Dem Tennessee state Representative Justin Pearson, 30, who was famously (and briefly) expelled from the legislature along with other liberal Justin Jones for leading a 2023 protest demanding stricter gun laws in response to the Nashville Covenant School massacre, on Wednesday announced a primary challenge against Dem Congressman Steve Cohen, Axios reports.
“Steve Cohen has served his district for 20 years in Congress… I’m grateful for his service,” Pearson told Axios. “I’m running for Congress because politics and government have changed a lot in 20 years, and we need a new voice, a new vision, a new perspective,” Pearson continued, maybe a little more delicately than one might expect of a Black liberal gearing up to take down a 76 year-old lifer and pro-Israel Jew. Almost sounds like he’s trying to gently talk Cohen into retiring.