MDOT presents The Extra Mile Podcast Legislative Session.

(Paul) Welcome in to another episode of The Extra Mile Podcast: Legislative Session presented by the Mississippi Department of Transportation. We are inching closer and closer to saying Sine Die but we’re not there yet so we’ve got another great guest for you today another veteran of the Mississippi State Senate. We have Senator John Horhn. He took office in 1993. Senator Horhn represents District 26 which includes Hinds and Madison Counties. Senator Horhn, Thank you so much for joining us here today.

(Senator Horhn) Thank you, Paul. It’s great to be here.

(Will) We appreciate you very much. Senator, let’s get to know you a little bit. Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got involved in politics and kind of how you got to where you are now.

(Senator Horn) Well, I blame it all on my father I guess. My Dad was a labor union leader. He was the second black president of a labor union in the state of Mississippi. He rose to become the number two guy at the state AFLCIO. But along the way he also became enamored with the work of A. Phillip Randolph. Mr. Randolph was a great leader. Two things. He got a union contract for the porter car workers on the railroad and it helped to enable those guys to really get better pay and do better for their families. The second thing that he did was really amazing is he was the architect and the engineer for the March on Washington in 1963.

He spoke at the event but he was responsible for all of the logistics that were necessary. Because the people couldn’t stay in certain hotels as they were traveling to Washington. They couldn’t eat at certain restaurants. There were certain gas stations you wanted to avoid. And he laid out the map of all that. My dad was very enamored with his work. He was more of a behind the scenes guy and that’s kind of like my dad. But early in the late 60s, early 70s he started to get involved in voter education, voter participation and got me involved in that at a very early age. Even before I was able to vote myself. I was helping people to register to vote. And that had an impact on me.

Fast forward. I had a good career in state government. And I was involved as the program manager for the arts commission and then became the state film commissioner so I had the best job in the state. It was work to bring movies in to be filmed on location here. Great job. It was the best job in the state and still is I think.

(Will) We’ll have to hear more about that. Yeah.

(Senator Horhn) Then I became head of federal state programs for Governor Mabus. I was the signatory for all of the federal funds that came into the state under the governor’s signature and then I followed that and became state tourism director.

(Will) You’ve seen some things.

(Senator Horhn) I’ve traveled Mississippi. Let me just say that. Probably better than most folks. If there’s one thing I would say to folks that we need to do more of as Mississippians is to travel our state. It’s a wonderful state very beautiful and we have a lot of history and culture in the state that people ought to benefit from. But a lot of us really don’t know Mississippi. We stay in our own little area generally don’t travel to Oxford, Clarksdale or down to Natchez or the Gulf Coast. Probably the Gulf Coast is the one exception. Everybody seems to want to go to the Gulf Coast. But going to Meridian down to Taylorsville or looking at all of the historical and cultural things that are in the state. I think it’s very important to build state pride.

But anyway after I got through with tourism I was actually working for Governor Mabus and then Fordice came in. He defeated him. I worked for that administration for about three months before we separated. There was redistricting going on at that time and I tried to get my Dad to run and he said, “I was going to say the same thing about you.” And so it came down to me. And I’ve been fortunate to be the senator for the past 30 years.

(Will) That’s a tradition. Your dad definitely brought you into it.

(Senator Horhn) No doubt. No doubt.

(Will) Absolutely.

(Senator Horhn) He’s six feet and a half inch tall. And I have an older brother and a younger brother and they’re considerably taller than I am. So I tell everybody I got his community service genes. I didn’t get the height genes.

(Will) You drew the short straw.

(Senator Horhn) I sure did. You’re quick on your feet today, Will.

(Will) Sometimes.

(Paul) There you go. Senator Horhn, we’re gonna talk about a variety of topics today but this is MDOT you know transportation podcast so we do kinda want to ask you about the importance of transportation. Also you know do you see any challenges that we have in the state of Mississippi as we try to advance transportation infrastructure in the state?

(Senator Horhn) Well, I’ll just say this, Paul. I’ve dedicated myself in my 30-year tenure thus far towards economic development a small business development in particular but economic development in general because we have to have more of it in Mississippi. And one of the critical components to having great economic development is great arteries of moving of people goods and services through the state. So the highway program, the road and bridge program, the things that we do with interstate commerce via the air. Our ports are all very important. And we really need to do more to put resources into those programs. It’s critical to our future growth and development.

(Paul) Absolutely and I know you have a little bit of a technology background. We wanted to bring up EV’s and autonomous vehicles. Any thoughts on that?

(Senator Horhn) We actually are gonna have a bill to come up in a couple of minutes in the senate on the managing the difference between a dealer and a manufacturer and it’s all focused on EV vehicles. There are a lot of companies that are doing EV’s. They want to skirt going through dealerships in the state and sell direct to the consumer. And some might say that’s a good thing. Others are saying that it’s not such a good thing because it may destroy the infrastructure of dealers throughout the state and impact whether they can stay in business or not.

