Tennessee’s Justin Pearson takes on America’s most contentious issues

The progressive candidate won a Democratic congressional primary after boldly staking positions on voting rights, datacenters and the US war machine

• https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/06/tennessee-house-primary-elections">Justin Pearson and Brent Taylor win primaries for key Tennessee House seat

Justin Pearson made national headlines as one of the “Tennessee Three” – the state lawmakers expelled from the capitol protesting for gun control after a deadly school shooting.

Three years later, the state representative won a Democratic congressional primary after boldly staking positions on some of America’s most contentious fault lines: voting rights, datacenters and the American war machine.

“Republicans are responding to elected officials who stand up to billion-dollar datacenters, and the billionaires who own them.

Democrats are responding to a vision of Medicare for All, ending genocide,” said Pearson. “The confluence that is happening between those issues, is [that] who profits off of war are the same people who are profiting off of polluting our communities and stealing our drinking water for their datacenters that replace our jobs.”