Tennessee's 9th Congressional District — 2026 Candidates

Brent Taylor is a Tennessee state senator from the Memphis area and a small business owner; the Tennessee General Assembly lists his occupation as funeral director. He and his wife Kimberly bought their first funeral home in 2004 and built the business into what his campaign site calls the largest family-owned funeral operation in the Mid-South. Elected to the Memphis City Council in 1995 at 27, he served 12 years there, later chaired the Shelby County Election Commission and won state Senate District 31 in 2022, per the campaign site. He won the August 6 Republican primary and is the Republican nominee for Tennessee's 9th District on the November 3, 2026 ballot, per the official results.

Justin J. Pearson is a Memphis state representative and community organizer who made his name shutting down the Byhalia Connection Pipeline; he co-founded Memphis Community Against the Pipeline, the grassroots group MLK50 credits with ending the project through Black Southwest Memphis neighborhoods in July 2021. He represents Tennessee House District 86 and was one of the "Tennessee Three" expelled in April 2023 over a gun-violence protest on the House floor and returned to his seat days later, a national profile that let him raise over $1 million from small donors. He won the August 6 Democratic contest with 65.75% (32,092 votes) in a four-way field.