The Sunday Story: Is this what democracy looks like?

0:00I'm Aisha Roscoe and this is a Sunday Story. Well, another 4th of July is in the rear view. And this year, of course, it sets the stage for one of the most contentious presidential elections in recent history. But today we want to turn to what's happening on the state level, because that's actually where a lot of stuff gets decided, like laws about guns, abortion, what's taught in schools. One state that was in the news a lot last year was Tennessee. You might remember a big story about two Black state lawmakers who protested at the statehouse and then faced expulsion. That story kind of came and went in the national headlines.

0:40But in Tennessee, it turns out it was just the beginning. Things got way more interesting after that. And one reporter, Mariba Knight, with WPLN News in Nashville, followed it all. NPR's Embedded podcast teamed up with Meribah on a new series called Supermajority, and today we're going to play you the first episode. In Tennessee, the Republican Party controls the House, the Senate, and the governorship, giving them full political power. This new series tells the story of three conservative white mothers who pushed back against their own party after a deadly school shooting. And a heads up, this episode contains coarse language and discussions of gun violence.

1:28Okay, here's Meribah. Sarah Shoup Newman 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, five years old, and Judah, who's two. But her mind was all over the place. I just found myself saying, how did this happen? How did we get here? 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.

2:14The 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 nine-year-old children and three adults, including the school's headmaster. Noah was okay. His preschool class hadn't met that day. But Sarah was reeling. I have a hard time even describing what it was like to live that week. 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.

2:58She 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 five-year-old is waiting, she wrote to him. No reply. I probably voted for most of these people. What do they think is going to fix this? Other people were feeling the same way. The state capitol had erupted in protests. More than a thousand people marching, flooding the halls of the capitol and into the viewing areas, calling for gun control.

3:48And then three Democratic lawmakers took to the Republican-dominated House floor. You might have heard of them, the so-called Tennessee Three. Seeing on the news, I saw pictures of Justin Jones, Justin Pearson, and Gloria Johnson had 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. 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. 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.

4:33So 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? 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. I mean, I was really upset, so I wanted to go to the expulsion hearings.

5:01At 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. 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.

5:39That 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. 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. 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.

6:23Representative Farmer. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Like Andrew Farmer, who questioned Justin Pearson, a 28-year-old black lawmaker from Memphis. 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. Pearson stood at the lectern, ramrod straight, wearing a dashiki under his suit jacket, carefully listening to 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. The way that they were spoken to was incredibly disrespectful.

7:08That's why you're standing there, because of that temper tantrum that day. For that yearning to have attention. That's what you wanted. But you're getting it now. 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. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson were both expelled that day. Gloria Johnson, the white lawmaker, kept her seat by a single vote.

7:55The ousting was all over the news and talk shows. Two House lawmakers expelled the compelling drama playing out live. And for more than a brief moment, it caught the attention of the entire nation. This morning, growing outrage after Tennessee's Republican-controlled House voted to... The Republican supermajority vowing to punish them. Republican House Speaker Cameron Sexton even linked their peaceful protest... One of those lawmakers who's now ousted brought up white supremacy. Gloria, why do you feel like there was a difference in the outcome between you and your colleague? It might have to do with the color of our skin.

8:33The foundation of who we are, what we can reserve. There's never been a more important time for us to be unified. There are 75 times. God, we were called, we brought the racism into it. 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. We are fighting for the republic of our country right now. We are fighting for the republic of our country right now, Representative Scott Sipicki tells the group.

9:17And the world is staring at us. Are we going to stand on 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. Sipicki 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.

9:45And 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 Ann Applebaum. Ann 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. And it created such buzz that she went on cable news to talk about it. 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.

10:27They 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. 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. 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. 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.

11:0820 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, three to one. And as the world witnessed in the spring of 2023, they seem to be wielding their power. mightily. Sarah Shoup Newman didn't know what to make of it. I just felt like they were trying to silence the people speaking out. And I get that there's decorum and there's rules and 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.

12:00Sarah 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.

12:49And in many ways, it surprises them too. maybe we need to speak out a little bit bolder. Maybe we need to do something to get people's attention. 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 and WPLN in Nashville, I'm Maribah Knight, and you're listening to Supermajority.

