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- Justin J. Pearson announces challenge to long-serving Rep. Steve Cohen, framing campaign as collective, moral response to the status quo.
- Pearson emphasizes progressive platform: affordable housing, higher minimum wage, environmental justice, and refusal of corporate PAC money.
- Pearson links candidacy to Memphis protest legacy, activism roots, and moral urgency, calling the moment a decisive Kairos.
- Steve Cohen highlights his experience, institutional knowledge, and record of delivering federal resources for Memphis.
- Race frames a generational showdown: seasoned institutionalism versus youthful activist energy in heavily Democratic, majority-Black District 9.
At Alonzo Weaver Park in South Memphis, just blocks from his grandmother’s old house, State Rep. Justin J. Pearson stepped to the microphone Wednesday morning, Oct. 8, and confirmed what many had expected: He’s running for Congress.
And not just for any seat. Pearson, 30, announced his challenge to U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, the 76-year-old Democrat who has represented Tennessee’s 9th Congressional District since 2007.
“This campaign isn’t about me,” Pearson told supporters under the park’s picnic pavilion. “It’s about us. It’s about our dreams, our hopes, our future. It’s not about one individual who’s been holding positions in offices for too long. It’s about our ability to create and craft a future that we want to live into.”
That refrain — “It’s about us” — became the through-line of a speech that mixed church-house cadence with policy substance. Pearson’s oratorical skill, honed since his days as a student activist at Mitchell High School, charged the humid Memphis air with echoes of a civil-rights revival.
‘Turning status quo into good’
Pearson framed his candidacy as a moral and generational response to what he called the “status quo trying to kill us.”
“We’re in a moment of crisis,” he said. “People in positions of power are more comfortable pontificating in letters than standing up with the people. But when there are moments of crisis, there are also moments of opportunity — what I call Kairos. And I think right here in District 9, we’re living in a Kairos kind of moment.” Kairos moments refer to opportune, decisive times for critical action.
From there, Pearson built a sweeping indictment of inequality, touching on wages, housing, health and environmental pollution and linking each to moral duty.
“We have an affordability and economic strangulation of the poorest people,” he said. “Rent for houses that used to be $400 are now $1,200. We’ve got a gun violence epidemic that’s taking the lives of our loved ones. If people want to do something about crime, pass some gun safety laws. Don’t occupy us. Eradicate poverty.”
Throughout the nearly 35-minute address and subsequent press conference, Pearson invoked both his family’s faith and Memphis’ legacy of protest. He credited “the prayers of my great-great-granddaddy, who prayed before he picked cotton that his descendants would one day read and write.”
“Because of those prayers,” he thundered, “his great-great-grandson is running for the United States Congress.”
Platform of justice and renewal
If his speech previewed his campaign platform, Pearson is staking out ground on the progressive left.
He pledged to fight for affordable housing, a higher minimum wage and environmental justice, citing battles he’s already waged, such as helping to stop the Byhalia Pipeline and pressing for cleanup of polluted sites in Boxtown and Westwood.
He vowed to reject corporate political action committee (PAC) money, saying his campaign would be powered by “people, not corporations.”
“One job should be enough,” he said. “You shouldn’t work 60 or 70 hours a week and still be in poverty. I’ll give every breath I’ve got to this district because it’s about us.”
Pearson’s campaign website, VoteJustinJ.com, urges volunteers to “join the movement” ahead of what he called “the largest political rally in recent Memphis history.” The event is set for Saturday, Oct. 11, at 1 p.m. at 629 Monroe Ave., with doors opening at noon.
Cohen: ‘Experience and institutional knowledge’
Congressman Cohen, who has faced periodic primary challenges over the years, struck a confident tone even before Pearson’s announcement.
“Tomorrow morning, an ambitious young candidate has said he plans to announce he is running for the House of Representatives in Tennessee’s 9th Congressional District,” Cohen wrote in a Facebook post on the eve of Pearson’s event. “With your continued support, we will turn back this challenge in the Democratic Primary … This is a time for the experience and institutional knowledge that I bring to the table.”
Cohen closed his note with his trademark slogan: “KEEP GOIN’ WITH COHEN! HE DELIVERS!”
Later, responding to Pearson’s launch, Cohen told Roll Call:
“I’ve been challenged by a mayor who served for 18 years and several bright up-and-comers who were predicted to be the next big thing. None of my primary challengers has ever won a single precinct. I have earned and received broad support in our community that transcends race, age and neighborhood. I look forward to doing so again.”
Cohen’s long tenure in Congress has indeed brought federal dollars home, from infrastructure and transportation grants to the rebuilding of the I-40 bridge after the 2021 closure. His argument is that Memphis can’t afford to lose that leverage.
Before the announcement, Pearson said he called Cohen personally out of respect — a call that, by his account, didn’t go well.
“He talked to me just like I get talked to by Republicans in the Statehouse,” Pearson told reporters. “He was very condescending, very arrogant. And he spoke to me in a way that was unbecoming of any leader, but especially our United States Congressman, but that’s all right. He won’t be back for long.”
Cohen’s office did not immediately respond to that characterization, but the exchange underscored the generational tension animating the race: Pearson’s direct, activist style versus Cohen’s institutional composure.
A generational and stylistic showdown
Still, the contrast between the two Democrats is stark — not just in policy emphasis, but in tone, style and age.
Cohen, a 76-year-old white lawmaker from Midtown, is a seasoned legislator with seniority on key congressional committees. Pearson, a young Black activist-turned-lawmaker from South Memphis, rose to national prominence after being expelled then reinstated for leading a gun-control protest on the Tennessee House floor in 2023.
In many ways, their matchup mirrors a larger conversation in American politics: experience versus energy, continuity versus change.
While Pearson did not mention Cohen by name during his announcement, his critique of “people in office for too long” landed unmistakably.
Political observers note that Memphis’ 9th District is heavily Democratic and majority Black. It’s a demographic mix that could favor Pearson if he can mobilize younger and disengaged voters who have rarely felt inspired by establishment politics.
‘The bottom rail gonna make it to the top’
Pearson closed his announcement by recalling a saying from his great-grandmother, whose home stood near the park: “One day, before the end of time, the bottom rail gonna make it to the top.”
“Great-grandmama, we on our way, baby,” he shouted to cheers.
Whether that prophecy comes true in the 2026 Democratic primary remains to be seen. But Pearson’s entry into the race has already transformed what was expected to be another routine reelection for Cohen into one of the most watched Democratic matchups in the South — a test of message, movement and momentum in the heart of Memphis.
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