But I think EV vehicles especially in the environment we find ourselves in with the Ukranian, Russian debacle that we are seeing more of a need as a country to go independent in terms of how we use and generate energy whether it’s for our vehicles or otherwise. But particularly our transportation the carbon footprint that we have is much too high. We’ve got to lower it and EV vehicles is certainly one of the ways we can do that.

(Will) That’s absolutely right. You talking about some of these issues that come up in legislation. You are on the chair of labor committee and vice chair of tourism. Any of these issues ever come up in your committee specifically or something relating to these?

(Senator Horhn) No. Not really. I mean tourism of course we’re very supportive of transportation programs there because it gets most of our visitors in on our highways and byways. And we probably need to do more in the way of development of scenic byways in the state. A lot of states have benefited from creating more scenic byways. But we really don’t in general get a lot of bills dealing with tourism or labor.

(Will) Sure. What’s going on in Labor Committee these days? I know we got the deadline coming up today as a matter of fact.

(Senator Horhn) Well, we had several bills that we had in the committee but we’re in a super Republican majority in the Senate and in the House. And some of the bills most of the bills actually have come to the labor committee are such that knowing my colleagues and knowing the process didn’t have a whole a lot of chance of getting through the process so we just let them stay in committee.

(Will) Gotcha. Anything that’s really important to you legislative wise that’s working through right now?

(Senator Horhn) Well as it relates to transportation I’m really interested in Highland Commerce Drive. And what is that you say? It’s a new road, a new concept in southern Madison County that would provide for a new connector road between Lake Harbor and looping around to Highland Colony Parkway which would wind up opening a whole lot more property that should have been developed a long time ago. And the most important factor of that is a good portion of the land that would be needed to do the road flows to land owned by Tougaloo College and as an HBCU they struggle financially and I think that this could be a great source of revenue and income for them where they could put that land that they’re holding on to so desperately to work for the institution and become an income generator.

(Will) That’s right. Increase some value for that.

(Senator Horhn) Absolutely. Absolutely. And I want to thank MDOT for all the work they’re doing in Hinds and Madison Counties. There’s been tremendous growth in Madison County particularly in the central and southern part of the county. And a lot of that has been fueled by support from MDOT to put new roads and bridges in places where they hadn’t been before. And it’s opened up all sorts of commerce.

I want to commend senator I’m sorry former senator and now Commissioner Simmons for the work that he’s been doing to try to keep our roads and byways and highways, interstates free of litter in the capital city and keeping the grass cut. Previously we were challenged by not having as much attention paid to the cleanliness and grass cutting in our capital city. And since he’s been commissioner we’ve seen a great improvement on that.

The litter is another story. I mean you can spend five hundred thousand, a million dollars in a week’s time to clean up all the stuff and two days later it’s back. We’ve got to do more to encourage the citizens not to do that not to litter and to see it to really view it as an economic development issue. When people come to Mississippi they don’t need to see a lot of trash and garbage on our roads and byways and they do. And it reflects negatively on us as a community and on our attractiveness for being able to draw in more businesses. It has a really direct impact on that and I wish we could stop it and end it forever.

(Will) I wish we had the answer to that.

(Paul) No doubt. No doubt. Senator Horhn, you mentioned a project earlier but are there any other projects in District 26 that you specifically want to shout out or have on your mind these days?

(Senator Horhn) You know the rehab of Highway 49 in Hinds County that’s on the like part of a central artery that runs through the heart of Jackson ending at five points before its diverted and picks up on 49 south going towards Richland. But that project that we are doing for Medgar Evers Drive slash US 49 is a very important project. MDOT has put about eight million dollars into the program to do repaving. We just got word that we’ve got 25 million dollar grant from the federal government to make the improvements all the way to five points from I think Countyline Road and that’s going to really enhance what we’re trying to do in the development of the Medgar and Myrlie Evers national monument which is at the Evers family home. And so as we get ready to attract the visitors to that site we want them to have a smooth ride there and from. So this money and these resources are gonna really help that.

(Will) That’s an overdue project right there. It’s been needing some attention. I would certainly agree. You mentioned your committees and our now Commissioner Simmons. Did you work with him much back in the day in the senate?

(Senator Hohrn) Oh yeah. Yeah. Okay. We were desk mates. And for almost 30 years we either desk mates or aisle mates. We were either right across the aisle from one another or right beside one another.

(Will) So you had to see him even if he didn’t

(Senator Horhn) Even if I didn’t want to. But I commend Commissioner Simmons. He’s a great leader. He’s a visionary. And he has done a whole lot to help the State of Mississippi. And as a senator especially when he was chairman of the highways commission committee rather and also in his new role as commissioner of central district.

