TUPELO – Hundreds of supporters packed the Tupelo Furniture Market on Monday for the much-anticipated congressional campaign announcement of state Sen. Alan Nunnelee, R-Tupelo.

It was the second of three such announcements made Monday by Nunnelee; the others were in Southaven and Columbus.

Nunnelee, 52, wants to unseat U.S. Rep. Travis Childers, D-Miss., a Democrat who has held the 1st District position since winning a special election in 2008.

While never referring to Childers by name, the candidate criticized the congressman’s voting record as being too liberal for the people of north Mississippi.

“Our congressman will say that he is independent,” Nunnelee told the crowd. “In fact, when he is in Mississippi, he says he’s conservative and when he is in Washington he says he’s a moderate. All I know is that he votes with Nancy Pelosi 82 percent of the time, and he votes for her 100 percent of the time.”

Pelosi, D-Calif., is the Democratic speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

The remark won Nunnelee a round of applause from the crowd, which included his parents, his wife and two of his three children, as well as other municipal, county and state elected leaders.

Although Nunnelee is the only Republican to have qualified in the race to date, he could potentially face a challenger in Lafayette County native and Fox News political analyst Angela McGlowan. She has said she’ll announce her intentions in February.

Henry Ross, former mayor of Eupora and circuit judge, has expressed interest in the race but has not yet qualified.

The qualifying deadline is March 1. Party primaries are June 1 and the general election Nov. 2.

Responding to Nunnelee’s criticism, a spokesman for Childers said an analysis by Congressional Quarterly showed that the congressman, a member of the “Blue Dog” Democratic coalition, has voted against the Democratic position 37 percent of the time.

“The point of this isn’t that Travis votes against his party,” Brad Morris said. “It’s that Travis votes for what’s in the best interest of Mississippi.”

Nunnelee has been a state legislator since 1995 and chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee. He first won the legislative seat previously held by Roger Wicker in a special election in late 1994 after Wicker, now a U.S. senator, was elected to the U.S. House.

Mississippi’s 1st Congressional District covers a 23-county region, including all of Northeast Mississippi. The state has four congressional districts in all.

If elected, Nunnelee said he will vote against Pelosi, universal health care, tax increases and government bail-outs. He said he’ll support private enterprise, the Second Amendment and the will of the people.

It will take energy and money to win the race, though, said Saltillo Mayor Bill Williams, who introduced Nunnelee and called him “a true conservative who doesn’t just talk the talk but walks the walk.”

Among the supporters at Tupelo’s event was Mantachie resident Ruth Hammerman, who recently moved to the area from Oregon.

Nunnelee “has a very conservative perspective and is against the things that have torn down our nation recently,” said Hammerman, a military veteran and former U.S. Postal Service employee. “I am against illegal immigration, and he’s not for it, either.”

Contact Emily Le Coz at (662) 678-1588 or emily.lecoz@djournal.com.