KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:
Hey, I'm Kelly McEvers, and this is EMBEDDED from NPR. A lot of the news these days is about the election, the big national election that, of course, will determine who will be our next president. But a lot of really important stuff that affects our lives actually gets decided at the state level, like laws about guns, abortion, what's taught in school - big issues that can cause big fights. One state that was in the news a lot last year was Tennessee. You might remember a big story about these state lawmakers who protested at the Statehouse and then faced expulsion. That story kind of came and went from the national headlines, but it turns out that was just the beginning. Things got way more interesting after that.
And reporter Meribah Knight with WPLN News in Nashville followed it all. So we teamed up with Meribah to make the series you're about to hear. It's called Supermajority, and it's all about what happens when one party - in this case, the Republican Party - has control of basically everything in a state. But then sometimes its own constituents say, hang on a second, we're not sure we want it that way. And just a quick thing, this episode contains coarse language and discussions of gun violence. OK, here's Meribah.
MERIBAH KNIGHT, BYLINE: Sarah Shoop Neumann had been avoiding crowds, so she spent much of the week hunkered down at home, an upscale red-brick house tucked away in a quiet cul-de-sac right on the edge of Nashville. She'd been trying to comfort her two boys, Noah, 5 years old, and Judah, who's 2. But her mind was all over the place.
SARAH SHOOP NEUMANN: I just found myself saying, how did this happen? How did we get here?
KNIGHT: It was late spring of 2023, and she'd been glued to her phone most nights, watching and reading the news after the boys went to sleep. There had been a mass shooting days before. It was deeply personal to Sarah. The shooting had happened at her son Noah's school, a small private Christian school in Nashville called the Covenant School. Someone armed with two assault-style rifles and a pistol walked the hallways and unloaded 152 rounds, killing three 9-year-old children and three adults, including the school's headmaster. Noah was OK. His preschool class hadn't met that day. But Sarah was reeling.
SHOOP NEUMANN: I have a hard time even describing what it was like to live that week. It - I mean, I did not feel like I was in my own body. Like, it just - you feel like you are detached and looking in on someone else's life.
KNIGHT: She began dashing off notes to herself on her iPhone. I grew up in rural Ohio, where guns were a part of my upbringing, she wrote. I've shot an AR-15. I know its power. My dad used to be a member of the NRA. Then she took to Twitter, calling out her congressman, Republican Andy Ogles. Tell the Covenant community your action plan. My 5-year-old is waiting, she wrote to him. No reply.
SHOOP NEUMANN: I probably voted for most of these people. What do they think is going to fix this?
(SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST)
JUSTIN PEARSON: Instead of providing them resources, we're talking about...
KNIGHT: Other people were feeling the same way. The state Capitol had erupted in protests, more than 1,000 people marching, flooding the halls of the Capitol and into the viewing areas, calling for gun control. And then three Democratic lawmakers took to the Republican-dominated House floor.
(SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST)
PEARSON: Enough is enough.
KNIGHT: You might have heard of them, the so-called Tennessee Three.
SHOOP NEUMANN: Seeing on the news, I saw pictures of - Justin Jones, Justin Pearson and Gloria Johnson had, you know, walked up to the well, and one of them was holding a picture that a kid had drawn. One of them had their bullhorn or megaphone.
(SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST)
PEARSON: Our citizens, our constituents are asking us to act today, and we're here passing laws that have nothing to do with the crisis at hand.
KNIGHT: Sarah learned, along with the rest of the world, that these Democrats would face expulsion hearings, that they might actually be kicked out of the legislature for calling for gun control.
SHOOP NEUMANN: So why are we only singling out the three people that I saw speak up for the kids that were slaughtered and the teachers slaughtered at my school?
KNIGHT: It was all so unsettling to Sarah. She'd never heard of anyone getting expelled from the legislature. In fact, it had only happened three times since the Civil War.
SHOOP NEUMANN: I mean, I was really upset, so I wanted to go to the expulsion hearings.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
KNIGHT: At 37 years old, Sarah had never been to her state Capitol. She'd never been very politically active. She'd grown up conservative, Republican and largely still considered herself a Republican. But she decided that she needed to watch in-person what was about to happen to these three Democratic lawmakers.
SHOOP NEUMANN: I had decided then, like, if they're going to do this, I'm going to wear a Covenant shirt and I'm going to have a Covenant mom sign. But if they're really going to expel these people over this, then they're going to do it knowing somebody from Covenant is watching them and seeing them do this.
KNIGHT: That morning, Sarah, who's petite with big round glasses, dressed in jeans, a red Covenant shirt and a Covenant baseball hat, and she headed to the Tennessee State Capitol. It was raining, and as she walked up the hill, she said she heard a gun rights supporter yell Nazi at her. These people think I'm their enemy, she thought to herself. She kept walking.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
CAMERON SEXTON: Mr. Sergeant of Arms, invite the members into the chamber and close the doors. I hereby declare the House of Representatives of the 113th General Assembly now in session.
