Former Lott Aide Sticks Close to Mississippi Roots in D.C.
Washington, D.C., is more than 1,000 miles from W. Louis Hengen Jr.’s home in Biloxi, Miss., yet he has never really left home.
The newest member of Balch & Bingham’s government relations group and a former high school and college student-body vice president, Hengen said politics and policy have always energized him.
“I sort of had natural instincts of enjoying politics and policy and that led me to Washington,” Hengen said. “Like a lot of people, I didn’t expect that I would be in Washington as long as I’ve been here.”
But for the 33-year-old lobbyist who began his career in the office of former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., politics and family ties run through his blood. His father worked on Lott’s first congressional campaign in 1972, and all three were members of the Sigma Nu fraternity at the University of Mississippi. Hengen said Balch & Bingham, the 91-year-old law firm and lobbying group, felt like home.
Roll Call
8/12/13
Magnolia Tribune
