PERSON: Justin Jones

Tennessee House of Representatives

Member

Justin Shea Bautista-Jones (born August 25, 1995) is an American activist and politician from the state of Tennessee. He was a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives for District 52, representing parts of Nashville, from January 2023 until his expulsion on April 6, 2023 for participating in a gun control protest at the state capitol.

Jones was born on August 25, 1995, in Oakland, California. He earned a Bachelor of Arts from Fisk University and enrolled at Vanderbilt Divinity School.

He was arrested for refusing to leave a rally held by Marsha Blackburn in October 2018. In 2019, he campaigned for the removal of a bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest from the Tennessee State Capitol. He was charged with assaulting Glen Casada, a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives, by allegedly throwing a drink at him, and Casada later agreed to drop the charges. In 2020, Jones organized a 62-day sit-in protest for racial justice outside the state capitol after the murder of George Floyd. He was arrested and faced 14 charges, which were dropped.

In 2019, Jones announced his candidacy for the United States House of Representatives in Tennessee’s 5th congressional district against Jim Cooper in the 2020 elections. He did not submit enough valid signatures to make the ballot.

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