This week, host Grant Callen went to the Mississippi State Capitol to sit down with Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, State Representative Trey Lamar. Chairman Lamar is the lead author of newly introduced House Bill 1, the “Build Up Mississippi Act”, which would eliminate the state’s income tax over ten years, reduce the sales tax on groceries, increase the general sales tax and fuel tax, and make other substantive changes to Mississippi’s tax code. With a goal of making Mississippi’s tax code the most economically competitive in the nation, Chairman Lamar shared why he wrote this bill and why he believes it’s such a transformational piece of legislation. Don’t miss this conversation! 

Capitol Chat returns as the 2025 session is underway! Check out what happened at the Mississippi state Capitol during the first week of the legislative session.

Empower Mississippi's 2025 Legislative Session Guide: https://empowerms.org/session-guide/

Happy New Year! The start of the 2025 Legislative Session is only six days away, so host Grant Callen sat down with Wil Ervin, Empower’s own Tim Russert, to break down what we can expect from the coming session. Tax reform, Medicaid expansion, ballot initiative, and school choice are all poised to dominate the conversation under the dome this year. Additionally, Wil shared about a new show we are bringing to the podcast called Capitol Chat. Hosted by Wil, with new episodes dropping every Friday afternoon, this short show will recap the highlights from the week at the Capitol. You will still get a longform interview from Grant every two weeks that releases on Wednesdays, and during the session, every Friday you will also get an episode of Capitol Chat to close out your week and keep you on top of all the latest happenings from your State Capitol. Tune in!

On Mississippi’s 207th birthday, Empower Mississippi hosted its 4th annual Solution Summit at the Sheraton Hotel in Flowood. At the Summit, host Grant Callen sat down with Mississippi’s 62nd Speaker of the House, Jason White, to discuss his vision for policy change and his 2025 legislative priorities. They talked about the new education funding formula, school choice, tax reform, healthcare, and criminal justice reforms that will make the state safer and help more people leaving prison find meaningful work. Speaker White discussed how he serves the two constituencies that elected him: his local house district and the other 121 members of the house who elected him Speaker.

After the Speaker interview, stay tuned for a 10-min bonus clip of Grant Callen’s opening remarks at the Solutions Summit. He shared some thoughts on what makes Mississippi so special, the progress that has been made, and a few indicators that more work must be done to make Mississippi the most free, prosperous, and opportunity-rich state in that nation. We hope you enjoy this special episode of The Empower Podcast.

On November 6, Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens, Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba, and Jackson Councilman Aaron Banks were indicted on federal bribery charges. A few months earlier, Jackson City Councilwoman Angelique Lee resigned from office and pled guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery.  In this episode host Grant Callen sat down with Jackson resident and attorney Spencer Ritchie to discuss these indictments, the charges they are facing, and the impact on the city. This is a dark day for Jackson, but also a season of hope as the city looks to elect a new leader in the spring of 2025. Tune in.

You are invited to the Empower Solutions Summit on December 10. Register today!

This week, host Grant Callen sat down with Alesha Judkins, Mississippi State Director at FWD.us to discuss Mississippi’s criminal justice system and our high imprisonment rate – the highest in the nation. Alesha has over 16 years of criminal justice advocacy in Mississippi and Alabama. Alesha and Grant discussed Alesha’s journey into advocacy, why she is passionate about criminal justice reform, and how her faith fuels her work. They discussed ways to improve public safety and decrease the number of people behind bars through reforms like presumptive parole, parole, expungement, and drug courts. They discussed ways of setting people up for success once they are released from prison, so they are more likely to become active members of their communities and not recidivate. They celebrated the progress that Mississippi lawmakers have made in recent years that have made Mississippi a model for reform and improved public safety. And they talked about some of the opportunities on the horizon in Mississippi to keep moving the needle in the right direction. Tune in!

This week, Empower’s Senior Vice President, Wil Ervin, took over the Empower Podcast and sat down with Lucien Smith to talk all things politics – from the 2024 national election to the Mississippi governor’s race and everything in between. Smith is certainly no stranger to Mississippi politics – he has served as a senior advisor for two governors, served as Chairman of the Mississippi Republican Party, and is currently a Government Relations Practice attorney in Jackson.

With the presidential election a week away, there was much to discuss – what’s going to happen in the 2024 election, who will be the 47th president of the United States, which party will control the House and Senate, what are the key states to watch, and how quickly can we expect to find out who won? In Mississippi politics, the 2027 governor’s race doesn’t seem that far away, and there’s a lot a speculation on who will be running when Tate Reeves’ tenure is up. Also, with the 2025 legislative session around the corner, what will be the big issues at the State Capitol? Wil and Lucien break down all the speculation and even mix in a little school choice in this week’s episode. Tune in!

This week, host Grant Callen sat down with columnist Bill Crawford to discuss his recently published book “A Republican’s Lament: Mississippi Needs Good Government Conservatives.”  Callen and Crawford talked about why Crawford got involved in Mississippi politics in the 1970s and the profound influence that G.V. "Sonny" Montgomery and Gil Carmichael had on Crawford’s political worldview. Crawford told stories about these two East Mississippi political giants and how their “Good Government Conservative” ideas continue to have influence long after both have passed. Crawford wrote this book as part personal memoir, but even more so, a memoir to the ideas that Gil Carmichael championed like the need for a new state constitution, a strengthened executive branch, government to be made more efficient and effective, and the need to build a more diverse Republican party. This conversation covered that and so much more. Tune In!

Show Notes:

For comments, questions, or guest ideas email us at: [email protected]

“A Republican’s Lament: Mississippi Needs Good Government Conservatives” https://www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/A/A-Republican-s-Lament

This week, we took the podcast on the road, recording in the beautiful Mississippi State Capitol. Host Grant Callen sat down with Mississippi’s 33rd Lieutenant Governor Delbert Hosemann to discuss all things related to work and the Magnolia State’s economy. Historic low employment, record private capital investment, billions paid off in debt, and a fully-funded rainy day fund are all worthy of celebration. Yet, despite all this growth, too many Mississippians still aren’t working, as indicated by the nation’s lowest labor force participation rate. Hosemann shared his ideas on causes and potential policy solutions that ran the gamut from education, to criminal justice reforms, to tax policy changes and more. Tune in!

Show Notes:

The topic of “work” has been in the news a lot lately since Mississippi has record low unemployment and the lowest labor force participation rate in the nation. So, this week host, Grant Callen sat down with author, David Bahnsen, to discuss his most recent book “Full-Time: Work and the Meaning of Life.” David makes the case that America is in a crisis of despair and much of that malaise is rooted in the reality that vast swaths of able-bodied adults have left the workforce. Nationally, the workforce participation rate for prime-aged men (aged 25-54) this last decade is lower than it was during the Great Depression, and it’s even worse in Mississippi. The sad reality is that during the Great Depression it was largely a problem of finding jobs, while today the issue is finding workers. This fast-paced conversation covered the importance of productive work to human flourishing, the benefits of work on the worker, changing cultural attitudes towards work, public policy implications, potential solutions for increasing labor force participation, and much more. Tune in! 

Show notes:

“Why Aren’t more Mississippians Working?”

David Bahnsen’s Book “Full- Time: Work and the Meaning of Life”