Memphis Race Pits White Veteran Congressman Against Young Black Challenger

Tennessee's 9th Congressional District primary is shaping up as one of the starkest generational showdowns in the 2026 midterm cycle, with 31-year-old state Rep. Justin Pearson mounting a well-funded challenge against 76-year-old incumbent Rep. Steve Cohen in a majority-Black Memphis district that Cohen, a white Jewish congressman, has held since 2007.

Pearson announced his campaign last October at Alonzo Weaver Park in Memphis, steps from Mitchell High School where he once challenged the school board to deliver new books as a 15-year-old student. The symbolism was deliberate: a challenger rooted in the district's lived experience taking on a 10-term congressman who has never lost a primary by fewer than two-thirds of the vote.

Pearson is outraising the 10-term incumbent more than two times over. The $732,000 Pearson raised from mid-October through the end of 2025 is more money than the combined last 16 years of Cohen's primary challengers have raised. That financial muscle comes partly from national progressive infrastructure: he entered the race with support from Justice Democrats and Leaders We Deserve, a group led by former Democratic National Committee Vice Chair David Hogg, which has pledged to spend $1 million against Cohen.

The 9th District, which is composed of most of Shelby County and portions of Tipton County, was designated a majority-minority district in 1980 and was held by Black representatives Harold Ford Sr. and Harold Ford Jr. until Ford Jr. ran for U.S. Senate in 2006 and Cohen was elected. Cohen, a polio survivor, is a 10-term incumbent who has won nearly every election with more than 70 percent of the vote. One of his biggest challenges came when he defeated Willie Herenton, Memphis' first Black mayor, in the Democratic primary in 2010.

Pearson's path to this race ran through one of the most dramatic moments in recent Tennessee political history. He rose to national prominence in 2023 after he and fellow Democratic Representative Justin Jones, both Black, were expelled and later reinstated by the Republican-led state House for protesting on the chamber floor following a deadly school shooting. Before that, Pearson began his political career as a community organizer, working to oppose the construction of a Byhalia oil pipeline through a historically Black neighborhood in Memphis, and leveraged the work into a successful run for state House in a 2023 special election.

Cohen's response to the challenge has drawn scrutiny of its own. He said in an interview that Pearson was not ready to serve in Congress and compared his decision to run to the surprise attack that brought the country into World War II. "It was kind of like Pearl Harbor," he said. Those comments traveled widely in Tennessee political circles and didn't sit well with some Democrats.

Pearson has framed the contest in explicitly economic terms. "I am not a rich multimillionaire with a mansion in Memphis and condo in D.C.," he told supporters at a Memphis rally, adding, "We need someone who has new ideas, new energy and a new perspective to be an advocate for our community."

The Cohen-Pearson race serves as the latest test between older and younger Democrats, as the party looks to reclaim the House majority in the 2026 midterm elections. No matter which man wins the primary, the Memphis congressional seat is considered by political rating agencies as solidly Democratic, meaning the August primary will almost certainly decide who heads to Washington next January.