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Looks Like Tennessee GOP’s Expulsion Vote Is Already Backfiring

A majority of Nashville’s city council members say they’ll vote to send Justin Jones back to the state Capitol as soon as Monday.

Just a day after Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson were expelled from Tennessee’s state legislature for protesting gun violence, a majority of members of Nashville’s Metropolitan Council say they will vote to reinstate Jones to his seat as soon as Monday. “[The State Legislature] removed the voice from 140,000 people who voted for [Jones and Pearson],” Nashville Councilmember Burkley Allen told NBC News, adding that “that’s not the way democracy works.” According to Tennessee’s State Constitution, the legislative body representing an expelled lawmaker’s county is in charge of appointing an interim replacement until a special election is held. That means it’s up to the Nashville Metropolitan Council to appoint Jones’ replacement—and they say they’ll be sending Jones right back to the State Capitol. (Lawmakers also can’t be expelled twice for the same offense.) Though the 40-seat council is officially nonpartisan, one councilmember said most are Democrats, and 23 have confirmed their support for reinstating Jones. The legislative body in Pearson’s home city of Memphis has not offered a comment.