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Lobbyist Profile: Jay Hahn

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Jay Hahn, 28, was following a fairly typical path to his current job as a contract lobbyist and Director of Government Relations for the Missouri Optometric Association.

By May of 2008, Hahn was a graduate of Missouri State University with a degree in political science. He had just finished his first legislative session as an intern for then-state Sen. Delbert Scott, who — at the time of his retirement — was the longest running elected official in the Capitol.

Jay Hahn
Jay Hahn

“I’ve always looked up to Sen. Scott, he was a true statesman as a lawmaker,” Hahn said. “He wads kind and generous to everyone and he was totally committed to his constituents.”

The plan, Hahn said, was to go to law school, as many of his fellow interns and political science graduates intended. But then, something happened — Hahn got offered a job.

“A friend of mine came to me and told me that an association was looking to make some big changes and bring in some new people,” Hahn said. “So he told me I should express some interest and I did, and I was more or less hired on the spot.”

The association was the Missouri Optometric Association and Hahn was hired, barely a week after his graduation, as their new director of government relations.

“I always intended to go to law school and it will always be on the table for me,” Hahn said. “But I basically walked off the graduation stage and got a job offer and I’ve had some really wonderful chances since then to do the kind of work that has always fascinated me.

Like most in his profession, Hahn said he was always a political junkie who wanted to be involved in public policy. Lobbying, he said, always seemed like the ideal profession. Hahn values friendships and said maintaining relationships has been both personally and professionally rewarding.

For optometrists, Hahn spends his time making sure his association is engaged in conversations affecting their profession, like scope of practice laws or changes to the state’s Medicaid program. Hahn helped move the Missouri Children’s Vision law across the finish line and, after its sunset in 2012, is looking for a new way to resurrect it.

When he isn’t working for Missouri’s optometrists, Hahn works as a contract lobbyist on a wide array of issues. Young and ambitious, Hahn’s reputation as a charming pragmatist makes him a valuable hire.

Hahn spends much of his free time as expected, maintaining relationships with staffers in both chambers and on both sides of the aisle, Hahn’s free time is often funneled into his other great love: aviation.

Hahn completed his private pilot’s license during 2011 and leases a Piper four-seater prop plane. His love of planes and the air led him to start his own non-profit organization, Wings Over Missouri, which is aimed at getting more Missouri citizens involved in aviation.

“Flying is something that isn’t my work that I really put myself into,” Hahn said. “For the most part I think my personal life is the same as any late 20-something with certain interests, but flying is probably one of the more unique things about me.”

Finding work like Hahn did isn’t possible for everyone. Hahn says it was a combination of “hard work and pure luck,” that got him to where is he today, and advises young people interested in Missouri politics to stay “permanently engaged,” the in the process.

“You have to always be apart of the discussion,” Hahn said. “Find a way to always be engaged in the process and in what is being said. The best thing about this job is it gives me the ability to positively affect public policy, and for that to happen I have to be involved. If you’re not on the table, you’re probably on the menu.”