This Democrat could be Elon Musk's worst nightmare if he wins
00:00My guest today is running for Congress in Tennessee's 9th District.Justin Pearson, welcome to the show.Thank you so much.I'm so happy to be here with you.It's great to see you.So a lot of our listeners probably remember you from 2023 when you alongside some colleagueswere protesting against gun violence on the floor of the Tennessee House of Representatives.You were dubbed the Tennessee 3, and then you and Representative Jones were actually expelled
00:22from the House and ultimately reinstated after winning special elections.What did that experience teach you about politics?And what, like, lessons from it are you bringing to this race?I mean, one of the biggest lessons is that the rise of autocracy and authoritarianism in our country is real.And Tennessee has been a testing rouse for what we're seeing all across the country.People are abusing and misusing their power in the Republican Party in ways that are dangerous for democracy.But it also showed me that they are completely out of touch and out of step with whatTennesseans want and what they need.
00:5271% of Tennesseans, including Mago Republicans, want to see gun safety laws.My wife and I both have our firearms and our permits to carry life.to carry, lifetime permits to carry. We are not against people having access to firearms.We just want people to be responsible gun owners. And that's the majority of Tennesseans. But the NRA,the Tennessee Firearms Association, had convinced my Republican colleagues that it's in theirbest interest not to do with the people in Tennessee won. And in this campaign, which is now a campaignacross 200 miles, 15 counties after Memphis was broken into thirds, really is building coalitionof people through the common ground that we have, increasing the minimum wage, helping small
01:30businesses, increasing access to health care, stopping toxic data centers, which is what mostpeople in the state want that, again, my opponent and this administration is completely out oftouch with.You mentioned you're a long-time advocate for gun safety laws.Like, there's no American political issue that frustrates me more.I mean, I was in the White House during the Sandy Hook shooting in the aftermath.It is so obvious we need more and better gun safety laws than this.country, but this like small, radicalized coalition and movement are able to block so much of what
02:02we're trying to do at the federal level.What do you say to people that have lost hope on ever getting more gun safety laws in America?Yeah, please don't give up hope because that's how they win.You just have to ask yourself the reverse question.If I give up hope, who does that benefit?If I quit fighting, who does that benefit?It doesn't benefit the people that we care about, the people that we love.People like my brother, God rest his soul, who tragically passed away by guns.
02:25suicide December 1st, 2004. Call 9-8-80 if you're ever struggling. We know that things can bebetter and they can be different. And in fact, even since the horrible mass shooting in Nashvilleat the Covenant School, more states have passed gun safety regulations and laws. Morecommunities are doing what they can to sort of beef up the efforts to protect their kidsand their students. And are we seeing the slide back in places like Tennessee where they triedto make it so teachers could carry firearms? Yes. But we can't say that we're not makingany progress. More people are becoming aware, being engaged. More states are doing things that theycan to protect their communities. So we can't, we can't give up, we really can. We have to keep
03:04the faith. That is as overlining. A lot of states are doing important things. A lot of communitiesaround the country are saying, no, this is insane. We do not need to allow, you know, machine gunsin high schools in America. That's not, arming teachers is not a way to keep kids safe. That's just acrazy idea. The district you're running in is one of the most shameless examples of Republicangerrymandering that we have seen lately. The quick,backstory for listeners is earlier this year, the Supreme Court made a ruling that further hollowedout the Voting Rights Act. Then Trump demanded Tennessee Republicans gerrymandered the state.They dutifully listened, I think like a week later, I mean, you can correct me if I'm wrong
03:40on this timeline. Republicans released a new map that carves Memphis into three pieces anddistributes the voters into three separate districts. Can you just explain to listeners, like whatthat means in practice for the people you're trying to represent and how it's changed the waythat you're running this campaign?Yeah, when I initially was running this race,I was growing up against a 20-year status quo,democratic establishment incumbent.And three months before,
04:04we were going to win that primary.Republicans in Nashville at the behest of Donald Trumpsaid, you know what, we're going to break Memphis,which had its own congressional districtfor over 40 years into thirds.And so you have neighbors,quite literally neighbors,who are in two different congressional districts.
