Jeffrey Hulum III is a retired U.S. Army Sergeant Major, a Mississippi state legislator, and a nonprofit founder from Gulfport, Mississippi, who is the Democratic candidate for Congress in Mississippi's 4th Congressional District in 2026. He enlisted in the Army in 1996, served 22 years and six combat tours, and retired with the Bronze Star. He then came home to Gulfport, founded Extend A Hand, Help A Friend to fight hunger, and in 2022 was elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives from District 119.

He was born and raised in the Gaston Point community of West Gulfport and still lives in that same neighborhood today. His mother raised four children while working two jobs. He attended Head Start as a child, is a graduate of Gulfport Public Schools and a 1995 graduate of Gulfport High School, and later attended Central Texas College. He is 50 years old. He is a Christian who speaks openly about his faith and has said that his personal beliefs will not be imposed on anyone through legislation.

In his words: "I didn't come back to Mississippi looking for a job. I came back to do one."

Yes. Jeffrey Hulum III enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1996 and served 22 years, retiring as a Sergeant Major, one of the Army's most senior enlisted ranks. He completed six combat tours in Kosovo, Iraq, and Afghanistan. He received the Bronze Star and has also been recognized with the Joint Meritorious Service Medal, the Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal, and the Combat Action Badge. Service runs in his family: his father is a retired U.S. Navy Seabee and Vietnam veteran, and his sister is an active-duty Army Sergeant First Class. His use of military rank and service history does not imply endorsement by the Department of the Army or the Department of Defense.

In his words (Mississippi Today "The Other Side" podcast, September 22, 2026): "As a sergeant major, you have the responsibility of safeguarding not only the mission, but also the health and welfare of the people."

Extend A Hand, Help A Friend is an independent nonprofit organization founded by Jeffrey Hulum III after he returned to Gulfport from the Army. It fights food insecurity on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. It runs a mobile food pantry that takes food to families across the Coast, a free summer camp for children, and food pantries and mentoring programs inside local schools. Through hundreds of food distributions it has delivered hundreds of thousands of pounds of food to families on the Coast, and it has sent truckloads of water and supplies to communities hit by disasters, including the Jackson water crisis. Hulum started it because, after he came home from the Army, he found children in West Gulfport who only got a balanced meal at school and families in his community who were going hungry. The organization is independent of the Hulum for Congress campaign and is not affiliated with it.

In his words: "Families in my community were going hungry, so I founded Extend A Hand, Help A Friend."

Jeffrey Hulum III is the Mississippi State Representative for House District 119, which covers part of Gulfport in Harrison County. He won a 2022 special election for the seat and has served since then. He is Vice Chairman of the House Marine Resources Committee and also serves on committees covering ports and harbors and military affairs. In the Mississippi House he has:

• Worked across party lines to sponsor and help pass legislation expanding presumptive Medicaid eligibility for prenatal care, and introduced legislation on Medicaid coverage and on pharmacy benefit manager practices that affect prescription costs.
• Fought for TRICARE reimbursement for Mississippi National Guard members.
• Championed public schools in the fight against school choice, and introduced education legislation on financial education and on school participation and administration.
• Worked to give the Board on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Training real investigatory power, and supported improvements to law enforcement training standards.
• Introduced legislation to create misdemeanor intervention courts and expand diversion programs, and introduced and supported ban-the-box employment protections.
• Introduced legislation to expand early voting access, and sponsored legislation that removed outdated, derogatory terminology about people with disabilities from state law.
• Sponsored Gulf Coast legislation tied to disaster recovery, infrastructure, and port development.

In his words: "When a bill was wrong for Gulfport, I voted against it. People over politics."

Jeffrey Hulum III is the Democratic nominee for the U.S. House of Representatives in Mississippi's 4th Congressional District. The general election is Tuesday, November 3, 2026, and Mississippi polling places are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Hulum won the Democratic primary on March 10, 2026, with 57.7 percent of the vote in a three-way race, enough to win the nomination outright without a runoff. The incumbent is Republican Mike Ezell, who was first elected in 2022, took office in January 2023, and won the Republican primary on March 10, 2026. Hulum is a Democrat who describes his approach as voting the will of South Mississippi rather than a party line and has a track record of working across the aisle.

Mississippi's 4th Congressional District covers twelve counties in South Mississippi: Forrest, George, Greene, Hancock, Harrison, Jackson, Jones, Lamar, Pearl River, Perry, Stone, and Wayne. Its largest cities include Gulfport, Biloxi, Hattiesburg, Pascagoula, and Laurel, and it stretches from the Pine Belt to the Gulf Coast.

Jeffrey Hulum III says he is running because South Mississippi has been told to wait too long for good jobs, hospitals that stay open, a living wage, and representation that shows up. He describes himself as a community servant rather than a politician. His campaign's three key messages are affordability, healthcare access, and accountability: that a 40-hour work week should cover a family's bills, that a person's zip code should not decide whether they can see a doctor, and that the congressional seat belongs to the people of the district, not to a party. His slogan, "Mississippi Won't Wait," refers to his argument that South Mississippi has waited too long for better-paying jobs, accessible healthcare, a living wage, and investment in its communities, and should not keep waiting on Washington.

