Energy prices, data centers and crime rates are central to a Tennessee U.S. House race that has captured national attention.
The Tennessee Legislature adopted a new congressional map in May, following the U.S. Supreme Court’s Louisiana v. Callais decision. The redrawn map carves up portions of the ninth congressional district where Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., is the only Democrat in the state.
Rep. Cohen chose not to run for reelection following the map’s implementation. State Sen. Brent Taylor, R-Memphis and Rep. Justin Pearson, D-Memphis, however, cited the new district boundaries as their motivation to run.
Taylor, a funeral home owner, told The Center Square that his experience in small business and the redrawn boundaries motivated his decision to run in the crucial race.
“I realized I remained in District 9 and it was a Republican seat at that point, basically 60-40 Republican seat,” Taylor said.
Taylor also touted his experience in the Tennessee legislature to support his qualifications for the seat in Congress. The Republican state senator said he would support temporarily suspending gas taxes as prices rise due to the U.S. military conflict in Iran.
“Anytime there is an opportunity to cut taxes, whether it be gas tax, property tax, income tax, fuel tax or grocery tax, I have been willing to cut taxes because I’ve always thought there was room in government to cut rather than raise taxes,” Taylor told The Center Square.
States across the country, including Georgia and Ohio, proposed to cut state gas taxes. Tennessee has yet to advance legislation to suspend the gas tax. Tennessee’s average gas price is $3.91, compared to the national average at $4.34, according to AAA.
Taylor said the U.S. military conflict in Iran has revealed critical gaps in American energy independence. He touted passage of the Tennessee Energy Freedom Act, legislation that would prevent energy companies from being sued unless a violation of federal law is proven.
Taylor said climate change activists have unnecessarily burdened energy producers, preventing them from operating freely and causing America to become dependent on foreign nations.
“They can’t be brought into court just because some activist wants to try to virtue signal using our court system because that only drives up the cost of fossil fuels, which includes gas and diesel,” Taylor said. “I voted for that.”
The Tennessee senator also said failure to develop domestic pipelines have harmed the American energy industry. He pointed to development of the Byhalia pipeline, a project proposal that would connect oil movement from Memphis to the Gulf Coast and central Illinois.
“If that pipeline had gone through, gas prices in all likelihood would still be high,” Taylor said. “But they would perhaps be lower in our region because we would have had that pipeline that would have delivered oil to the refinery much less expensively.”
He also called for greater efficiency in the permitting process and to bring more oil refineries operational. Taylor said Congress needs to enact permitting reform that allows domestic energy companies to develop more efficiently.
“When one administration comes in and interprets a rule, then it is only undone by the next administration by interpreting that rule differently,” Taylor said.
Taylor also touted his legislation on data centers in Tennessee. He sponsored legislation that required data center owners to pay the full costs of electricity upgrades, instead of passing costs to residents.
Taylor slammed Pearson for voting against the legislation. Pearson has called for a 12-month temporary moratorium on data centers in Tennessee to study environmental impacts. Pearson’s campaign canceled an interview with The Center Square and did not respond to multiple requests to reschedule.
“I don’t think we need a national moratorium on data centers,” Taylor told The Center Square. “Data centers and the location of data centers needs to be left up to local governments. It’s the cities and the counties that know best to know their community best.”
The candidates have also divided over the Memphis Safe Task Force, a federal, state and local agency partnership to reduce crime in Memphis. The force made 13,000 arrests, seized 2,200 firearms and located nearly 190 missing children since September 2025, according to the U.S. Marshals Service.
“It’s important that Tennesseans who pay taxes have a government that protects them from the criminal element,” Taylor said.
Pearson criticized the deployment of the task force and said federal agents have disproportionately targeted Black residents in the city.
“This task force has been horrendous in our community and has hurt a lot of families,” Pearson said on social media. “We’ve had hundreds of thousands of people being stopped by the Tennessee Highway Patrol, several people who have now been killed, hundreds of families that have been separated, and communities that have been eternally shattered because of the actions of this task force.”
Taylor argued the actions of the task force have focused on criminals and allowed low-income residents in Memphis to live more safely.
“There are far more people who live in poverty that would never think of committing a crime,” Taylor said. “The root cause of crime was criminals, and when you arrest them and you put him in jail and you prosecute him and send him to prison, the crime rate goes down.”
Pearson has a fundraising lead over Taylor with $2.3 million in contributions and $844,000 in cash on hand. Taylor has $1.5 million in contributions and more than $417,000 in cash on hand, according to records from the Federal Election Commission.
Early voting begins on Oct. 14 and ends on Oct. 29. Polls are open in Tennessee from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. For more information, visit the Tennessee Secretary of State, at sos.tn.gov. For results on Election Day, visit thecentersquare.com/tennessee.
