Adam Friedman, Tennessee Lookout

For months, Nihil had made the rounds advocating the wonders of a new stadium, claiming it would benefit the taxpayers and community.

As the questions went on, he tried a new tactic, letting it be known the Titans owners —Amy Adams Strunk and her family — weren’t rich enough to pay for a new stadium.

“The family is quite literally putting all of the Adams’ assets in the mix,” Nihill said. “Things that the family has owned for 50 to 60 years. They’re being sold. They’re being liquidated to be able to help pay for this contribution.”

The Adams family is wealthy by almost every standard except one — among sports owners, they rank near the bottom in net worth outside of the team.

In the year after Nihil’s statement, KSA Industries — a company controlled by the Adams family — sold all its stock in Adams Resource and Energy and the real estate beneath its three Texas car dealerships. The moves generated $100-120 million, a drop in the bucket compared to the cost of a new football stadium.

The selling of these personal assets left the Adams family almost two billion dollars shy of the cash needed and limited on options.

So the family turned to a strategy common for Tennessee businesses wanting help with a project. They hired a deep roster of lobbyists to convince lawmakers to raise taxes and fund their proposal with public dollars that those opposed to the stadium say could have been spent elsewhere.

Tennessee Football Inc., the operators of the Titans and a subsidiary of KSA Industries, has spent at least $1.6 million on lobbying and donations to Tennessee state lawmakers since 2009, according to a database created by the Tennessee Lookout that tracks political spending at the state level.

Nearly half of the state spending has been spent in the last four years as the team began to ask Tennessee and Metro Nashville lawmakers for more public dollars, culminating in state and local approval of $1.26 billion for its new $2.1 billion stadium.

The team’s spending was likely higher because of legal loopholes in Nashville and state campaign finance, allowing it to withhold information on its lobbying expense to the Metro Nashville Council and the lobbying firm it hired.

The Lookout’s database — which links millions of rows of data from state campaign finance and lobby reports — shows that over the past 15 years, 167 companies have spent over $1 million influencing Tennessee’s politicians. The Titans rank no. 86 on the Lookout’s million dollar list.

The seven-figure mark appears as an inflection point for influence because of because it demonstrates consistency.

David Miller, a politics professor at East Tennessee State University, said there’s no “set rule” for the amount of money it takes to exert influence, but year after year spending is more impactful because it establishes a presence, allowing a company to build relationships with lawmakers before making a big ask.

“You’re able to get more out of your lobbying.” said Miller, whose published work includes studying the influence of interest groups in politics.

This steady flow of spending in Tennessee politics can be helpful when an organization is trying to secure government contracts, tax breaks, favored regulations, or a large taxpayer-funded sports stadium subsidy.

Starting in 2019, as the Titans began to ask state and city lawmakers for more money, the team tripled the number of state and city lobbyists it employed and opened a political action committee to legally shower cash on politicians who helped them.

This spending helped the team capture a subsidy potentially worth billions of dollars, including a hotel tax increase previously proposed to fund public transit.

Metro Nashville Council member Bob Mendes said the Titans deal is partially about opportunity cost because, by raising the hotel tax, they’ve likely closed the door on an increase in it for future public projects.

But, Mendes added, the other part of the deal is how taxpayers inflated the Adams family net worth by hundreds of millions of dollars.

“We signed up to let the team administer tax money for future improvements,” said Mendes. “15-20 years from now, we’re gonna find out that there’s been a billion dollars worth of improvements all or almost all funded by tax dollars.”

“We’ll pay for this round, and we’ll pay for the next round. All while the team’s net worth will have gone up by a ton.”

The Titans and their ownership group are notoriously tight-lipped, with Nihil making public comments on behalf of the team during the stadium approval process. Adams Strunk gave no interviews and made no public statements.

The Lookout reached out to representatives with the Titans, sending them a list of questions related to this story, but they declined to comment.

The strategy behind the stadium deal

For over a decade, the Titans employed a small team of lobbyists from law firms Lyell Law and Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis (often called, and hereafter referred to, as Waller, and now owned by Holland Knight).