KNIGHT: Sitting in the gallery, she looked down on the House Chamber as one by one, the three Democratic lawmakers are questioned by the Republicans who want to expel them.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
SEXTON: Representative Farmer.
ANDREW FARMER: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
KNIGHT: Like Andrew Farmer, who questioned Justin Pearson, a 28-year-old Black lawmaker from Memphis.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
FARMER: You know, as I'm listening, I'm thinking to myself, you don't understand. You don't truly understand why you're standing there today. You don't truly understand why I authored that resolution.
KNIGHT: Pearson stood at the lectern, ramrod straight, wearing a dashiki under a suit jacket, carefully listening to Farmer.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
FARMER: Just because you don't get your way, you can't come to the well, bring your friends and throw a temper tantrum with an adolescent bullhorn. It doesn't give you right...
SHOOP NEUMANN: The way that they were spoken to was incredibly disrespectful.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
FARMER: That's why you're standing there 'cause of that temper tantrum that day, for that yearning to have attention. That's what you wanted. Well, you're getting it now.
SHOOP NEUMANN: To see that that's what they will sit on the House floor and say and treat in front of people with media and everyone around that they don't care, like, they think that that's acceptable behavior.
KNIGHT: Justin Jones and Justin Pearson were both expelled that day. Gloria Johnson, the white lawmaker, kept her seat by a single vote.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
SEXTON: ...State of Tennessee. I hereby declare Representative Justin J. Pearson of the 86th Representative District expelled from the House of Representatives of the 103rd General Assembly of the State of Tennessee. Next order, Mr. Clerk.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Announcements.
SEXTON: Announcements.
KNIGHT: The ousting was all over the news and talk shows.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED NEWS ANCHOR #1: Two House lawmakers expelled. The compelling drama playing out live here on News Channel 5, not surprisingly...
KNIGHT: And for more than a brief moment, it caught the attention of the entire nation.
(SOUNDBITE OF MONTAGE)
UNIDENTIFIED NEWS ANCHOR #2: This morning growing outrage after Tennessee's Republican-controlled House voted to expel...
SYMONE SANDERS-TOWNSEND: A Republican supermajority vowing to punish them.
UNIDENTIFIED NEWS ANCHOR #3: There were new demonstrations today in Nashville, Tenn.
ADRIENNE BANKERT: One of those lawmakers who's now ousted brought up white supremacy.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #1: Gloria, why do you feel like there was a difference in the outcome between you and your colleague?
GLORIA JOHNSON: It might have to do with the color of our skin.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JASON ZACHARY: The foundation of who we are or we convert it. There's never been a more important time for us to be unified. There're 75 of us. Dear God, we were called - we brought the racism into it because you didn't...
KNIGHT: That's state Representative Jason Zachary. A few days after the expulsions and the backlash, a recording of Tennessee's House Republican caucus meeting was leaked to a local liberal news outlet the Tennessee Holler. The audio was apparently edited and doesn't capture the voices of everyone in the meeting.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
SCOTT CEPICKY: We are fighting for the Republic of our country right now.
KNIGHT: "We are fighting for the Republic of our country right now," Representative Scott Cepicky tells the group.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
CEPICKY: And the world is staring at us. Are we going to stand our ground? You've got to do what's right. Even if you think it might be wrong, you've got to do what's right.
KNIGHT: Cepicky and others in the meeting declined to comment on the audio after it was leaked, but they didn't deny the authenticity of the tape. The Tennessee GOP released a statement saying it had no comment about private conversations. And then, a few months after the expulsions of Pearson and Jones and the leaked audio, an article began to circulate. It was called "Is Tennessee A Democracy?" I sent it to people. People sent it to me. It was by the journalist and historian Anne Applebaum.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "MORNING JOE")
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Anne Applebaum, in your latest article for The Atlantic, entitled "Is Tennessee A Democracy?, " you discuss what happens after one party wins everything but still wants more.
KNIGHT: And it created such buzz that she went on cable news to talk about it.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "MORNING JOE")
ANNE APPLEBAUM: One of the effects of having a supermajority, which the Republicans have in Tennessee, is that they don't really have to listen to anybody. They don't have to listen to the public. They don't have to listen to the Democrats. They don't have to listen to political opponents.
KNIGHT: Part of why the piece struck me so is because Applebaum has spent her entire career writing about authoritarian regimes in Central and Eastern Europe. And what's happening in Tennessee, she says, it reminds her of those places.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "MORNING JOE")
APPLEBAUM: And, of course, you know, I picked on Tennessee, but there are a number of other states I could have been to where you have almost the same phenomenon.
KNIGHT: The phenomenon she's talking about are these politically lopsided legislatures like Tennessee. There are now 29 states, more than ever before, with legislative supermajorities. Twenty of those are Republican. And to clarify, having a supermajority generally means one party has a steep advantage over the other. In Tennessee, Republicans outnumber Democrats in the legislature 3 to 1. And as the world witnessed in the spring of 2023, they seem to be wielding their power mightily. Sarah Shoop Neumann didn't know what to make of it.
