State Rep. Justin Pearson Wins Tennessee Democratic Primary 

Tennessee held its primary elections on Thursday, where state Rep. Justin Pearson secured the Democratic nomination to represent Tennessee’s Ninth Congressional District. 

According to The New York Times, Pearson’s real challenge will come this November in the general election. After the Supreme Court essentially made racist gerrymandering legal with the Callais Decision, the Tennessee state legislature wasted no time launching a redistricting effort. Memphis used to represent Tennessee’s lone majority Black district, but the new map split the city into two districts to give Republicans an advantage. 

Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) represented the Ninth District, but dropped his reelection bid after Republicans carved up the district. Pearson was already running against Cohen when the district was safely Democratic. Pearson beat the Cohen-endorsed state Sen. London Lamar to secure the nomination. 

Pearson will face off against state Sen. Brent Taylor in the November election. Taylor is favored to win the seat given the district’s new, Republican-leaning makeup. “The voters chose a fighter who will never back down and who represents the values of this redrawn district — one that already showed its colors by supporting President Trump by a decisive margin,” Taylor said in a statement.

It’s already shaping up to be a nasty fight, as Pearson and Taylor clearly don’t have a high opinion of one another. Pearson has called Taylor a “spineless bootlicker,” while Taylor has framed his campaign against Pearson as “the fight against evil.”

I mean, if fighting for clean air, common sense gun regulation, and representative democracy fit Taylor’s definition of evil, I’d hate to see what he thinks doing good looks like. 

Elsewhere in Tennessee, yet another Trump-endorsed candidate has fallen short in the primaries. Charlie Hatcher beat Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) to secure the Republican nomination in Tennessee’s Fifth Congressional District. According to The Washington Post, Ogles had been plagued by controversies in recent years. 

From The Washington Post:

In 2024, the FBI seized Ogles’s cellphone as part of an investigation into a $320,000 loan he reported making to his campaign in 2022. Ogles later said that he only loaned his campaign $20,000. Earlier this year, the Trump administration dropped the investigation.

Ogles has also embellished his education and work credentials, according to reporting by NewsChannel5 and The Washington Post.

He received national attention for inflammatory comments.

At the start of Pride Month, his official X account posted: “Homosexuality has no place in America. Happy Nuclear Family Month.” The tweet prompted rare pushback from his fellow Republicans, and Ogles apologized and deleted the post, blaming it on a member of his communications staff.

In March, he made at least a dozen anti-Muslim posts on social media, including one that said, “Muslims don’t belong in American society.”

Doesn’t he just sound delightful? 

Hatcher successfully positioned himself as a less flashy conservative and was bolstered by an endorsement from Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee. Ogles’ loss comes after the Trump-endorsed Amir Hassan lost his Michigan primary against a white man who already dropped out of the race. You hate to see it (not really, though; I actually find it hilarious).

What I find interesting is that when Trump-endorsed candidates win, legacy media continually frames it as Trump’s enduring grip on the Republican Party. The reality is that Trump is a deeply unpopular president, and he hasn’t delivered on the economic promises he made to his base during his campaign. There are pockets of the U.S. that will vote Republican no matter the candidate and will staunchly support Trump, but it looks like there’s a growing number of Republican voters who aren’t swayed by a Trump endorsement. 

SEE ALSO:

Rep. Justin Pearson of ‘Tennessee Three’ Launches US House Seat Primary

Justin Pearson Fights For Environmental Justice And Community In Memphis

Rep. Justin Pearson Cusses Out Tennessee State Trooper During Protest