Tennessee State Rep. Justin Pearson (D-Tenn.), in collaboration with the Kamala Harris and Tim Walz campaign and the College Democrats at WCU, hosted a meet and greet at the WCU A. K. Hinds University Center at 3 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 4.
The meet and greet was aimed at connecting with locals and college students advocating for social change and to rally votes in Western 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 tha
t they have that says that it was better in the 40s, in the 30s and in 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-Tenn.) 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 against gun violence following the March school shooting in Nashville on the chamber floor. Both were later reinstated to their positions by local officials less than a week after their expulsion.
After they were expelled, Vice President Kamala Harris visited Tennessee in support of Pearson and Jones.
“She said the courage and momentum that we built for the movement has to continue and charged us with helping to make sure that young people realized that they had a voice in this fight,” Pearson said in an interview with Cory Vaillancourt, the politics editor of the Smoky Mountain News. “She shared her concern for democracy because of the authoritarian actions of the (Tennessee) General Assembly and worry about people misusing and abusing their power to silence the voices of people especially the two youngest, democratically elected lawmakers of color.”
The meet and greet took place not long after the news of another school shooting broke, this time in Georgia where four students were killed occurred. Pearson started off leading a prayer for the victims of school shootings.
At the end of the event as the group was dispersing, Jackson County Republican Chairman Keith Blaine made an appearance and voiced his intent to organize a College Republicans club on campus.
“I was hanging around with some other College Dems after the event when a gentleman who identified himself as the Jackson County Republican Chair appeared in our doorway,” Zach Powell, the president of the College Democrats at WCU, said. “He was asking questions about who we were, what was the nature of our event, and we just responded we were the College Democrats and at that point with a sly grin on his face he told us that he was looking to start a College Republicans. He just seemed there to send a message, to let the College Democrats know that the Republican Party in Jackson County is actively trying to organize against Democrats on campus. There doesn’t seem to be any real effort on behalf of students at Western to make that happen.”
Blaine declined an in-person interview with The Western Carolinian