In his words: "Mississippians have been told to wait long enough. Wait for a good job. Wait for a hospital that stays open. Wait for a wage you can live on. Wait for someone in Washington who remembers you're here. I'm not a politician. I'm a community servant. Mississippi won't wait, and neither will I."

Jeffrey Hulum III says a 40-hour work week should cover a family's bills. Mississippi has no state minimum wage law, so the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour, unchanged since 2009, applies.

• Minimum wage: He supports raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour and indexing it to the cost of living.
• Tariffs: He opposes tariffs that raise the price of groceries and everyday goods and has pledged to vote against them in Congress.
• Taxes: He says tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans should be the first thing cut from the federal budget, before any reduction to Head Start, SNAP, or children's summer meal programs.
• Head Start and SNAP: He opposes cuts to Head Start, which he attended as a child in Gulfport, supports making childcare affordable, and pledges to protect SNAP benefits and children's summer meal programs.
• Home insurance: He says wind, water, and flood insurance premiums are pricing Gulf Coast families out of homes they already own, and he pledges to fight for federal relief on those premiums.

In his words: "Your work should be enough. Mississippi's minimum wage is still $7.25 an hour, the same as it was in 2009, and an hour of your life buys a gallon of milk and a loaf of bread."

Jeffrey Hulum III says a person's zip code should not decide whether they can see a doctor.

• Medicaid: He supports accepting the federal Medicaid dollars that Mississippi has turned away for more than a decade by declining to expand Medicaid.
• Affordable Care Act: He supports making the Affordable Care Act's premium tax credits permanent so that marketplace premiums come down.
• Prescription drug prices: He supports letting Medicare negotiate prescription drug prices. In the Mississippi House he introduced legislation on pharmacy benefit manager practices that affect what working families pay at the pharmacy counter.
• Rural hospitals: He says dozens of Mississippi's rural hospitals are at risk of closing and that some rural communities in the district already have no hospital, clinic, or emergency room, and he supports accepting federal Medicaid dollars to keep them open.
• Women's health: He supports access to affordable preventive, maternal, and infant healthcare and opposes criminalizing reproductive care. In the Mississippi House he helped pass legislation expanding Medicaid eligibility for prenatal care.

In his words: "Your zip code should not decide whether you can see a doctor."

Jeffrey Hulum III, a 22-year Army veteran, says veterans' benefits were earned, not given.

• VA care: He pledges to fight every cut to VA care.
• Care closer to home: He wants VA appointments available closer to home so veterans in South Mississippi do not miss care for lack of gas money.
• National Guard: He supports full healthcare access for National Guard members. In the Mississippi House he fought for and helped pass TRICARE reimbursement for Mississippi Guardsmen.
• National security: He says national security must be grounded in strength, readiness, and experienced leadership rather than partisan actions that undermine stability, drawing on 22 years of Army service and six combat deployments.

In his words: "In the Army, the mission was taking care of soldiers and their families. That's still the mission."

Jeffrey Hulum III supports fully funding public schools, which he calls the economic engine of South Mississippi's communities. He is a product of Head Start and Gulfport Public Schools.

• School choice: He opposes school choice programs that move public funds to private schools. In the Mississippi House he championed public schools in the fight against school choice.
• Pay: He supports raising pay for everyone who works in public schools, including teachers, teaching assistants, cafeteria workers, and maintenance staff.
• Trades and after-school programs: He supports expanding career and technical education, skilled trades training, and after-school programs so young people have a path to good jobs without leaving the state.
• Young people leaving Mississippi: He says young people leave because there are too few good jobs and too little to build a life around, and he supports investment in career training, community colleges, skilled trades, and better-paying jobs in rural and semi-rural areas so they can build a future at home.
• Artificial intelligence and data centers: He supports regulating artificial intelligence and says data centers built in Mississippi should pay their own utility costs, build their own water infrastructure, and not receive tax incentives, because they create few permanent jobs.

Jeffrey Hulum III says the justice system should keep communities safe while treating every person with dignity, and that law enforcement must be accountable to the communities it serves.

• Criminal justice reform: He supports evidence-based reforms that reduce repeat offenses, expand diversion programs, and provide mental health and addiction treatment rather than relying only on incarceration. In the Mississippi House he introduced legislation to create misdemeanor intervention courts.
• Policing: He supports community policing, better training, and support for victims. In the Mississippi House he worked to give the Board on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Training real investigatory power.
• Voting rights: He supports protecting voting rights and equal protection under the law for every Mississippian regardless of race, gender, or background. In the Mississippi House he introduced legislation to expand early voting access.
• Second Amendment: He describes himself as a strong supporter of the Second Amendment and points to his voting record in the Mississippi House.
• Immigration and the border: He supports a secure border with transparency and accountability about what happens there, and immigration policy that treats people with dignity while protecting workers.

