Ousted Democrat John DeBerry Loses House District 90 to Torrey Harris

Incumbent John DeBerry lost Tennessee’s House District 90 to Democratic candidate Torrey Harris on Tuesday. DeBerry lost by nearly 55 points, or just over 11,000 votes.

Although DeBerry had served the office as a Democrat for the last 26 years, the Democratic Party removed him from the primary ballot over disagreements with his views on abortion and education. 

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Majority White Executive Committee Ousts Respected Black Christian State Legislator from Tennessee Democrat Party

  The State Executive Committee of the Tennessee Democratic Party, which is majority white, voted Wednesday to oust respected State Representative John DeBerry, Jr. (formerly D-Memphis, now I-Memphis), who is a strong Christian and black, from the Party. DeBerry has served in the Tennessee General Assembly as the Representative for House District 90 for 26 years, since he was first elected in 1994. Of the 66-member State Executive Committee (SEC), 41 voted for the removal of DeBerry, while 18 voted against and 2 abstained, WREG reported. There are currently five vacancies on the committee. More than two-thirds of the current Tennessee Democratic Party SEC membership is white. While the SEC is designed to have one committeewoman and one committeeman for each of the state’s senatorial districts, the current makeup of the SEC is skewed toward women because four of the five vacancies are committeeman seats. The vote on DeBerry’s status within the TNDP was apparently triggered by a 29-page complaint dated April 1 submitted by a Janeita “Jan” Lentz, an attorney according to her Avvo profile. Ms. Lentz, who appears to be white, also identifies herself as the Co-Chair of Memphis-Midsouth DSA, which is the Democratic Socialists of America. In…

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