STARKVILLE, Miss., — The Advanced Placement Government & Politics class invited former United States Representative Travis Childers to discuss about his time in office.  

Childers served as a U.S. representative in District one from May 13, 2008, to January 3, 2011. Childers spoke to the class about the many obstacles he had to overcome during his time in office. He said it was difficult to run as a Democratic representative in a Republican majority district. He had to keep the goals of both his party and his district in mind while voting on policies. He said one of the most difficult bills he had to vote on was the Medicare act.  

Caleb Edelblute is a student in the AP Government & Politics class. He feels Childers gave a good perspective of politics to the class. 

“I enjoyed listening to Mr. Travis. He made it clear that he was here to give us good information on politics and made sure not to try to change our political views,” Edelblute said. “He gave a lot of good insight and stories about his experiences with politics.”  

Childers said raising funds for his campaigns was his least favorite part of his time in office. Childers also talked to the class about the many interest groups he worked for. He said these interest groups provided funds for his campaign in exchange for him introducing bills to higher-up politicians.  

Gavin Gilbert is the AP Government & Politics teacher. He thinks having a guest speaker with such a big insight on politics will help his students understand future concepts.  

“Representative Childers was great at talking about terms and concepts that we have upcoming in AP GoPo. He gave examples of raising money for elections, pork barrel legislature, and log rolling,” Gilbert said.  

Gilbert said all three of these terms and concepts play a big role in the AP GoPo course as students continue to dig into the workings of the political system.  

“I plan to use the stories of Representative Childers when we cover these concepts to help my students be able to fully understand them.”