SHOOP NEUMANN: I just felt like they were trying to silence the people speaking out. And I get that there's decorum and there's rules in all of this. But the attitudes of the legislatures, it just seemed like there was very much this environment of, we can say and do what we please - really just outraged me.
KNIGHT: Sarah was seeing, for the first time, how her Republican-dominated state legislature was acting, and she didn't like it. But could a regular citizen like Sarah, someone worried about the future of her party and her state, actually push back? Within weeks of the Covenant shooting, Sarah would join two other moms who launched themselves into the political arena with such determination and vigor that I couldn't help but take notice. Never before was politics a factor in their lives, but now it seemed to occupy every free moment they had, for better or for worse. So I decided to follow them, these three political newcomers, over the next year because their presence here surprises me. And in many ways, it surprises them, too.
SHOOP NEUMANN: Maybe we need to speak out a little bit bolder. Maybe we need to do something to get people's attention.
KNIGHT: What would they accomplish? How would the work change them? And what might it all reveal about the fragility of our democracy? From NPR's EMBEDDED in WPLN in Nashville, I'm Meribah Knight, and you're listening to Supermajority.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
KNIGHT: After Sarah Shoop Neumann witnesses the expulsions and sees how they blow up in the national media, part of her is like...
SHOOP NEUMANN: Well, good. Ya'll just exposed how things work here.
KNIGHT: Maybe this will wake people up, she thinks.
SHOOP NEUMANN: At least people are going to pay attention. At least other people are going to see what I saw and see that this isn't right.
KNIGHT: And did something shift in you?
SHOOP NEUMANN: I think that's when I knew, I have to do something.
KNIGHT: As it happens, there's another mother from the Covenant school who feels the same - a 44-year-old commercial real estate broker, named Melissa Alexander. And Sarah took notice.
SHOOP NEUMANN: I had seen Melissa start sharing online. She was posting things about her son who was up on the second floor, and she was just being very vocal about it. So I messaged her. I was just like, I don't know if this is weird, but I'm trying to figure out what to do after this and how to, like - how to get change.
KNIGHT: Melissa, a wisp of a woman with sunny blonde hair, and always perfect lip liner, is a Republican, a gun owner and a staunch defender of the Second Amendment.
MELISSA ALEXANDER: I always watch "CBS Mornings." That was my national news station of choice.
KNIGHT: It hit Melissa on March 28, the day after the shooting.
ALEXANDER: And so I turn it on, but I'm watching on my phone because I don't want my children to see the news. And while I was watching the eye-opener and the music was playing, images from Covenant started to pop up. And all of a sudden, I see a picture of my family, the three of us hugging. And I paused, and I was shocked, and the realization came over me that we are now survivors of a mass shooting. We are part of that narrative that I never ever imagined we would be part of. That's when reality set in, and that's when the anger set in.
KNIGHT: A third Covenant mother, Mary Joyce, a 39-year-old luxury real estate agent, was also angry and traumatized and trying to figure out what to do next. Her daughter Monroe was in third grade a Covenant. She'd survived, but three of her classmates were killed.
MARY JOYCE: It was really scary 'cause I've never spoken out politically. I've always just kind of gone along, you know, with the family, and, oh, we're not Democrats. Or oh, you know, we don't believe that.
KNIGHT: Mary says her family are old-school Southern conservatives and that she didn't come from privilege. She was raised by a single mom, and money was tight. But Mary knows the expectations of a Southern woman like her. Her mother is a Daughter of the American Revolution. It was drilled into her.
JOYCE: We are going to cross our legs, and we are not going to be offensive, and we are going to be polite and put together. I would wear (laughter) - this is so embarrassing now. I would wear pearls running on the treadmill. There's that. I'm saying it out loud.
KNIGHT: Even now, I've rarely seen such a put-together woman - hair, makeup, eyelashes, all-day heels, always toting around her Louis Vuiton handbag. Her work bio lists one of her specialties as power mom.
JOYCE: And I loved it. I love being from the South. But I understand the rules of the South - those unspoken, this is your role. And though, you know, we're independent, there's still this underlying, hey, just remember who you are. Just remember how things work.
KNIGHT: But when Sarah and Melissa start a text thread for other parents, Mary joins in. And on it, she hears about a gun control protest at the Capitol they all plan to go to called Linking Arms for Change. And Mary decides she needs to go, too.
JOYCE: We went to the Capitol.
KNIGHT: A place Mary had never been before, and Melissa hadn't either - not since a third-grade field trip.
JOYCE: And there were so many people and so many organizations and so many moms and parents and children. And I had no idea that was out there.
KNIGHT: There was a bunch of gun control organizations there - Moms Demand Action, March for Our Lives, Safer Tennessee. Local news station WSMV 4 Nashville recorded the event.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED ACTIVIST #1: Welcome. Thanks to all of you for joining us here as we link arms for change.
JOYCE: And I turn around and I see this line that continues for miles.
