Dem
51
GOP
49
Well, this is embarrassing. At least, it is if you're a Republican in the Tennessee state House. The two Democrats, Justin Pearson and Justin Jones, who were tossed out of their seats for presuming to exercise their right to speak on the floor of the House were literally out of office for mere days before being chosen as their own temporary replacements. However, to keep their jobs, they had to win special elections, which were held yesterday.
To nobody's surprise, despite the fact there was zero polling, both men won in laughers. Jones, in SD-52, claimed 78% of the vote. Pearson, who faced only an independent challenger in SD-86, got 93.4% of the vote. The two districts are very blue and very Black (which, technically, makes them very Black and blue). On top of that, Jones and Pearson are heroes/martyrs to their constituents. So, they've basically got jobs for life if they want them.
The conduct of Tennessee Republicans in this incident was simply reprehensible. It's bad enough to silence the minority. It's even more icky to silence minority members of the minority, given the South's unpleasant history of racial oppression. And to abuse the rules in order to perform an outlandish political stunt is beyond the pale, especially when the white member of the "Tennessee Three" survived, while the non-white members were expelled. So the egg that the Tennessee GOP has on its face right now is well deserved, indeed. (Z)