04:22And it's been really difficulthonestly, for a lot of people to understand to grapple with what that means. I've had instanceswhere people didn't see me on the ballot and they decided not to vote, so I've had to encourage a lot ofpeople to go back and vote. But the idea was that this would allow Republicans to politicallydeprive black folks of the ability to choose a representative of their own choosing because we had amajority in the initial District 9, and now we're only representing a third in the new three districts,District 9, 5, and 8. But I will say it has not deterred us at all the next week. I traveled all 15counties on a listening tour, and I started to meet people and understand that the same systems
05:01impacting people as relates to housing, for instance, in Memphis or hurting people who are upat Giles County. The same corporations that I fight are maybe called X-A-I by Elon Musk or Valeroor Refinery. But my farmers in Savannah, they're dealing with Cargill and John Deere and Monsano,the same billionaire class we're up against,it keeps showing up just in different ways.And so I'm finding the ways that we have more solidarityand similarities than differences.You mentioned data centers.
05:29I mean, a bunch of data centers moved to your backyard, literally, recently,including one from Elon Musk called Colossus, I believe.Not really beating the rap on the kind of evil billionaire,you know, rap with that name, but whatever.It's crazy.Colossus?What are we doing here?So what does the impact been of those data centers
05:47and the quality of life for residents.And how has it changed the political conversations in your view?Yeah, I mean, when he built Colossus 1,is three miles away from my wife and I's home.He used 35 illegal gas turbines for over a year.And he was allowed to by our Democratic mayors,the health department, all just allowed him to pollute and to harmand to ultimately and tragically likely kill people
06:11due to the increases of nitrogen oxide,the increases of formaldehyde and the levels of pollution.Now he's built another gas plant right in North Mississippi and South Haven, which is a few more miles south, with 59 illegal gas turbines that are completely in violation of the Clean Air Act.And he's being allowed to do about the governor there, Governor Tate, and their Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality.We are getting run over all across this country by these billionaires, tech oligarchs, and our Democratic, lowercase D, institutions that are failing.us. And I think in this moment, what I am seeing in Lawrenceburg, in Piperton, all thesecommunities in towns that would not have been in District 9, otherwise, were Republicansand people who are living in more rural areas saying, I'm going to vote for you. And I don't
06:59typically vote for Democrats, but you're standing up against the data centers, which I know meansyou're going to stand up for us. Whereas my Trump endorsed opponent, he's got a $10,000 check fromElon Musk the day he announced his campaign. They're starting to run ads against us. And there'sa new billionaire who's spending hundreds of thousands of dollars.in our race trying to stop us because they know we're building the right coalition to win.And the fight against data centers, the fight for health care, the fight for increased wages is onethat benefits all of us. And that's what they want to distract us with. They want us to fight eachother instead of paying attention and looking up at who's really benefiting off of the pillaging
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08:41But essentially it's like people who have voted Republican in every election.their entire life who are saying, enough, we are not voting Republican this cycle,we're not voting for data centers, we are going to vote for a Democrat or stay home?Is there a similar kind of grassroots groundswell and anger towards data centers that you'reseeing?Like, how salient is this issue, do you think, in Tennessee?I believe it's becoming more salient every single day.I mean, for instance, in Memphis and Shelby County, when I started fighting data centers
09:09and Elon Musk, there was no news about it at all happening.Now, every single day, you're saying fights about it.When I was in a forum at Fayette County, which is the county right next to Shelby County yesterday, Republicans and Democrats packed a room.And they just learned in the last week that a data center is likely coming to their community.And so it's becoming more salient, particularly as we head toward these midterm elections that are making people think twice about who they've been voting for.And we're just making the very clear case.If you want someone who is going to vote for the billionaire class and vote for data centers, then that's the Republican ticket.But if you actually care about your water, you care about the air we breathe, you care about your community and the integrity of your community and the character of your community, then you're going to vote for me, right, to serve you in the United States Congress.
09:55And honestly, Republicans have made it really clear and really simple that they are not on the side of the people at all.They're on the side of the billionaires and corporations and Democrats just have a responsibility in this moment to take what we believe and share it with the folks who are voted.So your opponent, Brent Taylor, he's a, I believe, Trump endorsed Republican.I think I read that he celebrated the deployment of the National Guard to Memphis, despite, you know, the objections of the local city council.Why did he do that?Does he not have faith in the local police to keep order?Like, why would he celebrate the military descending on your city?No, Brent Taylor hates Memphis.
