House Minority Leader Robert Johnson delivered the Democrat response to Monday’s State of the State address.
Below is a transcript provided by Johnson’s staff. To watch the Democratic response in its entirety, scroll to the bottom of the article.
Good Evening, I’m Rep. Robert Johnson, Democratic Leader in the Mississippi House of Representatives.
At his inauguration, Gov. Reeves kicked off his second term with a speech centered on how he’d strive to be a governor for “all Mississippi.” He told us that there is “no black Mississippi or white Mississippi. There is no red Mississippi or blue Mississippi,” while he outlined a vision for his second term that, frankly, belied his entire career in public office.
But after a contentious election cycle, and with Mississippi’s big problems not going anywhere – and many getting worse – it was a welcome message. Since then, however, we’ve watched the governor go right back to what we’ve come to expect from him – red-meat rhetoric and a refusal to confront the very real problems facing our state.
Tonight you heard from a governor who only wants you to hear one side of the story. Because for every economic development project the governor celebrates, our employment rate remains stagnant.
For every corporate handout we dole out for one of those projects, our schools remain underfunded by billions of dollars.
And for every politically-motivated “plan” to address the hospital crisis, hundreds of thousands of working Mississippians are still without access to healthcare.
A real leader doesn’t see telling the full story as a problem, because a real leader knows being honest isn’t a weakness; it’s a necessity. Embracing the complexities of a situation, engaging in earnest debate, collaborating with experts and advocates – that’s what a leader does. Simply saying “no” isn’t policymaking. Deflection and distraction isn’t leadership.
Leadership looks like what Gov. Reeves claimed he was working toward in his inaugural address. But unfortunately, you can’t just say you’re a governor for all Mississippi. You have to show it. And Gov. Reeves’ actions speak much louder than his words.
In the six weeks
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