Tennessee State Rep. Justin Pearson (D – Memphis, TN), in collaboration with the Harris-Walz campaign and the College Democrats at Western Carolina University, hosted a meet and greet at the WCU A. K. Hinds University Center Wednesday, Sept. 4.
The event aimed at connecting with locals and college students advocating for social change and rallying votes in Western North Carolina. Pearson said that younge people ages 18 to 36 are the largest voting block that will determine the results of this election. He added that he believes Harris will be joining Jimmy Carter and Barak Obama as the third democratic president who won in North Carolina.
“There’s something powerful happening in North Carolina,” Pearson said. “There is a group of folks who are ready to see North Carolina help to make the history that we know is necessary to create the country that we know we deserve to live in.”
Pearson went on to talk about the hopeful view of the future that the Democratic Party has been campaigning on.
“There’s this version of America that they have that says that it was better in the 40s, in the 30s and the 20s. I disagree,” Pearson continued. “We are living in the best times that we have. The only way we can build a country that we deserve is to realize that the country is not the best that it can be yet. We know that there is a version of America that is possible that is more fair, more equitable and more just.”
Pearson alongside Rep. Justin Jones (D – Nashville, TN) were the two Tennessee representatives that were expelled from the Tennessee state assembly in April 2023 by the Republican majority after they led a protest on the chamber floor against gun violence following the March school shooting in Nashville. Both were reinstated to their positions by local officials less than a week after their expulsion.
At the end of the event, Jackson County Republican Chairman Keith Blaine made an appearance and voiced his intentions to form a College Republicans group on campus. He declined an interview with the Western Carolina Journalist.