The Titans shifted from this strategy in 2019 as they began to convince state and city lawmakers to pass a series of laws for its financial benefit.

First, the Titans increased its average state political spending from around $80,000 annually to $190,000, including hosting a $46,000 event to sway lawmakers. The team launched a political action committee (“PAC”) donating $42,250 to state and metro politicians who helped pass the favorable legislation.

Finally, the team nearly tripled its number of lobbyists as they began to ask officials for even more money.

The team added Waller lobbyist Nicole Osborne Watson in 2019, two years after her husband, Sen. Bo Watson, R-Hixson, took chairmanship on the powerful Senate Finance Ways and Means Committee.

Osborne Watson declined to comment, but Sen. Watson said he “strictly” follows Tennessee’s disclosure laws” and follows Senate rules “pertaining to any personal interest in a bill.”

When the Titans asked lawmakers for a $500 million bond in 2022 and the Metro Nashville Council for $760 million, the team brought in more lobbyists from Waller and new ones from C5 Strategies, Jigsaw, Lane Government Relations, the Maynard Group and 353 Media Group.

James Strickland, a political science professor at Arizona State University, said the number of lobbyist can significantly help, especially if they’re the ones with the best connections.

“A lot of lobbying is about long-term relationships where they can get meetings more easily on a repeated basis with lawmakers,” said Strickland, whose research focuses on legislatures and state politics.

The first piece to the stadium funding puzzle was securing money from the state, where the team’s 15 lobbyists tried to win over skepticism from some members of the Republican supermajority, particularly in the Senate where the deal faced a narrow passage.

“I have not found any support for it in my district of throughout the state,” said Sen. Janice Bowling, R-Tullahoma, when the bill was brought to the Senate floor in April 2022.

Bowling, along with 12 other Senate Republicans, voted against the deal. This meant the Titans needed at least two votes from Senate Democrats and couldn’t afford to lose many Republicans.

Sen.Watson told the Chattanooga Times Free Press in May 2022 that he initially opposed the Titans funding, but voted for it in the end because the House approved the money and he didn’t want to vote against the entire budget.

Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson also initially opposed the deal, even advocating for the Titans money to be removed from the budget so there could be a standalone vote. Johnson faced a primary challenge later that summer from a Republican adamantly opposed to the stadium.

But, when the deal came before Senate in April 2022 Watson, Johnson and four Democrats — Nashville Sens. Heidi Campbell and Jeff Yarbro, and Memphis Sens. Raumesh Akbari and Sara Kyle — helped pass the deal passed in an 18-13 Senate vote. In the state House, the Titans stadium funds had an easier passage of 71-19.

Efforts then shifted to the Metro Nashville Council, where the team hired an additional four lobbyists to push back as opponents tried to change the terms of the deal they viewed as unfavorable to taxpayers.

“How do we, as everyday people compete with that?” said Sen. Charlane Oliver, D-Nashville.

Oliver was not elected to the state Senate until after the stadium vote, but has been a fixture in Nashville politics for years, opposing the deal as nonprofit executive before her political career.

“There are people who are unelected in this city who reap the benefits of not having to be elected but have all the power to change the trajectory of this city.”

One of them is Waller’s James Weaver, considered by many to be the most influential lobbyist to the Metro Council.

Weaver wielded his influence in many ways, including during a critical council vote on the stadium. Chaos ensued on the council floor after the stadium opponents passed an amendment to the deal.

Sitting in the council audience at the time, Weaver picked up his phone using voice-to-text, where audience members could hear him say “now you ask for the deferral.”

Within minutes of this message, a council member asked for a deferral vote delaying the deal, allowing Weaver and the others time to kill the opponents’ amendment.

Weaver declined to answer any questions related to his lobbying activities, citing an ethical obligation preventing him from talking without permission from the Titans.

The public might never know how much the Titans spent on lobbying

The full extent of the team’s political spending is likely unknown because of loopholes in city disclosure requirements, allowing companies to hide the size of their spending.

