Why This Tennessee Primary Could Hold Answers About the Democratic Party’s Future

Democrats are watching a 2026 House primary in a blue Tennessee district to see how hungry their party is for generational change.

Earlier this month, progressive Tennessee state Rep. Justin J. Pearson — best known as one of the Tennessee Three — announced he would challenge Rep. Steve Cohen in Tennessee’s 9th Congressional District. He has the backing of national groups, including Leaders We Deserve and Justice Democrats. Cohen, who is also considered a progressive and has previously been backed by groups like Everytown for Gun Safety, and Pearson have few differences in policy stances.

But they are separated by nearly four decades in age.

Pearson, who gained a national profile after he and another state legislator were expelled for using a bullhorn on the House Floor to protest against gun violence following a deadly 2023 school shooting, told NOTUS in an interview that his ability to be “an advocate and a community organizer that knows how to build coalitions” is what separates him from Cohen.

“It’s not necessarily so much about age as it really is about the energy to be who we need and position right now for our party,” Pearson, who interned in Cohen’s office as a high school student, said. “More people in our constituency want to see leaders that reflect who they are as individuals, also their values and also a spirit of persistence and resistance to this administration, but really to the sea change of the political atmosphere over the last couple of decades.”

“And the reality is people who’ve been in office for 20, 30, 40 years, the world is very different from when they entered into it.”

Cohen, a senior member of the House Judiciary Committee who led an early effort to impeach President Donald Trump in 2017, is making the case that voters will appreciate his experience.

“I always have run on my record,” Cohen, who has served in the House of Representatives since 2006, said. “‘Keep going with Cohen.’ People have embraced that slogan. They’ve embraced that concept. And that’s the issue, you want to keep going with Cohen, a known quantity that’s delivered. Or do you want to go with some goals, wishes to glimmer, but no record?”

Democrats say the outcome of what’s expected to be a competitive primary could further show whether voters prefer younger, transformative voices as their elected officials. From July to September, Cohen raised nearly $43,000. Pearson previously announced that he raised $200,000 in the 36 hours after launching his campaign.

“The way you get young people involved is to have young people running for office. You’ve got to talk about the issues that young people care about, and we need folks who really are in touch with those issues,” Tennessee state Rep. Gloria Johnson, who supports Pearson and was one of the Tennessee Three (Johnson was not expelled from the state legislature), told NOTUS. She added that he could set a blueprint for how much the Democratic Party could benefit from younger candidates.

“What I hope to see is that people are recognizing that this younger generation, it’s time to let them step up,” Johnson added. “Because they’re the ones that are going to be raising children and raising their families.”

George Walker IV/AP

Democrats warn that last year’s election illustrated the need for younger voices within the Democratic Party, in part to reach younger voters. Democrats who have won presidential elections since 2008 — Barack Obama twice and Joe Biden once — have won at least 60% of the youth vote. But in 2024, Kamala Harris failed to reach that threshold.

There are also signs of enthusiasm for younger candidates as longtime elected lawmakers face scrutiny. Zohran Mamdani, 34, swept New York City’s mayoral Democratic primary. Longtime Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, 88, has wavered on whether she plans to run for re-election and faced questions about her ability to lead in this moment.

“I think Democrats across the country should really be taking notice that we have in Steve Cohen a career public servant who has been on the right side of every Democratic issue. But time has caught up with him in a way where there are emerging leaders who also share many of the same ideals and the same values,” Hendrell Remus, former chair of the Tennessee Democratic Party who hasn’t endorsed anyone in the race, told NOTUS.

“I think where there has been historically, this idea of rallying around the incumbent, protecting the incumbent, supporting the incumbent, and essentially being crowned by the incumbent … I think we’re starting to see a younger generation that says that, that they’re not going to wait for a turn.”

Usamah Andrabi, communications director for Justice Democrats, the group that helped launch well known progressives like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez into the House that is backing Pearson, told NOTUS that voters in Tennessee’s 9th Congressional District won’t “pretend” Cohen “has been this terrible, evil member of Congress for decades.”

While Cohen served the district “well,” Andrabi says a new leader who understands issues communities currently face is needed. Justice Democrats said they’ll have a better indication of the amount it plans to commit “closer to the primary in the on-year.”

“We have woken up in 2025 to a Congress that relies on strongly worded tweets and emphatic letters, as if that is going to stop Trump’s authoritarian power grabs, or Elon Musk’s corporate greed,” Andrabi said. “When we need leaders who are willing to be with the movement in the streets to take on the Trump administration and use every tool in their toolbox to fight this.”

In April, David Hogg, former vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, announced his plan to raise funds to challenge long-time incumbents in safely Democratic districts. Hogg’s group, Leaders We Deserve, announced that it plans to commit $1 million to unseat Cohen.

“We’re supporting Justin because he is a transformational leader who is uniquely equipped to meet this moment,” Hogg told NOTUS in a statement, adding that his support wasn’t a “condemnation” of Cohen’s “decades of service.”

Despite the push for youth within the party, other Tennessee Democrats say they want the best candidate to win.

“I don’t want to make this a broad mandate, white versus Black, old versus young,” Tennessee state Rep. Sam McKenzie told NOTUS. “I want the best person who is going to bring the most representation for the state of Tennessee. Because at the end of the day, they’re by themselves in this great state. So they have a huge lift.”