KNIGHT: A three-mile chain of people that snaked from the state Capitol to the children's hospital.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED ACTIVIST #2: We must do something...
(APPLAUSE)
UNIDENTIFIED ACTIVIST #2: ...For the state of Tennessee, for the sake of our children, for the sake of this city.
JOYCE: And I had no idea so many people cared.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST: (Singing) No matter how far these songs take me...
JOYCE: And that is the moment that I said, OK, we can do this. So I'm in, like, let's go.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST: (Singing) Tennessee, Tennessee.
KNIGHT: It's on this day at this event that Mary, Sarah and Melissa meet face-to-face for the first time. Afterwards, Sarah texts the group. Could we keep this thread open, she asked? Anybody open to talking about legislative things?
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
KNIGHT: Within months, the women start organizing. They announce the launch of a nonprofit and an action fund. They start holding press conferences, urging lawmakers to pass stricter gun laws. As mothers, as conservatives, they think, who better to push for change?
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ALEXANDER: Good morning. My name is Melissa Alexander. I am a Covenant School parent and a co-founder of Covenant Families for Brighter Tomorrows and Covenant Families Action Fund. We are advocating for gun violence prevention...
KNIGHT: Make no mistake, these women are not the first to try to do this work. Covenant was one of many mass shootings in Tennessee. There was one at a grocery store in 2021, outside a nightclub in 2022, at church twice. And a few years before Covenant, a young man whose guns had been taken away in another state but who was allowed to have them in Tennessee had opened fire on a Waffle House, killing four people, all of whom were people of color.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: The first parent I'd like to invite up is Sarah Shoop Neumann.
SHOOP NEUMANN: My name is Sarah Shoop Neumann.
People have fairly asked me, well, what'd you do after the Waffle House shooting? Nothing is the answer. And that's really disappointing to me, that it took this happening at my own child's school to look at what our laws were and see how things have changed.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
SHOOP NEUMANN: I want to take a moment to say that I see all survivors of gun violence. Your concerns have become my concerns.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
KNIGHT: After the Covenant shooting, Tennessee's Republican governor, Bill Lee, released a video statement.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
BILL LEE: What happened at Covenant School was a tragedy beyond comprehension. Like many of you, I've experienced tragedy in my own life.
KNIGHT: He'd been touched by the shooting himself. His wife was close with two of the women who died at Covenant. One was an old co-worker, and the other was the first lady's best friend.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
LEE: Maria woke up this morning without one of her best friends.
KNIGHT: In fact, she was due to come to the governor's home for dinner the night she was killed. The women meet with Governor Lee, and they say it's very productive, that the governor seemed to be in agreement something must be done. And if that's true, it would mean the governor challenging his own party in an open-carry and permitless-carry state.
First, he floats a red flag law, a way to remove guns from someone who may be at risk of harming themselves or others, which promptly gets the thumbs down from nearly every Republican lawmaker. So the governor does something that will change the course of the women's lives, something that's seen as a political Hail Mary. He calls the legislature back to the Capitol for a special session later that summer, with the sole focus on public safety and the Second Amendment - a softer way, perhaps, of asking lawmakers to pass some kind of gun control legislation.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
KNIGHT: The women see the special session as their chance to make real change, so they kick into high gear. They have more than 60 meetings with legislators.
ALEXANDER: The first meeting was a disaster.
KNIGHT: Mostly Republicans.
ALEXANDER: He wanted us to meet in a bagel shop. And I could tell he was very defensive.
KNIGHT: Some seem open to gun control measures, like House majority leader William Lamberth.
SHOOP NEUMANN: We had Senator Briggs pretty early on. And he was wonderful.
KNIGHT: Most were not in favor, though.
SHOOP NEUMANN: Several people told no.
ALEXANDER: Senator Johnson, it really didn't seem like he cared.
SHOOP NEUMANN: Representative Fritts, he didn't try to - you know, he didn't agree with us. But he was so kind.
ALEXANDER: I would say that a lot of those meetings were very cordial, very kind.
SHOOP NEUMANN: I'd have to look back at our list. There's a whole bunch.
KNIGHT: I reached out to a couple of the lawmakers Melissa and Sarah mentioned. Senator Johnson didn't respond, and Representative Fritts didn't dispute the women's recollections.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
KNIGHT: Before all these summer meetings, lawmakers had been receiving strongly worded letters from places like the American Firearms Association warning them against supporting any gun control legislation. We prosecute backstabbing Republicans in the court of public opinion, they wrote in one letter.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
KNIGHT: But now, here were these women - Republicans, conservatives, constituents - coming at them from their own side.
ALEXANDER: I was a little bit nervous about just being in the public spotlight and so visibly part of this narrative that was about to happen.
KNIGHT: This is Melissa.
ALEXANDER: Obviously, there's a sense of anxiety, and everything's come to a head, right? This is everything we've worked for. So here we go. Let's see what happens.