(Paul) No doubt. And you know we’re going to ask you a couple of fun questions for you get out of here. I just want to ask you know you’re a Jackson State graduate. You want to give a shout out to Coach Prime? It seems like he’s doing a lot for the university over there.

(Will) Some toes amputated yesterday I believe.

(Senator Horhn) Yeah and I just heard that this morning also so we wish him well on a speedy recovery of his operation. This guy has done more for the state of Mississippi in the shortest period of time than anybody I’ve ever seen. He’s impacted folk’s thoughts about HBUCs and whether as an athlete I can go to an HBCU and still have a professional career and still development my prowess to get it in as a professional in my sport in the national football league. He’s also done more to lift the profile of the City of Jackson and the State of Mississippi in general. And we should probably make him an ambassador for the state of Mississippi because he does a great job.

(Will) Even if it’s informally I think he already is.

(Senator Horhn) You know you’re right. You’re right. The way he’s been able to attract blue chip athletes. The way he’s been able to put up a winning spirit once again and in one season. I mean we had the first season which was during the pandemic which the non-season as far as I’m concerned. But to amass the record that he did in this shorter period of time as he’s done is just amazing. And he’s been putting butts in seats and that also says a whole lot about his abilities.

(Paul) No doubt. No doubt.

(Will) Some of those images of the stadium completely packed I mean that’s incredible.

(Senator Horhn) Yeah.

(Paul) It’s so cool.

(Will) As many times as I’ve been to that stadium for different things.

(Senator Horhn) He’s actually given us a dilemma though because prior to his arrival there I think that no one thought that we would go back to the days of the seventies and eighties when Jackson State regularly packed the stadium. And he’s given folks new hope and new vigor. But he’s given us a dilemma because as legislators we’ve been trying to figure out how we can build Jackson State a 30,000 seat stadium. And he’s packing it out at 58,000 thousand. So we got a problem.

(Will) Yeah. Some of those pictures are just crazy. I mean I haven’t seen a stadium that packed in a while.

(Paul) Absolutely. I went to the first game there. I guess it was in the spring. It was a sight to see. It’s great to have Coach Prime in Jackson.

(Will) Well, sir. You spend a lot of time traveling the roads as you mentioned. I know you got to eat so if there’s any is there a spot that anytime you’re in the area maybe even back home in the district or somewhere not in the district around the state anytime you’re in the area you’ve got to make a plan. You’ve got to stop by?

(Senator Horhn) The Mahogany Bar down in Hattiesburg.

(Will) That’s right.

(Senator Horhn) Yes. I always have it as my halfway point to stop and get some of that gumbo and the Cajun style food that they offer there. I also love the Purple Parrot the more upscale version. You know Robert St. John should also be a saint in Mississippi declared saint because I was with him last week. We had a tourism summit and the Mississippi Tourism Association day at the capitol. And I just said, “Look man, I’m going to rub up on you because you got the Midas touch. Let me just get some of that. Hopefully it’ll rub off on me.” But anytime I go to Oxford there are any number of restaurants on the square that I like to patronize. If you go up into Clarksdale, you can’t go to Clarksdale, you can’t go to Greenville without getting some hot tamales.

(Will) Absolutely.

(Senator Horhn) And the original Doe’s is still the best Doe’s out of Greenville. Doe’s Eat Shop where you go into the back door, you walk through the kitchen to get to your table and it’s a great experience.

(Will) You leave hungry, it’s your fault.

(Senator Horhn) It’s your fault. Well they got that big ole steak that I don’t know how many ounces it is. It’s at least 20 ounces and they say if you finish it it’s free. But they rarely have to give anybody a free meal because you can’t finish it.

(Will) Have to wheel me out afterwards.

(Paul) Oh no doubt. Well I’m just going to go ahead and after asking this question all legislative session I’m just going to go ahead and declare Mississippi the best food state in the country. Oh we got another great answer from you as well.

(Senator Horhn) You know someone once asked Morgan Freeman, “You can live anywhere in the world and yet you live in Mississippi. Why is that?” He said, “Because I can live anywhere in the world I live in Mississippi.”

(Will) That’s right.

(Senator Horhn) And he said the food alone is reason enough to stay here.

(Paul) Oh he’s right on there. Well, Senator Horhn, we really appreciate you stopping by and talking to us today. I know there’s a lot going on as we head towards the end of the session. We’re gonna go ahead and wrap things up. We want to thank our producer Katey Hornsby, our editor Drew Hall. We haven’t done that in a few weeks so give them a shout out.

We also want to thank our listeners out there for listening to the Extra Mile Podcast. And remember you can download and subscribe the podcast wherever podcasts can be found. You can also watch each episode. Just search Mississippi Department of Transportation on YouTube. And remember to follow us on Facebook and Twitter. The handle is @MississippiDOT. And as always remember to drive smart out there on Mississippi highways.