On Thursday, Mark Gladney, a 4th Congressional District candidate, visited residents of Pearl River County in three venues, the Intermodal Transportation Tourist Center in Picayune, the North Hills pavilion and the Hide-a-Way Lake lodge.
In Picayune, Gladney spoke in front of residents, local business owners and leaders about his campaign platform and answered questions from concerned citizens.
Gladney said he is a retired U.S. army lieutenant colonel and served his country for 27 years. He currently works in the offshore oil and gas industry as a manager of a commercial helicopter company.
The Mississippi native then spoke about the three things most important to him as a Congressional candidate: better jobs, good infrastructure and an educated workforce.
“We need higher waged jobs that allow our children to grow up and be in the middle class,” Gladney said. “The middle class is shrinking and that is because jobs are going away.”
He then shifted gears to infrastructure. He said there are over 100 bridges in the state that are condemned, which is “opening good paying jobs for people that don’t have a job but want to work while bettering the community.”
Gladney then spoke about a subject he is passionate about, helping veterans. He shared a story about his brother, who is a Purple Heart recipient. For two years, his brother lived with him because he could not find a job. Gladney’s brother called Steven Palazzo, U.S. representative for Mississippi’s 4th Congressional District, but he never receives a call back.
“I promise you that if you call my office, you will get a call back within 48 hours. We work for you,” Gladney said.
Gladney said that his number one priority is to represent the people and be there for them at all times.
“What we need is representation and someone to fight for us, and we don’t have that right now,” Gladney said. “I make a campaign promise to everyone, that once a month, I will come back to this District and I will have a town hall meeting. If I am going to become your leader, I need to be able to look you in the eye and explain why I did what I did and hear what you have to say about it. Right now we don’t have that.”
Although Gladney wants to avoid talking about the current presidential campaign, he said, “Let’s make something clear. No body needs to make America great again, because we are already great. This country is great, and we can make it even better.”