Activist Justin Jones launches campaign for Congress on Medicare for all, immigrant rights

Natalie Allison | The Tennessean

Progressive activist Justin Jones officially launched his campaign on Monday to challenge U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, a Blue Dog Democrat who has served in Congress more than 25 years.

While the 24-year-old candidate filed with the Federal Election Commission Nov. 11, Jones declined to respond to media requests about his bid until the kickoff event a week later, which he held at his alma mater, Fisk University.

The race is in Tennessee's fifth congressional district.

The second-year Vanderbilt Divinity School graduate student was flanked by a few dozen supporters on the steps behind him and a few dozen more in front of him as they joined in civil rights chants.

Jones, reached an agreement last week with prosecutors and former House Speaker Glen Casada to have an assault charge dismissed after he allegedly threw a cup of liquid at the Republican leader during a February protest at the Capitol. At his event Monday, he said he was pivoting to a new role in the political process.

"After seven years, ... We come here today to say: 'If they won't change, then we will change them,'" said Jones, who moved to Nashville in 2013 to attend Fisk after growing up in Oakland, California, where he was also active in organizing demonstrations as a teenager.

"We're done protesting. We're going to primary, y'all," Jones said.

Jones, who said he has no official campaign manager but is being advised by a cohort of young adults and a group of elder mentors, also vowed not to accept donations from corporations.

He said he already began raising money for the race, but did not say how much he expects to need to defeat Cooper. Jones said he plans to focus heavily on grassroots organizing.

"For so long, it's meant family name, "Jones said of conventionally viable candidates such as Cooper. "It's been wealth."

Jones said some people have told the East Nashville resident he should own property to run for office.

"But the vast majority of us can't afford to buy houses here," he said. "We can't wait any longer."

Jones outlined his six-pillar platform as:

Single-payer healthcare through Medicare for all

Environmental justice efforts by supporting the Green New Deal

Welcoming immigrants by abolishing ICE and lowering obstacles to citizenship

Eliminating student debt and offering tuition-free public college and trade school

A living wage and workers' protections

Pushing for alternatives to prison, ending private prison contracts and stopping the cash bail system

Jones said he would be campaigning in poor neighborhoods and at bus stations, as well as holding concerts in an effort to attract new voters.

"We're not going to the Chamber," Jones said.

Reach Natalie Allison at nallison@tennessean.com. Follow her on Twitter at @natalie_allison.

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