KNIGHT: After the break, the women head back to the Capitol for the special session they've been prepping for.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
KNIGHT: On August 21 of 2023, the special session arrives. The women get up early, eat breakfast, and kiss their kids goodbye. Mary Joyce dresses in her red Covenant T-shirt and pulls her shoulder-length hair into a loose ponytail. She grabs her laminated sign, reading Covenant Mom for Firearm Safety, and heads back to the state Capitol.
JOYCE: On the first day of special session, I had to walk through a crowd of Proud Boys.
KNIGHT: I had to walk through them that day, too - these guys in Proud Boy polo shirts. They were shouting at anyone and everyone.
UNIDENTIFIED PROUD BOY #2: So I got four words for you - f*** around and find out, motherf***er. Come on. That's all I got to say.
JOYCE: I just learned who those guys are. That's different. I mean, I don't know where that happens on a daily basis, but that's different - with all their guns and all their weapons and they're shouting, and they're - they look scary, like, terrifying.
UNIDENTIFIED PROUD BOY #3: You need to f***ing do something, motherf***er.
KNIGHT: Mary admits that the Proud Boys were never on her radar, but they were now.
JOYCE: Like, huge weapons, weapons that killed our children and our teachers at our school - just so flippantly wearing them like it's no big deal.
UNIDENTIFIED PROUD BOY #4: I want you to have a gun, too, motherf***er. I want you to have a gun, too, so we can do civil war, please. So we can do civil war.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: This is America. Everyone has a gun.
KNIGHT: But when the women arrive, it isn't only the Proud Boys they have to worry about. At the last minute, house lawmakers close off one of the public galleries because they said they needed more space for lobbyists, legislative staff and media. That wasn't true. There was plenty of space. The women don't know now if they'll even get a seat, and they wonder, does our own government not want us here? Then Representative Justin Pearson appears.
PEARSON: Excuse us, y'all.
KNIGHT: Both he and the other expelled lawmaker, Justin Jones, have been reelected by their districts just a couple of weeks earlier.
ALEXANDER: Justin Pearson walks in with a group of people and they're chanting. It was, whose House? Our House. Whose House? Our House. And he starts to walk his people by, and we're kind of at the front of the line to get in the gallery. And he just grabs us and he says, come up.
PEARSON: Level 1 - OK. Go to the back into Level 1.
KNIGHT: He walks them up into the gallery and gives them a seat.
ALEXANDER: So we were on the front row in this front corner. We're in the corner, so you can see direct line of sight to the speaker, and you're looking down on most of the house. At that moment, I was like (sighing) - breathe a sigh of relief. I'm up here. I've made it, OK. Let's go to the next step.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
SEXTON: Mr. Sergeant at Arms, invite the members into the chamber and close the doors, and I hereby declare the House of Representatives of the 113th Assembly of the State of Tennessee now in extraordinary session.
JOYCE: So we're like, OK, just stay quiet, stay poised. Let's keep this consistent, right? They see us. We're front row. Remember all the good conversations we had. Remember us.
KNIGHT: Mary thought about their summer meetings with many of these lawmakers, especially ones with the House majority leader, William Lamberth, which the women had considered quite productive.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
SEXTON: William Lamberth, you're recognized.
WILLIAM LAMBERTH: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Members, you have had available to you for the last several hours the...
KNIGHT: The women hold up their 8-by-11-inch signs, reading Covenant Mom for Firearm Safety, and they watch.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
LAMBERTH: Representative Garrett, you're recognized.
JOHNNY GARRETT: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm pleased to present the rules from the Rules Committee. Rule No. 4 bans voice and noise amplification devices, flags, signs, and banners from the galleries.
KNIGHT: Sarah is thinking, OK, amplification devices, like the bullhorn Jones and Pearson had used when they walked into the well, but signs, like the one she was holding? Signs weren't explicitly banned in the general assembly before these women showed up today with theirs, but it seemed suspicious to Sarah and the other women. And it turns out, the rule was introduced in a meeting just earlier that morning in House speaker Cameron Sexton's office, but no public notice was given, which means the public wasn't there - no media - which, by the way, isn't supposed to happen. There are rules about this. I asked the speaker's office why they did it this way, and they said in an email that the meeting wasn't private, but they didn't acknowledge my question about why public notice wasn't given.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
SEXTON: Representative Pearson.
PEARSON: Thank you. There is an article written by someone called "Is Tennessee A Democracy?"
KNIGHT: He's referring here to Anne Applebaum's piece in The Atlantic.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PEARSON: And I believe today we are getting a very clear answer that it is not. This is not how democracies operate. You're saying with these rules that the folks who want you to know what they think are not deserving of being heard. That's not democracy.
SEXTON: Leader Lamberth.
LAMBERTH: All right. So a lot to unpack there, and thank you for your comments. This is actually a constitutional federal republic. So I know that words democracy and republic get interchanged sometimes, but it is a constitutional federal republic. And I'm just going to make a few comments then I'll respect...
