House of Representatives - 9th District

Justin J. Pearson

J. J. Pearson

Democrat

Tell us about your campaign.

I'm running for Congress because I've seen what happens when people in power stop listening to the people they're supposed to serve. I grew up in Memphis watching my parents work hard to provide for our family while still struggling to make ends meet. Those experiences stay with me. So does every family I've organized alongside fighting Big Oil and Big Tech and other corporate polluters, every parent demanding action after losing a child to gun violence, and every voter whose voice has been threatened by bullying tactics to silence dissent, redistricting and other attacks on our democracy. Those fights taught me that change doesn't come because powerful people suddenly decide to do the right thing. It comes because ordinary people organize and refuse to give up. That's the spirit I'll take to Congress. I'll fight for working families over wealthy special interests, for clean air and clean water over corporate greed, for healthcare as a human right, for good-paying union jobs and a $25/hr minimum wage, for a healthy economy that protects working families from pharmacists to farmers and for a democracy where every voice counts and there are no sacrificed communities.

In your own words, describe the responsibilities of the office you are seeking.

The first job of a Member of Congress is simple: don't forget who sent you there. For me, that means being a congressman for the community, not somebody who just flies to Washington to cast votes and flies back. Representation means showing up. It means holding town halls, meeting people where they actually are, and listening before I start talking. It means being proximate to the pain. As a congressman, you will find me at City Council meetings, County Commission meetings, school board meetings, and the community gatherings that shape our day-to-day lives. I'm a Memphian before I'm anything else. Congress obviously has its constitutional duties. We write the laws, we're supposed to keep an eye on how taxpayer money gets spent, and we're a check on the executive branch. Right now, with our democracy under attack, that job matters more than it has in a long time. Congress doesn't get to sit on the sidelines while People's rights and freedoms are on the line. But beyond the constitutional stuff, I think this job comes with a moral weight too. When families can't afford housing, healthcare, or groceries — when kids aren't safe at school, or a neighborhood gets treated like it's expendable for someone else's profit — that's on us to fix. Public office should mean solving problems with people, not managing those problems from three states away. That's the kind of representative I've tried to be, and it's the kind of congressman I intend to be.

What are your priorities for this office?

My priorities for this office are to: 1) Get money out of politics: Ban Congress from stock trading, overturn Citizens United, and never take corporate PAC money. 2) Healthcare for all: A public option so no one goes broke getting care. Invest in our Veterans and the VA. 3) Protect our water, air & soil: Pause new data centers until they're regulated to protect our health and our jobs. 4) An economy that works for all of us: Raise the minimum wage. Make billionaires and big corporations pay their fair share. 5) Safe schools, safe streets: Fund public schools and pass background checks to stop gun violence.

Describe your qualifications for this office.

I was fighting for justice for working families long before I was elected to office, before putting my future on the line to stand up for a grieving community in the aftermath of a mass shooting at a school that took the lives of six people, before standing up for Tennessee children demanding that our governor feed them over the summer, before standing up for democracy every day in the Tennessee State House where I read every bill, every resolution to ensure I was informed enough to effectively advocate for every Tennessean, not just my constituents; before I marched in protest of the redistricting that obliterated the state's only majority Black district and upended this election cycle only 90 days before the primary election. Before all that, I stood side-by-side with my neighbors and people across Memphis, Shelby County and our country to stop two billion-dollar oil companies from installing an oil pipeline that would have endangered over trillions of gallons of fresh drinking water for Mid-South residents and stolen land and generational wealth from working class families. I also stood with my community to shut down Sterilization Services that emitted so much ethylene oxide into the air that those living near the facility were 4-times likely to get cancer from air pollution than the national average. I love my city and Tennessee. And I am willing and have proven I am able to fight for working families who are being left behind.