They Silenced a Good Man — And the Media Let Them
By Mike Sparks
On April 8, 2020, while most of America was locked down and distracted by a pandemic, 41 people got on a teleconference call and ended a good man’s political career. No voters. No trial. Just 41 party insiders and a muted microphone — Yes, it was the Tennessee Democrat Party.
Proverbs 11:3 says the integrity of the upright guides them. John DeBerry lived that. His own party punished him for it.
The Crime of Voting Your Conscience
John DeBerry didn’t change. That’s the remarkable part of this story. He didn’t wake up one morning and decide to become someone different. He voted pro-life because he believed in life. He supported school choice because he believed poor children in Memphis deserved the same opportunities as wealthy ones. He voted his faith. He voted his upbringing. He voted his conscience.
In his own words: “I voted my conscience, I voted my beliefs, I voted my upbringing, I voted my faith — and I was penalized for it.”
For that, they took his name off the ballot.
Think about that for a moment. This wasn’t a recall election. The voters of District 90 didn’t rise up and demand his removal. Forty-one party insiders — sitting behind closed doors on a teleconference — decided that 26 years of service, 12 of them as a committee chairman, didn’t matter. One committee member actually said DeBerry wasn’t “exemplifying the basic Democratic principles.”
Basic Democratic principles. In 2020. Meaning: fall in line or get out.
The Media’s Comfortable Silence
Now here’s where I want to ask a hard question. If the Republican Party had removed a 26-year Black legislator — a pastor, a civil rights witness, a man of impeccable character — from a primary ballot because he didn’t vote the right way on abortion or school vouchers, what would the headlines have looked like?
You know the answer. It would have been wall-to-wall coverage. Think pieces. Outrage. Cable news panels. The full weight of the national media descending on Nashville.
But when the Democrats did it to John DeBerry?
… Crickets.
A few local outlets covered it. WPLN. The Commercial Appeal. But the national narrative never caught fire. The story that deserved to be told — a Black pastor with a spotless record being purged from his own party for believing what millions of Americans believe — never got the oxygen it deserved.
That’s not journalism. That’s choosing sides.
The Man They Couldn’t Break
What strikes me most about John DeBerry is what he didn’t do. He didn’t grovel. He didn’t apologize for his beliefs. He didn’t beg the party to take him back. His statement after the vote was as dignified as the man himself:
“The Tennessee Democratic Party has decided that a 26-year representative that spent 12 years as a committee chairman, conducted himself with integrity, served the party well, sponsored meaningful legislation and built bridges across the aisle to get bills passed — is no longer a Democrat. And so, I’m not.”
That’s a man who knows who he is.
Republican legislators — from the opposing party — actually changed state election law so DeBerry could run as an independent. Let that sink in. The people willing to fight for John DeBerry’s right to appear on a ballot were the Republicans. His own party locked the door.
He ran as an independent in November 2020 and lost. Governor Bill Lee, a Republican, immediately brought him on as a senior advisor — recognizing the value of a man his former party had discarded.
What This Should Mean to All of Us
I’ve been in public service for a long time. I understand that politics is a contact sport. But there are lines. And what the Tennessee Democratic Party did to John DeBerry crossed one.
They didn’t defeat him at the polls. They didn’t let the voters decide. They removed him before the voters ever got the chance to speak — because he refused to abandon his faith-driven convictions on life and education.
If we believe in democracy, we should be troubled by that — regardless of party.
And if we believe in a free press, we should be equally troubled by the silence that followed.
John DeBerry deserved better from his party. He deserved better from the media. The people of District 90 deserved the right to vote for the man who had served them for 26 years.
Instead, 41 people in a room made that decision for them.
That’s not democracy. That’s control.
And when the press goes quiet about control — that’s when the rest of us need to speak up the loudest.