KNIGHT: What Leader Lamberth is saying here is that Representative Pearson is mistaken, the U.S. isn't actually a democracy, rather it's a constitutional federal republic. He's basically putting a giant asterisk on the idea that the U.S. is a democracy in the first place, a sort of well, technically, we're not argument. So let's walk through this rhetoric for a moment. In America, we vote for representatives. Think county commissioners, city council, statehouse, U.S. Congress, etc. And those folks then vote on our behalf. It's true that the U.S. is not a direct democracy. It's a constitutional federal republic because those elected officials then make decisions on our behalf. The reason why Lamberth's word choice matters, though, is that these terms have leaped out of the political science textbooks and into the national discourse.
The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, published an essay on the topic in 2020. Then shortly after, Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah tweeted about it. We're not a democracy, he wrote. And then it seemed like it was popping up all over the place in comments and think pieces - all this to say, there are now people who can't agree on whether the U.S. is a democracy or not, and that's a big change in how we talk about our country. And so on this first day of the special session, Lamberth uses the term successfully to dismiss Pearson's concerns and get on with the vote.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
SEXTON: We are voting. Vote aye when the bell rings. Those opposed vote no.
PEARSON: Pearson, no.
SEXTON: Has every member voted? Does any member wish to change their vote?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: Pearson, no.
PEARSON: Why do you feel afraid of debate?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: Pearson, no.
UNIDENTIFIED CLERK #1: Ayes 73, 23 nays.
SEXTON: The rules are adopted. Without objection, the motion to reconsider is tabled. Next order, Mr. Clerk.
UNIDENTIFIED CLERK #1: Welcoming and honoring.
SEXTON: Welcoming and honoring.
ALEXANDER: And I thought, do I put my sign down? What do I do?
KNIGHT: Again, this is Melissa.
ALEXANDER: Well, at that point, we did decide, let's just go along with this. Let's not cause a ruckus, and we put our signs down. But Sarah had this scarf around her neck that had been made after the shooting that said Covenant Strong, and it had the names of the victims on either end of it. And I said, Sarah, grab your scarf, grab your scarf. And so we draped the scarf over the railing 'cause it's not a sign. It's an article of clothing. And so that was kind of our way to protest the sign rule.
KNIGHT: And so these rule-following women, they were figuring out just what they were up against and how they might push back. More after the break.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
KNIGHT: The next day, as bills head to committees, Melissa says the women are still very hopeful about getting gun control legislation passed.
ALEXANDER: I'm still highly motivated. I'm not backing down. I'm not going to forget about what we were trying to do.
KNIGHT: Mary has work meetings, but Melissa and Sarah use a divide-and-conquer strategy. Melissa tries to buttonhole lawmakers in their offices, and Sarah gets ready to testify at the Civil Justice subcommittee hearing, where 18 bills are about to be considered.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #5: Eighteen from the cities or states.
KNIGHT: Sarah walks into the hearing room and sits down on the aisle. She's still holding her laminated 8-by-11-inch sign, even though she can't hold it up anymore. She realizes that right in front of her are the members of the Tennessee Firearms Association, the no-compromise group that's been pressuring lawmakers for months not to take up any of the bills that Sarah's been pushing.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
LOWELL RUSSELL: Ladies and gentlemen welcome to the Civil Justice subcommittee for Tuesday, August 22, 2023. Madam Clerk, call the row.
UNIDENTIFIED CLERK #2: Representatives Bulso?
GINO BULSO: Here.
KNIGHT: The Civil Justice subcommittee has 10 members. Nine of them are Republicans. And the committee chair is a Republican named Lowell Russell. He reminds the gallery of the new rules.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED CLERK #2: Chairman, you have a quorum.
RUSSELL: House rules also disallow the use of signs in committee. Please refrain from displaying signs during the committee hearing. I still see some signs. You can either exit the room or put them up. And I will tell you this. If there's an ongoing problem with these signs, we'll just clear the whole room.
KNIGHT: Sarah looks around. Another Covenant mother who's sitting next to her begins recording on her cell phone.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED ACTIVIST #3: I'm not leaving.
RUSSELL: Trooper, the third one back in the center needs to exit the room. The other one holding the sign up needs to exit the room also.
UNIDENTIFIED TROOPER: Need to exit the room.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTIVIST #3: It's my First Amendment right. If you have to drag me out, so be it.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTIVIST #4: Is this what democracy looks like?
UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE: No.
UNIDENTIFIED TROOPER: Now, I'm not going to hurt you.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTIVIST #3: I know you're not. I know you're not.
RUSSELL: Trooper, the lady back there holding the cellphone standing up in the blue needs to leave the room.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTIVIST #3: This is not what democracy looks like.
UNIDENTIFIED TROOPER: Come with me, OK?
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING).
UNIDENTIFIED ACTIVIST #5: What's the problem?
UNIDENTIFIED TROOPER: I'm not trying to hurt you. I'm not trying to hurt you. I just need you to come with me.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTIVIST #5: Don't touch me, please.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTIVIST #6: The heroes are walking out.
