After Thursday’s qualifying deadline, several candidates have qualified in the District 86 special election, including two Democrats and one Independent. One Republican picked up a petition on the day of the qualifying deadline but failed to file the 25 signatures needed to be on the ballot. The Memphis-based district has long been a Democratic mainstay.
Late State Representative Barbara Cooper (D-Memphis) held the seat for nearly 26 years before passing away just two weeks before last year’s general election. She posthumously won re-election by a margin of 46 percentage points.
Incumbent State Representative Justin Pearson (D-Memphis) was appointed to fill the seat the day after he won the crowded special Democratic primary by a landslide in January. He ran unopposed in the special general election in March, officially winning the seat Shelby County Commission appointed him by just 443 voters.
Just over 200 square miles, District 86 covers the entire Mississippi River border of Shelby County, its southwestern edge being Tennessee’s westernmost point. Its northern edge borders Tipton County, covering parts of Millington before heading south along the riverbank.
In the mid-section of the district lies downtown Memphis. The historic Peabody Hotel, Beale Street, and the National Civil Rights Museum all call District 86 home. Heading further south, the district follows historic Highway 61 before reaching its southern terminus at the Mississippi border.
According to the Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury, the district’s citizens, comprising about seven percent of Shelby County’s population, are 66 percent African-American, 25 percent white, and eight percent Hispanic and other races. District 86 contains many low-income individuals – 23 percent of the district’s population lives below the poverty line, and 21 percent receive food stamps.
The median disposable income in the district is $42,679, and 44 percent of the population has a GED, high school diploma, or less.
Not much is known about the challengers to the incumbent Justin Pearson. His Democratic primary foe, David Page, came in last place in a Shelby County School Board district election in 2022. According to his LinkedIn profile, he was once a legislative assistant to Cooper. No information is available at this time for independent Jeff Johnston.
Pearson was valedictorian of his high school class before attending Bowdoin College, a small liberal arts college in Maine. While attending Bowdoin, Pearson won an election for class president after campaigning on a message to bring Democrats and Republicans together in search of a “radical middle” solution.
After graduating in 2017, Pearson returned to Memphis and began engaging in community activism. He most notably led an activist group called Memphis Community Against the Pipeline, which takes credit for blocking plans for a crude oil pipeline in South Memphis.
Pearson faces his second campaign this year after his expulsion last month triggered a special election to fill the seat for the remainder of the term. Shelby County Commission unanimously voted to appoint him as his own interim successor to the seat that he had vacated only days earlier.
Early voting for the special primary runs from May 26 – June 10, while the special primary election day is June 15th. Early voting for the special general election runs from July 14 – 29, while the special general election day will be August 3rd.
Further information on the three upcoming special elections in the state is here.
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Mac Roberts is a reporter at The Tennessee Star. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Justin Pearson” by Justin J. Pearson. Background Photo “Tennessee Capitol” by FaceMePLS. CC BY 2.0.
