By John Howell Sr.

Mississippi 1st District Congressman Travis Childers visited Batesville Friday, combining a campaign swing with personal visits and remarks to the student body at the Finch-Henry Job Corps Center.

Childers told Job Corps students about his background — that his father had died when Childers was 16, leaving him, his mother and a younger sister.

“All of a sudden my mother, me and my little sister were left like many of you have experienced,” Childers said. He said that his mother took a job at a local factory and he went to work full-time after school at a convenience store.

“You’ve taken the first step to a better life by getting an education,” he told the FHJCC students.

Childers faces a re-election challenge Nov. 2 from Republican nominee Allen Nunnlee, three independents, including Wally Pang of Batesville, and three candidates from third parties.

In a brief interview following his remarks, Childers described himself as a “pro-life, conservative Democrat in the tradition of Jamie Whitten and Sonny Montgomery.”

The incumbent Congressman defended his support of the economic stimulus package in the context of its presentation: “They were talking soup kitchens; doing nothing was not an option,” he said.

“Almost 40 percent (of the stimulus package) was tax cuts for middle class tax payers,” Childers continued.

He said that he opposed cuts to education and attempts to cut back mental health care in Mississippi. “To talk about closing those hospitals is an absolute disgrace,” said Childers, who was a six-term Chancery Clerk in Prentiss County before his election to Congress.

Childers described people needing mental health treatment as “the most vulnerable in our society. We should be honored to take care of those people.”