(SNAPPING)
RUSSELL: All right, members, any personal orders or announcements?
KNIGHT: About 25 minutes later, there's another burst of noise from the gallery. The chair gets angry.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
RUSSELL: Are we going to quiet down and listen, or are we going to sit there and clap?
(APPLAUSE)
RUSSELL: All right, troopers, let's go ahead and clear the room.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #6: Mr. Chairman, would it be possible to just clear the half that's causing the trouble?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #7: There you go.
RUSSELL: I don't know that we can determine the half, so let's just clear the room. No, they had - this is their third time. Troopers, clear the room.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTIVIST #7: Shame.
KNIGHT: The trooper motions for everyone to leave. Sarah stands up, shaking her head, crying, and walks out of the room out into the hallway.
(SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST)
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: (Chanting) Whose house?
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting) Our house.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: (Chanting) Whose house?
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting) Our house.
KNIGHT: Sarah makes her way through a sea of spectators, all commenting on what just went down.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #8: That was autocracy in action.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #9: It was not democracy in action.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #7: No, it wasn't. But they'll tell you we're a constitutional republic, not a democracy.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #10: But they just kicked the Covenant parents out of the statehouse hearing room No. 1.
KNIGHT: Sarah finds a seat in the corner right under a small TV still streaming the meeting. Then a reporter approaches her, asking her for comment. She's still clutching her sign and some wads of tissue.
SHOOP NEUMANN: (Crying) This is life or death for people. I don't think they understand the courage that it takes to get up here.
KNIGHT: Eventually, someone comes out, motioning for Sarah to follow. It's time for her to testify. Yes, that's still happening. Sarah, looking a bit shell-shocked, gathers her things and heads back into the hearing room to testify.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
RUSSELL: Sarah Neumann, I think it is. Neumann? Ms. Neumann, if you will just make sure your red light's on for your microphone.
KNIGHT: Sarah is here to oppose two bills. One would allow certain teachers to carry a gun on school property. And the other would allow any off-duty, retired law enforcement or current or former military members to do the same.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
RUSSELL: Say who your - say your name and who you're with, and you'll have three minutes.
SHOOP NEUMANN: I'm Sarah Neumann. I'm a parent from the Covenant School.
KNIGHT: Sarah reads a brief statement on behalf of a local teacher on her cellphone, her hands slightly shaking, her jaw clenched.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
SHOOP NEUMANN: Arming teachers is absolutely the wrong solution to the issue of school safety. Teachers in this state already lack support in terms of funding, poor pay, understaffing and so many other issues. Forcing them to carry firearms can only worsen the conditions in our...
KNIGHT: Sarah is the last of four people, including a representative from the state Department of Safety, to testify against arming people in schools. No one testifies in favor. And yet...
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
RUSSELL: Do we have any other questions for the sponsor? Seeing none, we'll be voting on sending House Bill 70 - let me make sure I get this right - 7064 to full civil. All in favor, signify by saying aye.
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: Aye.
RUSSELL: Opposed, no. The ayes prevail. Full civil. Congratulations.
KNIGHT: Both bills move on to the next committee.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
KNIGHT: On the sixth day of the special session, the last day, the women take their seats in the front row of the gallery. And they watch as just three bills out of more than a hundred filed are passed, none of the bills, in their eyes, having any material impact on making schools safer from mass shootings.
SHOOP NEUMANN: We worked very hard all summer to keep our composure, to see the best in people, to give everybody a chance, to, like, hear them out, to hear their opinions. And it was pretty defeating by the end.
KNIGHT: In fact, two of the things these bills do - one offering free gun locks to Tennesseans and the other speeding up the transfer of criminal paperwork between government agencies - are actually already happening in Tennessee. They just hadn't been codified into law. A third bill, having to do with reporting child trafficking statistics, has nothing at all to do with gun control, which meant that as far as the women are concerned, all of their meetings, their strategy sessions, at this moment, resulted in nothing.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
SEXTON: Without objection, so ordered. Leader Lamberth, Leader Cochran.
MARK COCHRAN: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Pursuant to Senate Joint Resolution No. 150, I move the first extraordinary session of the House of Representatives of the 113th General Assembly of the state of Tennessee adjourned. Sine die.
SEXTON: I here...
(SHOUTING)
SEXTON: I hereby declare the...
JOYCE: After all the emotional testimonies and the exposure of our story - and stories - they gaveled out and said, we're done.
KNIGHT: This is Mary.
JOYCE: I was in shock that nothing happened. And I remember so clearly walking down the stairs and people are shouting. And we're just trying to get out of there. And we're feeling - it feels so heavy, and it comes on really fast. And I walk down and I hear these two gentlemen talking - arguing.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #11: Guns and gun deaths.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #12: Here's the answer, OK? In 1962, you could buy a gun in the mail without a background check. We had no shootings. It's not the guns. It's the people.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #11: There were a lot fewer guns in the 1960s than there are right now.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #12: So the people need to fix their minds.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #11: A lot fewer guns.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #12: People need to fix their minds. It's not the gun's fault.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #11: No, you need to fix your mind.
