pilot program for TennCare doula payments in the 2023-2024 budget.

Those projects stem from her own experiences. She lost a pregnancy at eight months, and saw a cousin die due to complications during childbirth. She often points to a statistic: Tennessee has the highest maternal mortality rate in the country. 

Lamar said bills like these show her ability to “legislate on strong Democratic principles” while reaching across the aisle. In 2022, she was named legislator of the year by the Rural Health Association of Tennessee. 

“If you care about being pro-life, then you should align with my agenda around maternal health to ensure women and babies are not dying through the pregnancy process,” she said in an interview. “Then, to put some money behind that, that to me was one of my most proud accomplishments.”

She’s also criticized Pearson for not passing any bills.

“I think the difference between he and I is that instead of fighting the system, I want to use the system in order to benefit the people that I serve, and I know how to take a problem, come up with a strategic plan to solve their problem, and actually get their problem solved,” she said. 

Both of their stories and messages have resonated with constituents across District 9. 

In Lawrence County, residents are “under a very real threat of having a data center built right now,” and Pearson has a track record of standing against data centers, said Cassie Gant, a Pearson supporter from nearby Giles County. 

Rutherford County residents Angela Bingham and Angela Ponder, who drove to Bedford County to hear from candidates, said they appreciated how Lamar’s experience drove her to pass legislation around maternal healthcare, “Because then you can demonstrate that you can get the job done.” The two women hadn’t decided who to vote for yet. 

Affordability at the bedrock of both campaigns 

As rain poured down around the Shelbyville park pavilion, 49-year-old Amber Evans and Lola, her 6-year-old granddaughter, posed for a picture with Pearson. Later, Lola ran up to speak to Lamar. 

A disabled grandmother raising Lola on a fixed income of just $2,400 per month, Evans and about 70 others braved the humidity to listen to Democratic candidates as they discussed how residents from Memphis to Bedford County are struggling to pay for basic needs. 

“I believe the issues of Memphis, Tennessee, [are] also the issues of Bedford County because all of us are dealing with the issues of affordability, high gas prices, high grocery prices, unaffordable rent, all the issues that make it hard for us to provide for our family and have a decent quality of life,” Lamar told the crowd. 

Across the country, Democrats have decided the winning strategy against Republicans is hammering the affordability crisis. That’s especially important in this new district, which the Cook Political Report describes as a “solid” Republican district, but the most competitive in the state.

Nearly half of American families cannot afford the cost of living, according to research from the Urban Institute. Average earnings have grown about 43 percent nationwide since 2017. Home sale prices, rents, healthcare, and child care costs have dramatically outpaced that growth. 

At a Pearson rally in Pulaski, Giles County, in early July, residents told the state representative how many have to travel outside the county for work, Gant said. Others described fearing they’d have to leave because they couldn’t find affordable housing. 

“Those are really some big things that people loved from Rep. Pearson was his focus on affordable living,” Gant said. “Affordable housing, groceries, healthcare, those are all things that really spoke to everybody that was in the room at least when he came to listen to us.” 

Back in Bedford County, Evans said the messages about affordability resonated with her, even if she’s not sure yet which of the candidates will get her vote. 

“I think it’s a very hard decision,” she said. “Miss Lamar’s personal story resonates with me. Mr. Pearson’s youth and his vibrance … resonate with me also. So I don’t know. I don’t know who I would vote for if Election Day were today.”