Two Tennessee state lawmakers who were expelled for disrupting proceedings on the house floor back in April officially reclaimed their seats on Thursday in a special election.
While state representatives Justin Pearson and Justin Jones were reinstated on an interim basis by local officials in April, the pair easily won a special election to fully reclaim the seats this week.
Jones defeated Republican opponent Laura Nelson in Nashville, while Pearson bested independent candidate Jeff Johnston in Memphis.
"I think if we keep running this race, there will be victory after victory after victory," Pearson told supporters on Thursday.
Jones and Pearson represent two-thirds of the so-called “Tennessee Three.” Gloria Johnson, a third state representative who was involved in the gun reform protests that led to Jones and Pearon’s expulsion, remained in office after surviving the expulsion effort against her.
The pair’s expulsion came after Jones got into a scuffle with a fellow lawmaker and all three encouraged raucous protesters in the house chambers during a demonstration in the wake of the shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville that killed six people, including three children.
Protesters stood on a balcony within the chambers chanting, "Fascists! Fascists!" Demonstrators also blocked several entryways and exits, forcing state troopers to step in to assist members in moving throughout the building.
Jones was expelled by a vote of 72-to-25, while the house voted 69-to-26 to expel Pearson. A vote to expel Johnson failed by one vote.
"What they did is they hijacked the house floor which has never been done in our history," Sexton told National Review of the three lawmakers. "They pulled out a bullhorn. They weren't recognized. They were ruled out of order and they led a protest from the house floor with a bullhorn to those in the balcony. They shut down the proceedings of the house. We had to go into recess due to their actions."
"They disregarded the Sergeant at Arms asking them to leave the well at multiple occasions and they really didn't stop yelling in their bullhorn until I had to clear out the balcony because of behavior that was caused blatantly by those three members," Sexton added. "Those actions that they did on the house floor deserve expulsion."
In the wake of the expulsions, Pearson and Jones skyrocketed to national fame and raised more than $2 million combined from more than 70,000 campaign donations from across the country.
Jones’s opponent, Nelson, had raised more than 34,000 for the race with the help of 15 Republican lawmakers, per the Associated Press. Johnston, the independent who challenged Pearson, raised less than $400.
They get exactly what ty deserve‼️
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