Written by Taelor Aebi
Taking political matters into his own hands, Harding graduate student Nicholas Horton is running for City Council in Searcy. Horton is running for a position in Ward 1 and will likely take on republican incumbent Mary Ann Arnett in the May election.
Horton says he developed his love for politics at a young age when he served time on the Searcy Youth Council. The program started by former mayor, David Evans, selected students from each school to spend one day a month with city hall, the fire department, and Searcy police.
“It’s really something I’d like to see the city go back to,” Horton said. “It made a difference in my life. It got me interested in local politics and local happenings, and I think that’s something we need in our community more and more.”
In addition to his early political experience Horton spent much of his time at Harding working for the College Republicans club. As vice chairman of the club during the 2008 election cycle, he did a lot of campaigning for local and national candidates. He spent one term in the spring as the chairman for the club and was elected to a second term this fall, but he has since stepped down to focus on his campaign for City Council.Horton graduated from Harding University in July with a bachelor’s degree of science of public administration. He is now in graduate school at Harding pursuing a master’s degree in business administration and management.
