State Senator Brent Taylor, GOP nominee for Congress against Rep. Justin Pearson, told Memphis-based radio host on KWAM Monday morning that he won’t debate Pearson. “He was so far up Hasan Piker’s rear end that his feet were dangling out,” Taylor said of Pearson’s relationship with DSA influencer Hasan Piker. 
“I think it’s important that people hold him accountable for sitting on the couch with Hasan Piker after saying that America deserved 9/11 and that the United States is the worst country on the planet. And (Justin) is there like a fanboy sucking up to Hasan Piker wearing a Mao suit,” Taylor noted in reference to a meeting between Piker and Pearson earlier this year in Denver.
While many Democrats around the country are suddenly seeking a middle ground politically in order to distance themselves from the radical Democrat Socialists of America (DSA) policies, including candidates like Molder and Darden Copeland in Tennessee, 9th District Democrat nominee Justin Pearson is embracing the extremist Leftists seeking to dominate the party. Not only did Pearson participate in a recent DSA gathering in Denver, but he has also literally hugged up to the controversial and extremely toxic and divisive Hasan Piker.
While even the most radical Democrats, like Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan and others, are rapidly pushing away from Piker and his extremist views, Pearson is not.
Even Democrat House leader Hakeem Jeffries has condemned Piker; but not Pearson.
Pearson recently claimed that a poll of voters in the district has him trailing Taylor by only 4 points, 48-44%. Hart Research conducted a poll in September that says that is the margin among 400 likely voters in the 9th District. The survey, the only publicly available poll of the race, was conducted for Tennessee Rise PAC, a Democratic-aligned group that supports Pearson. Details of the poll have not been made available, and a 400 person sample would be an incredibly small number.
The Tennessee legislature redrew Tennessee’s congressional maps during a May special session. An analysis by Inside Elections found the newly configured 9th District would have supported President Donald Trump by 21 percentage points in the 2024 election. Because Trump voters tend to stay home when he is not actually on the ballot, that margin is unlikely to be closer during the midterm elections, but Taylor is still highly favored to win.
HATCHER AND MOLDER AGREE TO DEBATE IN 5TH DISTRICT RACE.
Charlie Hatcher and Chaz Molder have agreed to what will likely be one debate in the Fifth District race, although Molder was pressing for three. No date nor location has been agreed to, and format and moderators are still yet to be determined.
REGISTRY OF ELECTION FINANCE GOP BOARD MEMBER DIES.
Tom Lawless, a Nashville attorney and longtime member of the Registry of Election Finance, died suddenly over the weekend in New York City at age 72.
Lawless, previously served as judge for the city of Oak Hill in Nashville. Lawless earned a bachelor’s degree at MTSU and his law degree at Nashville School of Law and practiced business law, earning multiple national awards. He also served as chairman of the Tennessee Governor’s Commission for Judicial Appointments and was secretary of the Tennessee Board of Judicial Conduct.
He was chairman of the Davidson County Republican Party and one-time candidate for the 5th Congressional District seat in 2002.
