Justin Pearson responds to concerns that his politics are 'confrontational' | ABC24 This Week

welcome to ABC 24 this week appreciate you joining us this Sunday and every Sunday at 9 A.M and 10 35 p.m for the real story behind the big stories in a moment state representative Justin J Pearson will be joining us fresh off his Landslide win in the Democratic primary hoping to reclaim the seat he was expelled from earlier this spring also today the mess that is the Memphis Shelby County School Board things so bad one board member quit this week alleging ignorance and Corruption is she right a

nd tax hike anybody grab your wallet both the City and Memphis city of Memphis and Shelby County governments considering sizable increases in the property tax rate to pay for everything from hospitals to public transportation let's start first though with state representative Justin J Pearson who's all but secured his seat which runs from what Millington down to Westwood pretty much so a pretty big stretch of territory there but some 67 000 voters well those who showed up anyway want you to be i

n the office for another two years after all that you've been through how many times have people gone to the polls to vote Jay Pearson for District 86 I've lost count three times and one more to go okay yeah they got the general election I I I don't want to congratulate you prematurely but you are running against an independent we should mention and perhaps the Republican writing candidate but I I'm going to go ahead and on a limb and say this is probably yours all right so Otis uh let's start w

ith you and let you ask the first question of the representative representative Pearson uh congratulations on the win in the primary you know I'm a journalist uh I'm not a I don't know much about math but my calculation you got 94 of the vote that's pretty impressive even though the numbers were small but let me ask you uh how do you respond to the criticism that I've got from people who say that your politics is more about confrontation than it is about conciliation how do you respond to that b

ecause I have heard some people say that yeah mostly Republicans sure look I am grateful to the people of District 86 for going to the polls for showing up in early voting for showing up at the polls to make sure that we restore representation that was unjustly taken by the Tennessee Republican super majority who abuse power and who are more focused on changing our democracy to their own mobocracy our politics is not one that is confrontational for those who want Justice for people who want to s

ee those who've been pushed to the periphery and the margins elevated for people who want to see an end of poverty but for people who want to see an end of gun violence it's not confrontational it's one that says we have to Center the folks who have been kicked out of the conversation for far too long what is uh what we are seeing as confrontation or being seen as confrontational is running up against the status quo that doesn't want to change and there are people in the Republican Party who hav

e built their entire careers on how they can oppress people how can they oppress Black Folk and queer folk and poor folk how can they oppress people and when you have a district that is saying no more we've had enough of that we've had enough of being told that we're the paths of least resistance we've had enough of being told our air quality doesn't matter we've had enough of being told that our children don't matter we've had enough of that they say well you're just being too confrontational b

ut when we weren't being confrontational what how did that serve us how have you served us and they haven't and it's time for that to change okay Pastor William do all the Worship Center gets the next question well as uh as an elder myself in the political community in this in this city I just want to say I'm proud of you man um I am proud of you that's something that the old heads when I came on the scene didn't do to me they kind of stood off from me and said well no he's he's too Brash he's t

oo whatever and that's a question I want to ask you on the day in question when the blow up occurred when they rushed you out and tried that ex you know put you and the others out I saw as I watched the video I saw Representatives Joe towns and Karen camper get so upset with you and your colleagues in fact I saw Joe towns literally put it put his hand on you and Karen was pushing you out of the door I'm assuming that they have apologized for that but I want to ask you I think it's symbolic of wh

at you brought up earlier status quo versus the new how do you respond to people not just GOP but established black Democrats who think your ways are 2 on convention I mean I love my black people it is because of black women and black leaders in particular that I am here if it had not been for my grandmothers and folks in the Civil Rights struggle like Fannie Lou Hamer we wouldn't be where we are and so I give immense Credence to folks like Karen camper who've made it to leader and things like t

hat but we have to be honest about where we are and that we didn't get here because there were mistakes being made we got here because people have designed a predicament and a situation that is very dangerous for us and too many people have gotten more proximate to those who are in power rather than lifting up the voices of their communities and their constituencies I honestly think if more people watch what their representatives were or not doing at the state legislature they wouldn't be sendin

g them back honestly I think you'd be surprised how many people are quiet don't speak on the house floor pass legislation that incarcerates more black people because that's the only types of bills that the Republican Party allow for us to pass right uh but I'd rather not pass anything and keep to the principles of what we say we believe which is Injustice which is In fairness which is in the elevating of all people because when we Elevate those who have been most marginalized everybody benefits

