One Tennessee Republican Votes Against Expelling Democrat Justin Jones

One Republican dissenter has voted against expelling Democratic Tennessee Representative Justin Jones one week after he was targeted by GOP lawmakers over his role in a gun control protest.

The trio of lawmakers on March 30 provoked the ire of Republican Speaker Cameron Sexton after breaching decorum by speaking out of turn and repeating a chant in support of gun control as a youth-led protest was taking part outside the chamber.

The demonstration came in the wake of Nashville's Covenant School shooting, which left three children and three adults dead and reignited the gun control debate across the nation.

Republican Representative Charlie Baum, who also serves as an economics professor at Middle Tennessee State University, was the lone Republican to vote against the expulsion on Thursday.

Republican Representative Sam Whitson was present during the vote but abstained. The other 72 Republicans who were at the hearing voted in favor of expelling the Democrat.

"What the nation is seeing is that we don't have democracy in Tennessee," Jones told reporters after the vote. "To expel voices of opposition and dissent is a signal of authoritarianism and it is very dangerous."

President Joe Biden called the move to expel Jones "shocking" and "undemocratic" in a tweet a short time later.

"Three kids and three officials gunned down in yet another mass shooting," Biden tweeted. "And what are GOP officials focused on? Punishing lawmakers who joined thousands of peaceful protesters calling for action. It's shocking, undemocratic, and without precedent."

After expelling Jones, lawmakers debated whether to expel two more Democrats who took part in the demonstration, Representatives Gloria Johnson and Justin Pearson.

The effort to expel Johnson failed by a 65-30 vote. Expelling a member requires a two-thirds majority, or 66 votes. The vote on expelling Pearson had not taken place at the time of publication.

Some suggested that racism may have played a role in Johnson, who is white, being spared expulsion. Jones and Pearson are both Black. Johnson told reporters after the vote that her and Jones' differing fates "may have to do with the color of our skin."

During an MSNBC appearance after Johnson was spared, lawyer and political commentator Elie Mystal said that he had been "very naive" to initially assume that racism would not play a role in the expulsion votes.

"Obviously there's no material difference, legally speaking, between the actions of some of the Tennessee three versus others," Mystal said.

Tennessee Democratic Party Chair Hendrell Remus told Newsweek earlier this week that he thought it was "very likely" all three Democrats would be expelled due to the state House being heavily controlled by Republicans.

Hendrell also accused Sexton and GOP leadership of hypocrisy, arguing that Republican members had not been disciplined for behavior that was arguably far worse.

"There have been Republicans who've been arrested for bribery, who have committed crimes that stemmed from inside of the House," Hendrell said. "We didn't see this type of posturing towards them."

Newsweek has reached out via email to Baum for comment.