13:21more from maribou when we come back to the sunday story stay with us this message comes from npr sponsor walmart did you know that walmart is one of fortune's 100 best companies to work for in 2025 it's no surprise walmart is investing one billion dollars in training and development to help associates build lasting careers with or without a degree. In fact, 75 % of Walmart management started in hourly roles. With benefits like health care, paid parental leave, and tuition support, Walmart isn't just a place to work, it's a place to grow. Learn more at walmart.com slash spark. After Sarah Shoup Newman witnesses the expulsions and sees how they blow up in the national media, part of her is like, Well, good.

14:17Y 'all just exposed how things work here. Maybe this will wake people up, she thinks. 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. Did something shift in you? I think that's when I knew I have to do something. 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. 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.

14:59So I messaged her, 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 get change. 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. I always watch CBS mornings. That was my national news station of choice. It hit Melissa on March 28th, the day after the shooting.

15:56was 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. 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 at Covenant. She'd survived, but three of her classmates were killed. It was really scary because I've never spoken out politically. I've always just kind of gone along with, you know, with the family and, oh, we're not Democrats or, oh, you know, we don't believe that.

16:50Mary 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. 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—this is so embarrassing now. I would wear pearls running on the treadmill. There's that. I'm saying it out loud. Even now, I've rarely seen such a put-together woman. Hair, makeup, eyelashes, all-day heels, always toting around her Louis Vuitton handbag.

17:37Her work bio lists one of her specialties as power mom. 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 we're, you know, we're independent, there's still this underlying, hey, just remember who you are. Just remember how things work. 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. We went to the Capitol. A place Mary had never been before, and Melissa hadn't either, not since a third-grade field trip.

18:27And 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. 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. Welcome. Thanks to all of you for joining us here as we link arms for change. And I turn around and I see this line that continues for miles. A three-mile chain of people that snaked from the state capitol to the children's hospital. We must do something for the state of Tennessee, for the sake of our children, for the sake of this city.

19:23And I had no idea so many people cared. And that is the moment that I said, OK, we can do this. So I'm in. Like, let's go.

19:51It'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?

20:12Within 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? 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. 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.

21:17The first parent I'd like to invite up is Sarah Shoup Newman. My name is Sarah Shoup Newman. People have fairly asked me, well, what did 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. I want to take a moment to say that I see all survivors of gun violence. Your concerns have become my concerns.

21:58After the Covenant shooting, Tennessee's Republican governor, Bill Lee, released a video statement. What happened at Covenant school was a tragedy beyond comprehension. Like many of you, I've experienced tragedy in my own life. 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. Maria woke up this morning without one of her best friends. 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.

22:44And 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.

23:36The 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. The first meeting was a disaster. Mostly Republicans. He wanted us to meet in a bagel shop, and I could tell he was very defensive. Some seem open to gun control measures, like House Majority Leader William Lamberth. We had Senator Briggs pretty early on, and he was wonderful. Most were not in favor, though. Several people told no. Senator Johnson? It really didn't seem like he cared. Representative Fritz? He didn't try to, you know, he didn't agree with us.

24:15He was so kind. I would say that a lot of those meetings were very cordial, very kind. I'd have to look back at our list. There's a whole bunch. I reached out to a couple of the lawmakers Melissa and Sarah mentioned. Senator Johnson didn't respond, and Representative Fritz didn't dispute the women's recollections.

24:40Before 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. But now, here were these women, Republicans, conservatives, constituents, coming at them from their own side. 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. This is Melissa. Obviously, there's a sense of anxiety, and everything's come to a head, right?

25:26This is everything we've worked for. So here we go. Let's see what happens. After the break, the women head back to the Capitol for the special session they've been prepping for.

25:46This is The Sunday Story, and this week you are listening to Embedded's new series, Supermajority. Back to Meribah. On August 21st of 2023, the special session arrives. The women get up early, eat breakfast, and kiss their kids goodbye. Mary Joy stresses 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. On the first day of special session, I had to walk through a crowd of Proud Boys. Because I have the right to keep fucking talking. I had to walk through them that day, too.

26:28These guys in Proud Boy polo shirts. They were shouting at anyone and everyone. So I got four words for you. Fuck around and find out, motherfucker. Come on. That's all I gotta say. 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 their shouting and their, they look scary, like terrifying. You need to fucking do something, motherfucker. Mary admits the Proud Boys were never on her radar, but they were now. Like huge weapons. Weapons that killed our children and our teachers at our school.

27:12Just so flippantly wearing them like it's no big deal. I want you to have a gun too, motherfuckers. I want you to have a gun too. So we can do civil war. So we can do civil war. This is America. Everyone has a gun. 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?

27:53Then, Representative Justin Pearson appears.