Ellington

Jimmy D. Giles kicked off Mississippi's federal campaign races by challenging fellow Republican U.S. Rep. Gregg Harper for the 3rd Congressional District.

Giles hopes to unseat Harper by staking out positions to the right of Harper, himself a staunch conservative, for the diagonal-shaped seat that covers central Mississippi, including parts of Jackson, as well as the cities of Starkville, Meridian and Natchez.

In a press release, Giles said his campaign focuses are "protecting our borders and ending trade deals that steal jobs from hard-working Mississippians," and he opposes "all Muslimification of our United States" and "will fight tirelessly to defund Planned Parenthood." Giles is known locally for driving around in a pickup truck with a huge Confederate flag on the back of it and previously ran for the same seat, campaigning based on the need for a "white nation."

Giles was born in Jackson and grew up in Clinton. He played football at Clinton High School and received an athletic scholarship to go to Mississippi State University, where he received a bachelor's degree in business and master's degree in business administration. His website says he also earned a French degree from Sorbonne University in Paris. After college, Giles worked for IBM on Madison Avenue in New York City as a systems engineer. He traveled back to Europe to work for Converse in Germany. During his time there, the Berlin Wall came down. Today, he lives on his grandparents' 10 acres of land called Giles Shire in Rankin County and is a beekeeper and raw honey vendor.

His anti-Muslim and pro-Mississippi flag stances notwithstanding, Giles considers himself a populist who can appeal to members of all races. For example, he called Harper and the Mississippi GOP "modern-day plantation owners only interested in cheap labor."

"To Gregg Harper and his elitist pals, Mississippi is nothing but a plantation to get rich off of," Giles said in the release. "Gregg Harper sells out Mississippi's blacks and whites by giving good-paying jobs away to Mexicans. ... Gregg Harper bends to Obama's agenda to make America look more Muslim by funding Obama's Syrian refugee program. Quite simply, that is treason. And it is time for Mississippi to stand up to this treason instead of funding it."

In addition to his three campaign platforms, Giles said in the release that he will also advocate for the free market, a strong military, and better care for veterans and their families. He is also determined to keep the Confederate battle emblem in the Mississippi state flag.

"Fundamentally, I affirm my affection and love for Mississippi's first and only flag of 1894 and support Initiative 58 to imbed our flag in the Mississippi Constitution, out of reach from traitors in the Mississippi Legislature," Giles said in the release. "And I call upon Gregg Harper to be a man and actually state his position on Mississippi's first and only flag. If Gregg Harper will cave on immigration, abortion, Syria and our flag, will he stand up to Obama on GUNS???"

Giles also endorsed Donald Trump for this year's election and echoed Trump's campaign slogan.

"Please join me in my effort to Make America Great Again by voting for me and Donald Trump, who I endorse for President of the United States of America. And I ask humbly in return that Donald Trump endorse my working class campaign. I am the working poor, and America is in decline, about to slip over the precipice, and we need a president as big as our fears and as strong as our adversaries—and only one man has demonstrated that strength, Donald Trump. We need a new kind of president and new leaders in Congress truly representative of the people to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!" he said in the release.

Giles will hold a press conference at 10 a.m. on Jan. 11 at the Confederate monument on the south steps of the Mississippi State Capitol to announce his challenge against Harper.