The Titans and Waller heavily lobbied the Metro Nashville Council and Mayor John Cooper for years over the various aspects of the stadium deal.

But, the cost of the local lobbying doesn’t have to be reported and therefore is unknown.

At the state level, the Titans had to declare their lobbying expenses and donations. But, state laws also allow Waller as a firm to legally make donations.

Waller employees lobby for various companies, but the firm also runs a political action committee that donated $687,000 to state lawmakers since 2009.

State law prevents a company that hired Waller to specifically dictate the firms political donations. But over 90% of the money raised for the Waller Landsen PAC is from the firm itself. This allows for the mixing of money because Waller PAC donations come from the firm’s revenue, which comes from the firm’s clients.

Cash for Clout: Who’s funding Tennessee’s politics?

“All of the government relations professionals at our law firm have been and remain in compliance with the state and local regulations and laws that govern advocacy related to their work on behalf of the firm’s clients,” Weaver said in a statement on behalf of the firm.

Waller isn’t the only group to exploit this loophole, as several other Tennessee lobbying firms run PACs using a similar system.

But Waller’s spending does have a pattern. Most of the money the firm gives at the state level is to politicians with leadership positions from both parties, except for Rep. Gary Hicks, R-Rogersville.

Despite not serving as chairman of any committee or in House leadership, Hicks has received $22,000 from the Waller PAC since his election in 2016 – the second most of any House member and ahead of House Speaker Cameron Sexton, R-Crossville.

These donations coincide with Hicks sponsoring legislation creating a sales tax capture district for the Titans and co-sponsoring the bill that gave the team the $500 million from the state.

The Lookout made several attempts to reach Hicks, including emailing, calling and reaching out through a Tennessee House Republican spokesperson. Hicks didn’t respond to any of these requests.

The Adams family’s wealth is all tied up in the team

The Adams family has owned the Titans since its inception as the Houston Oilers in 1959. Kenneth S. “Bud” Adams Jr. used $25,000 from his oil drilling and transportation business — what would become Adams Resource and Energy — to start the team.

Over the years, Bud Adams diversified his assets all under the umbrella of KSA Industries. The parent company owned the team; its Adams Resource and Energy stock; various real estate in Tex., including three car dealerships in the Houston area; Bud Adams Ranches in St. Lucie, Fla.; and 50% of River Garden Farms Company in Woodland, Calif.

By the time of Bud Adams’ death in 2013, the Titans’ value had increased to over $1 billion, while his other assets didn’t improve with the same upward velocity.

His estate left one-third of KSA Industries to his daughters, Amy Strunk Adams and Susie Adams Smith, and the remaining third to his son’s widow, Susan Lewis, and their children Kenneth Adams, IV and Barclay Adams.

Adams Smith initially took the controlling stake in the Titans, but after two years, the family ousted her and installed Strunk Adams as the controlling owner. By this point, the Titans were generating hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for the family, significantly more than the other assets.

The change in Titans leadership factored into the families finances when, in 2020, Strunk Adams and the other heirs bought out Adams Smith for between $500-$550 million, according to the Nashville Business Journal.

Around this time, the team was trying to close on a $600 million remodel of Nissan Stadium, which included a $300 million taxpayer subsidy from Metro Nashville to build a roof over the current structure.

Between 2021 and 2022, the team shifted its position, realizing it wanted a new stadium, not a remodel. Officially, the team and Mayor Cooper’s office told the public it was because the remodeling cost was nearly as expensive as a remodel. But, experts dispute these claims because other football teams renovated stadiums built in the same era as the current Nashville facility in recent years for substantially less than the new project’s cost.

J.C. Bradbury, an economics professor at Kennesaw State University, said a new facility versus a remodeled one was likely to provide the team a stronger “novelty effect,” enhancing its short-term revenue and team value.

“20 to 30 years ago, it was popular to have luxury boxes that were way up high,” he said. “People say now, ‘I want to sit close to the game,’ but you can’t just move those luxury boxes down there. So when you build a new stadium, you build the new luxury boxes closer.”

