MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — One of three Tennessee lawmakers who drew national attention in 2023 when Republicans in the Tennessee Legislature moved to expel them following a gun control protest is running for Congress, he announced Wednesday.

Democratic state Rep. Justin Pearson went to a Memphis park near the neighborhood where he grew up to announce that he will challenge longtime Democratic congressman Steve Cohen to represent the majority-Black city in 2026. The winner likely would have a clear path to represent the state’s 9th Congressional District, the state’s only jurisdiction that leans Democratic under congressional lines drawn by Republicans.

Pearson is 30 and Cohen is 76, and was first elected to Congress in 2006 after serving in the Tennessee Senate.

Pearson is one of three memb

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