By Bobby Harrison
Travis Childers left his lifetime hometown of Booneville at 4 a.m. on this particular day to travel first to central Mississippi and then on to the southwest corner of the state to campaign for the United States Senate.
The 56-year-old Prentiss County Democrat is considered a heavy underdog against six-term Republican U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran in the Nov. 4 general election. But based on Childers' travel schedule for this particular day, he isn't giving up.
Childers' day included meeting with three newspaper editorial boards, making campaign stops to shake hands at locations where voters might be found, such as the Warren County Courthouse in Vicksburg, and attending a meeting of Mississippi supervisors in Natchez.
Plus, Childers, who served nearly three years in the U.S. House before being upended by Republican Alan Nunnelee of Tupelo in 2010, took time to attend a luncheon in his honor held by Women for Travis at the Mississippi Agriculture Museum.
There, Childers spent time making small talk, and made a point to seek out Elzena Johnson of Terry, who had just celebrated her 100th birthday.
After the crowd of about 40 went through the buffet line where fried chicken, corn, green beans and other Southern staples are served, Childers interspersed his life's story into his discussion of the issues.
But before he spoke, Vicki Slater, a Jackson attorney, told the crowd she supports Childers because he supports the Paycheck Fairness Act, which she said will protect a woman from being fired for asking an employer if she is making less money than her male counterpart who is doing the same job.
Childers told the crowd he supports pay equity for women because of his mother, who had to work two jobs to support her family after Childers' father died when he was 16.
Childers went on to relate his support for an increase in the minimum wage to his life's experiences.
"I can tell you what it is like to struggle," he said. "I can tell you what it is like to work for minimum wage."
Childers spoke of working the evening shift at a Booneville convenience store while still in school and coming home and having to discuss with his mother whether to pay the house mortgage or the electric bill. He said in past campaigns opposition research has pointed out he had been late on paying some financial commitments earlier in his life.
"I said if they had looked back further they would have found a lot more," he told the predominantly female audience.
Childers attributes public education, including at Northeast Mississippi Community College in Booneville before earning a degree from the University of Mississippi, for any success he has had in his life. He and his wife, the former Tami Gibson, a New Site native, own a real estate company and other business ventures.
"I am a product of public education," he proclaimed proudly, adding to applause that it should be fully funded every year, not just in election years.
Later at the Warren County Courthouse in Vicksburg, Ben Herring of Canton, who is Childers' driver and responsible for having him at his committed events on time, got antsy as the candidate spent considerable time relating stories with Warren County Chancery Clerk Donna Farris Hardy. Before being elected to Congress in 2010, Childers spent 16 years as chancery clerk of Prentiss County.
Later, in the courthouse hall, Childers introduced himself to a woman, who told him he was the topic of their lunch conversation. He said he hopes it was positive and she assured him it was before introducing him to some other people.
Soon after, Childers stopped a man wearing work clothes, with long hair and an arm covered in tattoos, and asked for his support.
"How are you on the 2nd Amendment?" the man asked.
"I am pro-gun," Childers said to an accommodating nod from the man as they both went their separate ways.
The life experiences he recounted at the luncheon shape his thinking as a Democrat touting such issues as equal pay for women and a minimum wage increase, which are issues supported with near unanimity by Democrats across the nation campaigning this year. But those same life experiences, Childers would argue, gleaned in Prentiss County, would reveal why he would answer without hesitation in the Warren County Courthouse that he is pro-gun, or anti-gay marriage or anti-abortion.
"I am a William Winter Democrat," Childers told the women.
Outside of the Warren County Courthouse, Childers eyed the older Courthouse Museum across the street, saying how much he would like to visit the building to look at the Civil War artifacts and other history of Warren County.
Herring, looking at his watch, got nervous. But Childers looked toward his car, jumped in and was off to the next stop to relate his life experiences and how he wants to bring them to the United States Senate.
"I am the candidate for the working men and women of this state," he said.