By building a new enclosed stadium, the team can increase its revenue from NFL games and other events. The current open-air stadium limits its hosting abilities, like when rain canceled a Garth Brooks show in May 2021.

“You personally make a lot more money,” Bradbury said, “especially when these revenue streams are not connected to NFL revenue sharing.”

The NFL requires ticket sales for each game to be split, with 60% going to the home team and 40% to the visitors. Concerts, luxury boxes and other non-NFL-related events don’t fall under this split.

But a new stadium presented a financial challenge for the team. Unlike owners in New York or Los Angeles, the Adams family didn’t have access to the billions of dollars needed to finance it privately.

The Adams family conveyed this message to lawmakers when asking for money.

House Speaker Cameron Sexton told an East Tennessee radio station in April 2022 he supported the deal because Adam’s family was “liquidating everything they have ” to come up with their contribution to the stadium.

Those transactions, along with an NFL loan and projected revenue from personal seat licenses, brought the team’s financing to $840 million, well below the project’s total cost – meaning it needed city and state taxpayers to fund the rest.

Donations, donations and more donations

Securing taxpayer money for a new stadium started at the state level with Gov. Bill Lee, Senate and House leaders.

Lee introduced the $500 million in state funding as part of his budget amendment in March 2022. Sexton, Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, R-Oak Ridge, and Nashville Democratic delegation all signaled their support for the deal shortly after.

The deal also required lawmakers to agree to raise the hotel-motel tax by 1%. In 2018, this same increase was proposed as part of a deal to expand public transit in Nashville, which failed at the ballot box. Yarbro and Rep. Bill Beck, D-Nashville, sponsored the stadium-tied tax increase.

All except Beck are among the top recipients in donations received from the Titans, Wallers and Jigsaw (one of the other firms hired by the team) political action committees.

After passage at the state, the debate for a new stadium moved to the Metro Nashville Council, where Mayor Cooper ended up championing the deal, seeing it as a way to develop the East Bank, a legacy goal after he chose not to run for reelection.

Helping the deal was the groundwork laid by Waller, which has given current Metro Council members around $91,500 since 2009, including $75,300 to those who favored the deal in the years leading up to the stadium’s approval.

Together, Cooper’s office, those council members and the team’s hired lobbyists fought back several attempts that would have made the deal “less favorable” for the team. The stadium deal was ultimately approved in April 2023.

One of those attempts was by council member Mendes to ban gambling around the stadium.

Mendes said while gambling might not be legal now, the team’s ability to lobby lawmakers shows the legislature could allow it anytime in the future.

“There are five acres immediately next to the stadium, and nobody could ever say what would be built there,” Mendes said. “I’m pretty sure I know what’s going to be built there. When the state approves gambling, that’s the gambling facility.”

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Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and Twitter.

Popular Information, a progressive news outlet on Substack, published several document-backed articles showing Sexton’s wife purchased a $600,000 home in Nashville around the same time the couple downsized from a house to a condo in their hometown of Crossville.

Sexton’s wife purchased the Nashville home through a trust shielding the owner’s true identity, but signatures and a bank note point to the Sextons owning the home, according to the report. The outlet also reported Sexton’s daughter goes to a Nashville area school, potentially showing that the family lives in the city year-round.

Sexton confirmed to his hometown paper the Crossville Chronicle that he owns a Nashville home and that’s where his daughter attends school. He added it’s easier for him to conduct state business by owning a home in Nashville, but that he spends weekends, summers and school break in Crossville.

His home ownership has cast doubt over whether Sexton, R-Crossville, should be allowed to claim the full $313 in per diem expenses allowed to lawmakers who live outside Nashville.

Sexton told reporters last week he lives in Crossville and noted he has not claimed payments for mileage.

“As you know, we’re here five months out of the year and then we go back on the weekends and so forth,” Sexton said. “But I live in Crossville. My home’s in Crossville.”

The Tennessee House requires members to be residents in the districts they cover.

Sexton and state House Republicans have been under the microscope of national media over the past three weeks for trying to expel three Democrats members over protests of gun violence.

