Rep. Maxine Waters Lauds Tennessee Reps Reclaiming Their Seats

Contact: Hermela.aregawi@mail.house.gov

WASHINGTON D.C. -- Today, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the House Committee on Financial Services, issued the follow statement on the announcement of Tennessee Representatives Justin Pearson and Justin Jones reclaiming their legislative seats after being unfairly expelled from the Tennessee State House in April.

"I'm pleased to learn that Tennessee Representatives Justin Pearson and Justin Jones are on the path to reclaiming their legislative seats. They were elected by people of their districts and were blatantly bullied out of the Republican-dominated State House in April for exercising their Constitutional rights in protesting the lack of legislative action on common sense gun laws. It was a deplorable act of political retaliation.

It's also not lost on us that while Pearson and Jones were joining their colleague, Representative Gloria Johnson, in protesting, Johnson, who is white, was not expelled from the State legislature. Republican leadership denied that race was a factor, but the reality once again begs to differ. The bottom line is, two young black legislators advocating for common sense gun laws are not the problem here.

The real issue is that just days before they joined their colleague in protesting the legislative inaction on gun violence prevention, six people, including three children, were shot and killed at The Covenant School in Nashville. It is heart-wrenching every time lives are lost to senseless gun violence. We should all be protesting the lack of action on common sense gun laws, but some in the Tennessee State House are angry about all the wrong things. Enough is enough with the politics of double standards and misplaced priorities."