10:34And now he's trying to represent it not as a person who really serves the interests of the people who live here, but as an overseer.He's a multimillionaire living in a plantation-style mansion in East Tennessee because that is his mindset, right?That we are all on his plantation.And it's really sickening because it's been devastating the decisions he's made, even as a state senator, laws that we passed to impretectual traffic stops.He actually went to the state house and undid those laws with preemption.Anytime we've tried to have progress, he's done everything he could to take it back.And now this task force that Trump has brought into our community has actually killed four black men,they've been here over the last year.
11:12Hundreds of our immigrant neighbors have been detained.Just two weeks ago, 121 people were kidnapped and taken to Mason, Tennessee, where there'san ICE facility.And at the last city council meeting that I was attending, over 40 children were there whoseparents have been taken.We are in a very bad situation in Memphis, in District 9 because of the policies of the Trumpadministration and the support that they've received from people like Trump and yours, Brett Taylor,that don't care about people.
11:40ultimately, when we are dealing with the crisis in our politics, there's an entire political partythat is really dedicated to the propping up of a certain person and certain people, and then thepressing down of everyone else. And it's time for everyone else to unite, to fight back.The issue of ICE generally, I mean, it's sort of like risen and fallen in terms of the amountit's in the conversation or is covered in the media. Obviously, the horrific murders by ICEofficers of civilians in Minnesota were sort of the peak of that conversation. Are people in Memphis,Are they as angry about ICE as other communities?What is the conversation there like about those deployments of ICE officers?
12:18If I'm being honest with you, there is some tension in our community between the elected officials and the community at large.The citizens of the people who live here do not want ICE, do not want the National Guard, do not want the military occupation of our community.We want poverty eradication.But this is why I tell people I stand up against both parties because our Democratic mayor, Paul Young, has been supported.been supportive of the deployment. And that has been different than what we saw in Chicago.That's different than what we saw in Los Angeles. That's different than what we saw in Minnesota.A lot of our locally elected leaders have accepted militarization as the solution, even thoughthey're Democrats. And I think we have a responsibility to demand that the federal government not
12:58spend resources militarizing our communities, but instead investing in it. And we had been given$350 million, we could have eradicated poverty. But instead, we've got National Guard folksshooting a 20-year-old Tyron Johnson in his back. We've got people who are part of this unsafetask force killing Joan and Neil who was in the middle of a mental health crisis and his mom wascalling to get him help and he was shot and killed. Or Daron Pinguine was at work at Burger King andthey said he reached for a gun while he was working at the stove. These are incidences that arehappening that are hurting and traumatizing our community. But if I'm being honest with you,nationally, it hasn't got nearly as much attention as any of the killings that have happened by ICE,
13:42but our community has experienced four deaths by the Trump administration of these federal agents over the last year.It hasn't got nearly as much attention as any single one of the killings by ICE in any of the other communities.God, that's horrifying. Jesus, though, just worked like literally just at his job at the grill and they claimed he was reaching for a gun.That seems insane.No, it makes no sense whatsoever.Final question. I know your opponent is largely self-funding his campaign.I'm curious how bad has impacted your race.And for people listening, if they want to get involved, if they want to support you, what can they do at this point?
14:13Yes.So he has given himself $1.5 million in this race.I do not have $1.5 million to give myself.Trump mentioned us last week in his rally in Tennessee.Republicans are terrified because this is supposed to be an easy win for them, right?They drew the district to be Trump plus 21 points.And two polls now have us within just four points of winning this.So if you go to vote Justin J.com, you can donate.
14:36You can also volunteer from anywhere in the country or world, helping us to call people in District 9.If we get out the vote, we can break the gerrymander because maps don't vote, people do.And we're in early voting right now in Tennessee through October 29th.And we need all the help that we possibly can get to make sure that we win, that we break this gerrymander,and that we show the country that the South is a place where we need to fight for our democracy and fight for our future.Well, Justin, thank you for being a long-time fighter for gun safety laws.Thanks for doing the show.And everyone go check out his website because we need you there in Congress.
15:10So thank you.Thank you so much, my friend.God bless you.Got PC optimum points.Visit Shopper's Drug Mart for the bonus redemption event and get more for your points.Friday, October 23rd to Wednesday, October 28th.Valid in store and online.
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