Local activist challenging Jim Cooper in primary – Nashville Post

Justin Jones, a divinity student and activist, has filed to challenge U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Nashville) in the Democratic primary.

Jones was a frequent presence at the state Capitol in recent years as he protested the continued presence of a bust honoring slave trader and Confederate officer Nathan Bedford Forrest. He was arrested in February and charged with assault after allegedly throwing a paper cup into an elevator occupied by then-House Speaker Glen Casada.

Local and national groups have been considering challenging Cooper from the left. Eli Motycka, a local Green New Deal activist who told the Scene earlier this year that he wanted someone more liberal to hold Nashville’s seat in Congress, is listed as a contact for Jones’ campaign in Federal Election Commission filings.

Cooper has served in Congress for nearly three decades, and his brother John was recently elected mayor.

“People ask me all the time why we focus on this bust, and this is the way we see it,” Jones told the Scene earlier this year. “If we can’t get this clear, blatant symbol of racism — a statue that the KKK themselves have had a press conference in front of and see as a piece of their personal identity — then we have no hope in removing the more sophisticated subtle racism of voter suppression, denial of health care and attacks on public education. Those are all racist and pervasive, and they’re things that are working against the people of Tennessee, not for them.”