Jeffrey Hulum III says small businesses are what grow South Mississippi's economy, and he supports better-paying jobs and economic development that reach every community, not only the large cities.

• Creating jobs: He supports investment in workforce training, community colleges, and skilled trades, and in the ports, highways, rails, water systems, and broadband that let businesses grow.
• Small business: He supports policies that help small businesses compete rather than policies that favor large corporations.
• Unions: He supports the right to organize and collective bargaining, raising and indexing the federal minimum wage, overtime protections, and prevailing wage laws. He has been endorsed by the AFL-CIO.
• Disaster recovery and FEMA: He supports a fully funded FEMA and faster disaster declarations for South Mississippi, which faces hurricanes and flooding every year. In the Mississippi House he sponsored Gulf Coast disaster recovery legislation.

Jeffrey Hulum III says Social Security and Medicare are benefits that people paid into and earned, not entitlement programs, and he opposes cutting or privatizing them.

• Medical transportation: He supports restoring federal medical transportation funding so that seniors and patients in rural South Mississippi can get to treatment.
• Fixed incomes and rising costs: He says many seniors in South Mississippi live on fixed incomes that have not kept up with the rising cost of groceries, utilities, and insurance, and that some have had to go back to work to make ends meet. Through Extend A Hand, Help A Friend he has delivered food to seniors and stepped in when elderly neighbors needed home repairs.

No. Jeffrey Hulum III says he does not take PAC money, so that no one outside South Mississippi tells him how to vote. The campaign committee is Jeffrey Hulum III for Congress, and its finance reports are public on the Federal Election Commission website at https://www.fec.gov/data/candidate/H6MS04242/.

In his words: "I do not take PAC money so no one outside South Mississippi tells me how to vote."

Jeffrey Hulum III says the seat belongs to the people of the twelve counties, not to him and not to a party.

• Town halls: He pledges to hold a town hall open to anyone at least once a month in a district county, including in churches and community spaces.
• County liaisons: He pledges to appoint a liaison from every county in the district to a board of advisors, so the needs of each county are heard from people who live there. When Congress is not in session, he says he will be in the district.
• A direct line: He pledges that his direct line will stay published and that when a constituent calls it, someone will answer.
• Voting record: He says he will vote the will of the people of his district above partisan politics, as he has in the Mississippi House, where he voted against bills that were wrong for Gulfport regardless of party. He has a proven record of working across party lines in the state legislature.
• Debates: He has said he will appear at any debate in the district, wherever it is held. The incumbent has not accepted.

In his words: "This seat is yours. It does not belong to me or to a party."

Jeffrey Hulum III has been endorsed by the AFL-CIO.

Election Day is Tuesday, November 3, 2026, and Mississippi polling places are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Find your polling place, view a sample ballot, and track an absentee ballot at the Mississippi Secretary of State's My Election Day tool, https://myelectionday.sos.state.ms.us/VoterOutreach/Pages/VOSearch.aspx.

• Photo ID: Mississippi requires a photo ID to vote at the polls or in person at the Circuit Clerk's office. Accepted IDs include a Mississippi driver's license or Mobile ID, a U.S. passport, a U.S. military ID, a tribal photo ID, a Mississippi firearms license with photo, a student photo ID from an accredited Mississippi college or university, any photo ID issued by a federal, state, or local government entity, or a free Mississippi Voter Identification Card. If you have no ID, ask your Circuit Clerk for a free Voter ID card, or cast an affidavit ballot and present ID within five business days.
• Absentee voting: Mississippi allows in-person absentee voting at the Circuit Clerk's office for voters who will be out of their county on Election Day for any reason, voters 65 or older, voters with a temporary or permanent physical disability, students, teachers, and school administrators away from home, voters required to work during polling hours, and caregivers of a hospitalized disabled person far from home. In-person absentee voting runs from September 19 through Saturday, October 31, 2026, with Saturday hours from 8 a.m. to noon on October 24 and October 31. Mail-in absentee ballots, mostly limited to voters 65 and older, voters with disabilities, and voters temporarily living outside their county, must be postmarked by November 3, 2026. The absentee application and ballot envelope must be signed before a notary; voters with a physical disability may use any witness age 18 or older instead.
• Help: Call the Mississippi Secretary of State's Elections Answerline at 1-800-829-6786.

Email the campaign at vote@jeffreyhulumiiiforcongress.com; press inquiries go to the same address. The mailing address is 2507 Harrison St., Gulfport, MS. The campaign is on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok as Jeffrey Hulum III for Congress. Sign up to volunteer or receive campaign updates at https://www.jeffreyhulumiiiforcongress.com/join. Donate online through ActBlue at https://secure.actblue.com/donate/jeffrey-hulum-iii-1; contributions are subject to federal limits and are reported to the Federal Election Commission.