The members took over the House speaking podium to demand action on guns after six were killed — including three children — in a mass shooting at a school in Nashville.

Should Sexton have been allowed to claim the full $313 in per diem expenses?

The other concern brought to light is the state’s per diem system and whether a lawmaker who owns multiple homes inside and outside the Nashville area has the right to claim the maximum per diem expense.

Under state law, lawmakers who live 50 miles outside Nashville can claim $313 tax-free for each day they spend working at the State Capitol, whether during the legislative session or another time of the year. Those who live within 50 miles of Nashville can claim only $79 in per diem expenses.

The per diem is meant to cover meals, lodging and incidental expenses. Lawmakers outside Nashville get more because they’re expected to stay in Nashville, which can cost several hundred dollars a night.

Sexton’s multiple homes raise questions on whether he should be allowed to claim the full $313. In 2021 and 2022, he claimed around $78,000 in per diem expenses, enough money to potentially cover his mortgage.

As Speaker, Sexton likely spends considerably more time in Nashville than the average lawmaker. For example, Senate Speaker Randy McNally, R-Oak Ridge, claimed roughly $59,000 in per diem over the same two-year period as Sexton.

Lawmakers are also allowed to claim mileage, but Sexton didn’t file any expenses related to car travel, a point he’s emphasized.

“There was no reimbursement for mileage,” Sexton said. “My home’s in Crossville, and those per diems reflect that.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: Senior Reporter Sam Stockard contributed to this article.

Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and Twitter.

The Shelby County Commission voted unanimously to reappoint Justin Pearson to the state House seat Republicans expelled him from six days ago.

House Republicans kicked out Pearson and Rep. Justin Jones, D-Nashville, for violating the chamber’s rules on decorum when two men took over the chamber’s speaking podium to protest a lack of action by lawmakers on gun violence. Rep. Gloria Johnson, D-Knoxville, joined the duo in the floor protests, but Republicans fell one vote short of expelling her.

The floor protests followed a mass shooting in Nashville where three adults and three children were killed at Nashville private school on March 27.

Republicans chose to expel Pearson and Jones because they used a megaphone to lead chants with a crowd gathered in the House gallery. Over a thousand protesters descended on the State Capitol that day.

The floor protests forced the House into a 40-minute recess.

The floor protests occurred on March 30, and House Republicans held expulsion hearings one week later on April 6.

Pearson’s reappoint comes days after the Metro Nashville Council reappointed Jones to his seat. Only seven of the Shelby County Commission’s 13 members were present for Wednesday’s special-called meeting.

Earlier in the day, Pearson led a rally from National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis to the commission meeting, showing the community support for his reappointment.

Pearson should be able to attend Thursday’s House floor session in Nashville.

Republican leaders said they would welcome back Pearson and Jones but emphasized they had to follow the House rules.

Pearson and Jones must run in separate special elections later this year to regain their seats. It will be Pearson’s second election in less than a year. In a special election earlier this year, he won his current Memphis district seat, which was previously held by the now-deceased Barbara Cooper.

Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and Twitter.

In a move without precedent, Tennessee House Republicans expelled two Democrats but failed to find the votes to kick out a third for violating the House rules on proper decorum. Reps. Justin Jones, D-Nashville, and Justin Pearson, D-Memphis, were removed from the state House, while, Rep. Gloria Johnson, D-Knoxville remains.

The Republican supermajority accused the three Democrats of taking over the speaking podium and using a megaphone to lead chants from a crowd protesting the lack of action by lawmakers on gun violence after six were killed — including three children — in a mass shooting at a Christian school in Nashville less than two weeks ago.

The expulsion hearings occurred in record fashion, within just over seven days between the floor protest in question and the trio’s removal vote Thursday. The six-hour proceedings were punctuated by suggestions of racism, injustice and intolerance for dissent directed at the GOP majority. Justin and Pearson were among a small minority of lawmakers who are Black. Johnson is white.

“When I came to the well, I was not standing for myself, but my constituents,” Jones said. “For the thousands of Tennesseans gathered demanding this body act."

