Tennessee’s last House Democrat, facing progressive challenger, vows to fight

Rep. Steve Cohen is the only Democratic member of Congress from Tennessee, and one of an ever-dwindling number of Democrats who represent Southern states. But the biggest threat to Cohen’s re-election next year might not come from a Republican opponent or from GOP redistricting. It comes from within his own party. Cohen has now been targeted by a high-profile primary challenger from the Democratic Party’s progressive wing.

Cohen says that progressives have misfired in their decision to challenge him. However it ends, this impending primary battle highlights raw divisions within the Democratic coalition, more than a year out from the 2026 midterms.

Last week, Tennessee state Rep. Justin Pearson, who became nationally famous as one of the “Tennessee Three,” announced that he would challenge the 76-year-old Cohen, who has represented the state’s 9th district since 2007.

Pearson and another Tennessee Democrat, state Rep. Justin Jones, were expelled from the state legislature in 2023 after participating in a gun control protest that was deemed disruptive. They subsequently won back their seats in special elections, while a third legislator, state Rep. Gloria Johnson, was censured but not expelled.

Pearson’s campaign is backed by the Justice Democrats, who helped elect progressive members of the “Squad,” such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, and Leaders We Deserve, the new organization led by former Democratic National Committee vice chair David Hogg, a survivor of the 2018 Parkland school shooting.

Leaders We Deserve has dedicated $1 million to Pearson’s campaign, which reported raising $200,000 in the first 36 hours after his announcement, an impressive sum for a Tennessee congressional primary that is still 10 months away.

Cohen, however, says he isn’t going down without a fight and has no plans to step aside.

“Hogg said he was going to only go after the older people who were not doing their job, weren’t keeping up,” he told Salon in an interview, citing other progressive targets such as Reps. Danny Davis and Jan Schakowsky, both of Illinois, as well as  Eleanor Holmes Norton, the nonvoting member for Washington, D.C.

“Instead, he went for me, and I’m doing my job,” Cohen said. “He called me status quo. He said I was asleep at the wheel. I hadn’t been f**kin’ asleep at the wheel in my life.”

In a statement to Salon, Hogg said that the endorsement of Pearson “is not a rejection of Congressman Cohen’s years of service, but an affirmation that the moment we are living in demands new leadership. At a time when our democracy, economy and planet face generational challenges, we believe Justin J. Pearson is uniquely equipped to meet this moment to build on decades of progressive leadership and carry that legacy forward with the energy, empathy and boldness this era requires.”

Cohen appears somewhat different from other incumbent Democrats who have faced primary challenges from the left in recent elections. In broad terms, he is seen as a relatively progressive voice in Congress. He is a longtime advocate for Medicare for All and co-sponsored a current House proposal to enact that policy (which will go nowhere in the current Congress). He’s also a principal sponsor of the Billionaires Tax Act, a bill aimed at forcing the wealthiest Americans to pay an annual tax on non-tradable assets like stocks, while eliminating loopholes. In 2023, Cohen introduced the Living Wage Now Act, which would raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.

The decision to primary Cohen may be less about his policy positions than about concerns over the advanced age of many incumbent Democrats, as well as their perceived relationships with corporate donors and special interests.

Cohen told Salon that he still believes he’s the best candidate to represent his heavily Democratic and majority-Black district, which includes most of the city of Memphis. He said his years of experience in Congress leave him well positioned to face the threat posed by Donald Trump’s administration.

“I do one thing very, very well, and that is being a legislator, which I’ve done for over 45 years. I’ve always delivered,” Cohen said, citing a $30 million HUD grant under the Biden administration for housing in the impoverished South City neighborhood of Memphis. “Only nine cities in the country” got such grants, he said.

Unlike candidates supported by the Justice Democrats, Cohen has accepted corporate campaign donations, although the sums involved are not especially large. In 2024, he received $13,300 from FedEx, a major employer in Memphis, and  $10,000 from American Crystal Sugar. His top donor so far in the 2026 cycle has been Stephens Inc., a Memphis-based legal services firm based in Memphis that was also his top single donor in 2024, according to FEC filings. Cohen has also received significant support from transportation unions and public sector unions.

When it comes to issues that divide Democratic primary voters, perhaps the biggest difference between Cohen and Pearson is Cohen’s consistent support for Israel and his relationship with pro-Israel advocacy groups.

Cohen is the first Jewish member of Congress ever elected from Tennessee and has been a consistent supporter of Israel. He was one of the first members of Congress to be endorsed by J Street, a liberal Zionist organization that bills itself as pro-Israel, pro-peace and pro-democracy.

J Street was founded in 2008, shortly after Cohen was first elected to Congress, and represented a significant break from previous pro-Israel advocacy. It has frequently criticized Israeli actions in Gaza and the West Bank and has generally opposed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, unlike traditional pro-Israel lobby groups such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

Asked whether he would have supported Sen. Bernie Sanders’ proposal to block the sale of U.S. weapons to Israel, Cohen responded, “I don’t know that I would. If I were a senator from Vermont, I might have. I mean, Vermont is a whole different world” from Tennessee.

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“I’m Jewish, and I appreciate Israel,” Cohen continued. “I appreciate having a homeland for the people who were victims of the Holocaust. I think that the Balfour Declaration and what they did with creating a Jewish state was a good thing, and it needs to be secure.” He added, “I do not support Netanyahu, never have. I didn’t go to either of his speeches in the Capitol.”

Cohen added that when the Sanders resolutions were being voted on in July, they risked putting Israel in a worse bargaining position for an end to the Gaza war.

Cohen’s position is certainly not the most hawkish among Democrats on the issue of U.S. support for Israel, but it’s also far from Pearson’s. In an interview with Salon, Pearson said he did not support “any money” going to pay for bombs or weapons in foreign countries, Israel included.

Cohen said he believes the issue will be less divisive by the time of next year’s primaries, now that a truce between Israel and Hamas has been reached and the last Israeli hostages have been released.