Horhn came in like a wrecking ball, landslide brings Lumumba down

• State Senator John Horhn defeated incumbent Chokwe Antar Lumumba to win the Democratic Primary for Jackson Mayor. Horhn captured nearly 75 percent of the vote in a clear repudiation of Lumumba.

At the Battle of Guagamela, Alexander the Great decimated 250,000 Persians. A century later, Hannibal’s Carthaginians routed the Romans at Cannae. On Christmas Day 1776, George Washington crossed the Delaware and sacked a Hessian encampment to turn the tide of the American Revolution.

And on Tuesday night in Jackson, voters delivered State Senator John Horhn an equally lopsided victory over embattled Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba. Whether it signals a turning of the tide for Mississippi’s Capital City, time will tell.

Horhn received 18,493 votes (74.75%) to Lumumba’s 6,246 votes (25.25%) in the runoff. His success comes after three previous attempts for mayor, including one against Lumumba, failed.

In the lead up to Tuesday’s runoff, Lumumba surrogates attempted to paint Horhn as beholden to white Republicans. The race pedaling flopped, in part because of endorsements from black Democrat leaders like Congressman Bennie Thompson, Mike Espy, and Willie Simmons. But in larger part because the demand for good government at the local level transcends race or party.

It turns out people want to drive down their street without fear of a bent rim. They want to go out at night without fear of being robbed or killed. They want their water to be clean and their trash to be picked up. And they want to know that the politicians they elect represent the people’s interests and not their own.

On Tuesday night, black people, white people, Republicans and Democrats came together to take their city back from an administration that lost their confidence. They rejected lofty rhetoric that yielded poor results. And they rejected ridiculous contortions meant to distract from the stench of alleged corruption.

It was a clear repudiation of Lumumba and an equally clear demand for change.

Horhn is the beneficiary of the moment. The election in June is a formality. The whole city of Jackson selected its new mayor Tuesday night. If he is smart, the new mayor will govern the way he ran — as a consensus builder and someone interested in representing all of Jackson. He’ll focus on the blocking and tackling of core municipal functions.

Along those lines, Horhn sought to mend fences with Lumumba Tuesday night, acknowledging disagreement, but also common goals. In his victory speech, Horhn argued the election presented an opportunity for the city to come together.

“It’s ready to unify itself, all quarters, all wards, all subdivisions, all neighborhoods coming together to make Jackson the kind of city we all want it to be,” Horhn said.

Mississippi needs and deserves a strong Capital City. Our Capital City needs a Mississippi that cares about its survival. Competence will invite confidence, and confidence will invite investment. The hard work starts today.

Meanwhile, for Lumumba, he leaves office with a firm rebuke from voters. In his concession speech Tuesday night, the outgoing mayor made a point to push back on allegations he participated in a bribery scandal that has rocked Jackson in recent months. It’s hard to quantify the impact of Lumumba’s indictment on the election. But only a fool would deny its part. On Tuesday night, Lumumba lost a key point of leverage that could have been used in a plea deal with federal prosecutors — his office.