The Nashville Metropolitan Council voted unanimously on Monday to send Rep. Justin Jones back to the Tennessee state House.
Jones’ reappointment comes just four days after the Republican-led supermajority in the Tennessee State House expelled him from the chamber for joining gun control protest on the House floor with a bullhorn.
After the vote on Monday, Jones joined a group of about 1,000 protesters marching to the state Capitol, where he was sworn back into office with cheers.
Jones and another Democrat, Justin Pearson, both of whom are Black, were expelled from the House last week after the Republican supermajority claimed they broke House rules on decorum by joining gun control protest on the House floor. The protest came days after a mass shooting at a private Christian school in Nashville left three adults and three 9-year-olds dead.
The resolution to expel a third Democrat, Gloria Johnson, a white woman, failed by one vote. Asked why she hadn’t been thrown out of the House with her colleagues, Johnson told reporters, “It might have to do with the color of our skin.”
Tennessee law allows local legislative bodies to appoint interim House members to fill the seats of expelled lawmakers until an election is held, CNN reported.
The Shelby County Board of Commissioners in Memphis will meet on Wednesday to potentially reappointment Pearson to the seat.