“I was most of all standing for those young people… all of who are terrified by the trend of mass shootings plaguing this state and plaguing our nation.”

There have only been a handful of expulsions in Tennessee legislative history, with most in recent memory involving criminal allegations.

The hearings for Jones, Johnson and Pearson occurred separately, with the proceedings taking nearly six hours, significantly longer than the 40-minute House recess caused by their protest.

Jones’ expulsion was up first, with 72 Republicans voting to boot the Nashville Democrat. Next up was Johnson, who garnered 65 votes, one short of the requirement after seven Republicans voted with all the Democrats to keep her. Pearson went last, receiving 69 expulsion votes.

Jones and Pearson’s removal is likely temporary, as local government bodies choose who fills the now open seats. Nothing stops the Metro Nashville Council or Shelby County Commission from reappointing either man to fill the vacancies until special elections later this year.

The Metro Council is nonpartisan, but a majority of members have already said they will reappoint Jones at a special called meeting announced late Thursday to take place next week. The Shelby County Commission has a Democratic majority and is expected to do something similar.

Jones and Pearson — both freshman lawmakers — will have to run in those special election to retake their seats, with both expected to do so.

Jones uses hearing to air grievances with Republicans.

Republicans argued in all three hearings the Democrats members violated the House rules, and the seriousness of what they did required expulsion over a censure.

“You do not use the House floor to protest,” House Speaker Cameron Sexton said to reporters after the hearings. “There are rules. There are policies. There are procedures.”

After the floor protests last week, Sexton compared the action of the three to “maybe worse” than the Jan. 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol insurrection. He voted in favor of expelling each member.

The hearing for Jones was particularly contentious, with Jones accusing the Republicans expulsion as race and gender motivated.

“The state in which the Klu Klux Klan was founded is now trying to silence two black men, and one of the only white woman in this body that is a Democrat,” Jones said during the hearing.

Republicans forcefully denied that the hearings were about anything other the members’ actions last week. Jones has irked many of them for what they say are his activist tendencies. The 26-year-old Democrat rose to prominence during the George Floyd protests in 2020.

Jones, Pearson and Johnson each left the chamber multiple times to address the crowd of protesters, who dubbed the trio the “Tennessee three.”

Rep. Gino Bulso, R-Brentwood, who sponsored the resolution to expel Jones, said the body had no choice but to remove him because they would be inviting him to cause a “mutiny on the House floor” again if unpunished.

“He showed no remorse,” Bulso said during the hearing. “Let’s vote to expel him. That will send the case back the voters of Davidson County, and if after looking at his conduct, they find he should come back, we will welcome him back as a representative.”

Johnson survives by a lone vote, shocking the crowd

Johnson had arguably the best case against expulsion, as video showed she never used the megaphone or signs to encourage protests.

Johnson also brought a defense team of former Democratic Reps. John Mark Windle and Mike Stewart.

Windle said many of the allegations in the expulsion resolution against Johnson were “outright lies.”

“The author of this document should apologize not to her, but to the state of Tennessee,” Windle said. “This is an outright fraud and an abomination in the United States of America. Not just Tennessee is watching, America is watching.”

Johnson, 60, faced the stiffest repercussions if the House removed her. House lawyers told her if expelled, she would lose her health insurance, and unlike her counterparts, she was unlikely to be reappointed between expulsion and a special election. The Knox County Commission has a Republican majority.

Pearson continued to advocate for gun reform to the very end

Pearson’s expulsion hearing followed Johnson’s survival, casting some doubt over whether Republicans would have the votes to oust him.

House Majority Leader William Lamberth, R-Portland, questioned Pearson, complimenting Pearson but asked him to admit some fault.

“You don’t seem to believe any of us care about our constituents the way you care about yours,” Lamberth said. “Surely you can at least see how egregious it was to shut out other voices? You elevated yourself above the dead bodies that had not even been put in the ground yet.”

Lamberth had refrained from commenting on the other two expulsion hearings.

But Pearson remained committed to calling out Republicans for the lack of action on gun violence and what he classified as attempts to ignore the protesters.

