Biography
Justin J. Pearson was born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee, and came to political consciousness through environmental justice organizing. As a young activist, he co-founded Memphis Community Against the Pipeline — now Memphis Community Against Pollution — which successfully stopped a crude oil pipeline planned to run through the predominantly Black Boxtown neighborhood in South Memphis. That grassroots victory launched his career in public life.
Pearson won a special election to the Tennessee House of Representatives in January 2023 to represent District 86 in Memphis. Just months into his term, following the Covenant School shooting in Nashville that killed three children and three adults, Pearson joined fellow Democratic Reps. Justin Jones and Gloria Johnson in leading a protest for gun control on the state House floor alongside constituents. The Republican supermajority responded with an extraordinary expulsion vote. Pearson and Jones — both young and Black — were expelled; Johnson, who is white, survived her expulsion vote by a single vote. The three became known nationally as the 'Tennessee Three.'
The Shelby County Commission promptly reappointed Pearson, and he won a special general election the following month, returning to the legislature with a stronger mandate than before. He has since remained one of Tennessee's most visible progressive voices, leading a grassroots movement against Elon Musk's xAI data center in Memphis over air quality concerns, and traveling the country to campaign for Democratic candidates including Kamala Harris.
At 31, Pearson is challenging for the 9th Congressional District — Memphis's only Democratic seat — in a race complicated by Republican-drawn redistricting that has dismantled the majority-Black district. Rep. Steve Cohen, 76, dropped out after the new maps made his reelection unlikely. Pearson now faces a general election in a newly competitive district that Republicans designed specifically to silence Memphis's Black political voice.
2026 House Campaign
Pearson originally launched his campaign in October 2025 to challenge longtime incumbent Rep. Steve Cohen in the Democratic primary, framing the race as a generational battle. 'I am not running against a person. I'm running against a problem, and the problem is a status quo that is broken,' he said. Cohen subsequently dropped out after Republican redistricting dramatically altered the district's composition.
Bernie Sanders endorsed Pearson in June 2026, calling him a front-runner in the fight to hold Memphis's congressional seat against a Republican gerrymander. Sanders noted the redistricting as 'another attempt to silence our voice, to destroy and disrupt our ability to even have a modicum of power.' AOC added her endorsement shortly after. Justice Democrats and Leaders We Deserve — co-founded by gun control activist David Hogg — have pledged $1 million in support.
Pearson's platform centers on lowering healthcare costs, housing affordability, gun safety reform, environmental justice, and economic investment in Memphis, where the poverty rate of 22.6% is nearly double the statewide average. His campaign is a direct test of whether progressive grassroots organizing can hold a majority-Black district against a deliberate Republican effort to erase it.
In the press
- Tennessee Lookout
- The Intercept
- The Intercept
- Wikipedia