MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Justin J. Pearson is heading back to Nashville with family and plans to be sworn in to office Thursday morning.

Thursday morning at 5 a.m., a caravan of supporters were scheduled to leave for Nashville from the Planned Parenthood office on Poplar Avenue in Memphis.

Wednesday, a 7-0 vote by the Shelby County Commission sent the first-term Democrat back to the Tennessee District 86 House seat from which he was expelled. No Republican county commissioners showed up for the vote.

“A movement is rising. They tried to expel democracy. They tried to expel the people’s choice and the people’s vote. And they awakened a sleeping giant,” Pearson said to a cheering crowd outside the Shelby County building after the vote.

Pearson is the second of two Democrats who were expelled from the Tennessee House for their participation in a protest to be returned to office by local officials.

Rep. Justin Jones of Nashville was returned to his House seat Monday after a vote by the Nashville Metro Council.

Republicans, led by House Speaker Cameron Sexton, ousted the two representatives after they interrupted proceedings on the House floor to protest in favor of stricter gun control laws following a deadly shooting at a school in Nashville.