“What about the voices of thousands of people who came here and said we needed to do something to end gun violence,” Pearson said in response.

Democrats cast doubt over much of the Republican legal justification for the expulsion.

Expulsions are rare events in Tennessee politics and usually involve a drawn-out process. The Tennessee Senate expelled Memphis Democratic Sen. Katrina Robinson for a felony conviction in 2022, with the legal proceeding taking months. In a bipartisan vote, the House expelled Franklin Republican Rep. Jerry Durham after an attorney general report found credible allegations of sexual misconduct.

Before that, the House expelled a member in 1980 for soliciting a bribe and six members in 1866 six members for trying to block the adoption of a constitutional amendment granting citizenship to formerly enslaved people.

Sexton said he felt the process was timely and remained steadfast in advocating for hearings Thursday, despite the condensed time frame and concerns over whether a rules violation was worthy of removal.

“You don’t need an investigation to look at what happened in real-time,” Sexton said.

Democrats spent a significant portion of the hearing poking various holes in the Republican arguments for kicking out their members.

Before the proceeding began, Republicans showed a seven-minute highly edited video of the floor protests. The central portion appeared to be shot from the House floor by another member.

Democrats argued the video violated House rules against live recordings during a session.

Sexton contended the chamber was in a recess, but that left the possibility that if the House session stopped, the three Democrats might not have broken decorum rules.

“Once the facts were sussed out, they were claiming that they violated the House rules anywhere from 4 to 15 seconds,” said House Democratic Caucus Chair John Ray Clemmons, D-Nashville.

Republicans would not say who shot the video, but several Democrats accused Rep. Justin Lafferty, R-Knoxville, of shooting the video.

Lafferty and Jones were involved in a different incident earlier in the week. Jones filed a police report alleging assault against Lafferty. The report alleges Lafferty pushed Jones and grabbed his phone during Monday’s House session. The whole event was recorded by Jones.

Several Democrats called for an investigation and expulsion hearing into Lafferty for violating House decorum rules. Republican leadership said a complaint would need to be filed before they investigated.

“We aren’t playing by the same rules in an even or fair manner,” Clemmons said.

The crowds Thursday matched those of previous days, but Republican leaders restricted the number of protesters who could enter the building.

Protesters filed the House gallery and remained silent for most of the proceedings until the end.

After Pearson’s expulsion, the crowd’s boos and chants of “shame on you” drowned out the Sexton and the House clerk as they tried to close out the session as fast as possible. Several protesters unveiled banners, and a group of students laid on the ground pretending to be dead as Republicans exited the chamber.

Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and Twitter.

The Tennessee House of Representatives voted along party lines to expel Democratic Rep. Justin Jones from its body for leading a floor protest over gun violence one week ago, but Rep. Gloria Johnson survived expulsion by one vote.

The expulsion vote against Jones, D-Nashville, was 72-25. It needed 66 votes it pass.

The vote against Johnson, D-Knoxville, was 65-30, one short of the number needed to expel as seven Republicans voted to keep her.

The expulsion vote for Justin Pearson, D-Memphis, from Tennessee House is currently being debated on the House floor.

The trio is accused of violating the House rules of decorum when they took over the speaking podium to lead chants with a crowd protesting the lack of action by lawmakers on gun violence after six were killed — including three children — in a mass shooting at a religious school in Nashville.

Rep. Charlie Baum, R-Murfressboro, was the only Republican to vote against kicking Jones out. Rep. Sam Whitson, R-Franklin, was present but did not vote on Jones’ expulsion resolution.

The expulsion hearing for Jones went on for nearly two hours.

Reps. Jody Barrett, R-Dickson; Rush Bricken, R-Tullahoma; Bryan Richey, R-Maryville; Lowell Russell, R-Vonore; Mike Sparks, R-Smyrna; Baum and Whitson voted against removing Johnson. Reps. John Gillespie, R-Memphis, and Bryan Terry, R-Murfreesboro, were present but abstained from voting.

Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and Twitter.