JOYCE: (Crying) I had enough. And I could not hold it in. And I remember crying and telling my friend's story and not wanting to let them down. And I remember running up the hill on March 27, trying to get to my child and not being able to run fast enough. And I remember the hours spent in the church waiting to hear if she was alive or dead. And I remember the police calling my friends' names over and over again in that church. And I knew - it's third grade. It's our class. I know why they're calling them.
(Crying) And I remember seeing my daughter's face the day after the shooting, telling her about all of her friends that had been murdered. And I remember seeing the life go out of her face. Her childhood left her body. And I couldn't hold it in because it is enough. And I didn't give a sh**. And I just started yelling.
A handgun will never win against a high-capacity rifle.
(CHEERING)
JOYCE: It will never win. It will never win.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #13: I will pray for you.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #14: Pray for our communities because we are killing each other.
JOYCE: It would win. It would never have saved...
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #14: Respect her.
JOYCE: ...Our children at Covenant.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #14: Respect her.
JOYCE: It would never have won.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #13: There is no...
JOYCE: A handgun would never...
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #13: There is no...
JOYCE: ...Win against an assault rifle.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #14: Respect.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #13: If you're going to...
JOYCE: It will never win against a...
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #13: You don't want to listen to me.
JOYCE: ...High-capacity rifle.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #14: Respect.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #13: You don't want to listen to me.
JOYCE: I do.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #13: And that's OK.
JOYCE: I have been listening all summer.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #13: Listen...
JOYCE: I've been listening...
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #13: ...This is not...
JOYCE: ...All summer.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #14: Respect.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #13: There is not one piece of legislation that...
JOYCE: If you come after my kids or you come after my friends' kids or you come after a neighbor's kids, I will not stop.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
JOYCE: And I will scream on the mountaintops, and I will find a million other mothers like me - or ones that want to prevent it happening to their children - and we will not stop. And we will organize. And we are smart. And we are swift. And we are not going anywhere. And that's the evolution that I have gone through.
KNIGHT: I want to tell you plainly that this could very well be a story about gun control, but it's not. It's much more. These women are, for the first time in their lives, lobbying this powerful political majority, which, as you've now seen, can pretty much say and do as it pleases - no need to work across the aisle, no need to compromise. They can write their own rules, stack committees to their liking, pass the legislation they want and torpedo what they don't want.
These women, these political newcomers, are finding their voices. But will anyone actually listen to them? And what if they come to learn that the stakes are much higher than they'd imagined?
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
KNIGHT: During the special session, the women had hastily gotten T-shirts printed, and they began wearing them to the Capitol. They said, get used to seeing these faces. And next time on Supermajority, they make good on that promise. They keep showing up. They strategize. They organize. And they come back to the Tennessee Capitol.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #15: Here we are.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #16: Here again.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #17: And back again.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #18: Hi.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #19: Hi.
SEXTON: I hereby declared the 113th General Assembly of state of Tennessee now in session.
KNIGHT: And as the legislature veers away from gun control to issues that have been dominating the nationwide political discourse...
SHOOP NEUMANN: You know, banning pride flags, banning books, restricting abortion.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
KNIGHT: ...The women begin to ask themselves, where the heck have we been?
SHOOP NEUMANN: The more I started seeing all these things that were glaringly unconstitutional was just shocking to me.
KNIGHT: Supermajority from EMBEDDED is a collaboration with WPLN News in Nashville. This episode was produced and sound designed by Dan Girma, with help from Ariana Lee. Our senior producer is Adelina Lancianese. She and Alex Kotlowitz edited the series. Katie Simon is our supervising editor. Irene Noguchi is the executive producer of NPR's Enterprise Storytelling Unit.
Additional reporting and production help from Nic Neves, David Gutherz and WPLN's Rose Gilbert. Robert Rodriguez mastered the program. Fact-checking by Katie Daugert. Additional research for this series by Nicolette Khan and Susie Cummings. With WPLN News in Nashville, Mack Linebaugh is our vice president of audience engagement.
Tony Gonzalez is our news director and Rachel Iacovone is our director of multiplatform publishing. Thanks to our managing editor of standards and practices, Tony Cavin, and to Johannes Doerge and Micah Ratner for legal support. Special thanks to Kelly McEvers, Luis Trelles, WPLN statehouse reporter Blaise Gainey and the NPR states team - Liz Baker, Ryland Barton, Larry Kaplow, Barbara Sprunt and Acacia Squires.
And a big thanks to our EMBEDDED+ supporters. EMBEDDED is where we do ambitious long-form journalism at NPR. And EMBEDDED+ helps us keep that work going. Supporters also get to listen to every EMBEDDED series sponsor-free, and every episode early. Find out more at plus.npr.org/embedded or find the EMBEDDED channel on Apple. I'm Meribah Knight. This is EMBEDDED from NPR. Thanks for listening.
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