I'd rather stay true to those principles that that the folks in box town and Westwood and and Woodstock sent us to represent and to say than to try and get proximity to folks who I know in their hearts and in the statements that they put out do not wish us well and so for our black leaders who have been in politics for a while for our young leaders as well who too often are being co-opted into silence and Silent complicity that has sacrificed us and our communities now is our moment in time to d

o different you got a new day it's time to operate differently and it's time to operate with the full faith and belief that the status quo needs changing and that we have a responsibility and an opportunity to change it come with me see how I was worried that we were going to fill up the time I don't know but we're managing to look I've been covering politics for a long time uh Otis has as well and I guess I was impressed with the polished way you ran this campaign considering it's a state repre

sentative seat and a special election at that let's show the folks at home if they haven't seen it the commercial that was running on television stations just before the election uh this week they don't know us we are conscious people who will always speak up we are always going to demand that the people who've been pushed to the periphery be brought to the center of the conversation they see on the horizon thousands of people who are standing up you can't silence a movement you can't expel hope

paid for by the committee to elect Justin J Pearson Scott Crosby treasurer again I've been covering politics a long time I've never seen an ad like that for a State Rep race for a special election some might see that ad in fact some have seen that ad they said this guy's got Higher Goals higher Ambitions now we've asked you do you have plans to run for Congress and you said no I don't I'm fully committed to the seat District 86 state representative let me throw out some numbers for you okay go

ahead District 86 is a population of 67 000 people roughly how many voted for you uh in this special election got 2 200 000 people okay the Congress Congressional District Number Nine has a population of 767 000 people almost 768. our Memphis view ring area has about 1.3 million people so in order to buy those ads you had to pay the rate to reach an awful lot of people a lot more than you needed for district 86. can you tell me first unequivocally you have no designs no interest at all in runnin

g for the district 9C because a lot of people think what I'm hearing is that Carpe Diem Seize the Day Now's the Time you'd be a full tweet yeah uh it's interesting people saying I'd be I'd be a fool to wait to run for district nine and they said you were full to run having never been in office before when we first ran for state representative look we want to serve District 86 it's the community where I was born where I was raised as the people who have supported me and our job and our goal is to

do everything that we can to improve our district which has some of the most pollution some of the highest levels of crime some of the highest levels of disinvestment that we have seen in our city and in our County and now is the time for us to seize the day of working in the state legislature which is eroding our democracy which is hurting our communities to do something about that but with all due respect that wasn't my question can you say unequivocally that you really have no designs or int

erest in the district 9C I have no desires or interest in The District 9 seat I have all interests in The District 86 seat though you will not be a candidate for 2024. I will not be a candidate for 2024. okay all right notice if you get one more question yeah one more question here uh I think you mentioned off air that you might go to Nashville and help the other Justin because he does have a named Republican candidate in that general election a lot of people have asked Justin Pearson has such a

great voice right now um are you planning to get involved in the city mayor's race in terms of supporting someone speaking out for someone because let's be honest if you did it would give that person a big boost right at this point we haven't decided to endorse anybody for city mayor obviously this is an extremely important position and role what I do know is whoever is running for city mayor if they're not talking about poverty I won't be casting my vote for them if they're coming out of obscu

rity I won't be casting my vote for them we need folks who've been proximate to poor folks we need folks who've been proximate to the issues that our city has and that matters to be in the office of Mayor okay okay okay so so it'll be a matter of people that you won't support as opposed to people that you might support if they're not talking about your issues exactly and that's what I encourage everybody to do what are the issues that matter to you right and where have the people that you're loo

king at been okay and if they haven't been around fighting pipelines if they haven't been around fighting for our democracy then they're probably not the people that need to be serving us right now okay all right I got to end it there unfortunately we have as many more questions I have no doubt but maybe we can have you back bring me back okay that sounds like a plan to me sounds good we'll take a break we'll be right back to talk about the mess that is the Memphis Shelby County School Board and

Chris Tudor former chairman of the Shelby County Republican party will be joining us right after this