Tchula’s mayor stressed her experience, energy and record of service here Thursday as part of her initial campaign swing through the 2nd Congressional District.

Yvonne R. Brown is running as the Republican candidate for the seat, but said she’d like to place more emphasis on her role as a servant, both as a Christian missionary and as mayor.

&#8220I don’t carry Republican on my shoulder,” Brown said. &#8220I am Yvonne Brown, a servant.”

The Democratic Party primary for the seat is set for June 6 with the incumbent, Rep. Bennie Thompson of Bolton, being challenged there by state Rep. Chuck Espy of Clarksdale.

Brown’s name won’t appear on ballots until the general election, set for Nov. 7, but she said she’s eager to get started on her campaign and she’ll be back again for more campaigning.

Brown is in her second term as mayor of Tchula, a Holmes County town of about 2,300 residents between Yazoo City and Greenwood.

Among Brown’s accomplishments she highlighted are the Tchula city government’s move into a new, $1 million municipal complex, the securing of about $3 million in federal appropriations and a proposed public-private project to add 61 affordable, single-family homes.

&#8220I’m not a novice in this process,” Brown said. &#8220I understand what it takes to get it done.”

Brown said that if she faces Thompson in the general election, &#8220We’re here to challenge his record, his constituent services.” She added that she would &#8220provide productive, positive, inclusive leadership.”

One of the opportunities she sees for the district, most of which is in the Delta, is in the production of biofuel.

&#8220We have everything here to make a difference,” she said of the area. Among the crops grown in the Delta are soybeans, which may be processed into a major component of a fuel called biodiesel.

Brown said she’s been a Republican &#8220just about” her whole career. She noted the party’s roots in the opposition to slavery and that as late as 1956 the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., for example, was a registered Republican.

&#8220Most African-Americans are conservative in thought and living,” Brown said. &#8220I’m not a victim. I believe in being self-sufficient and independent, and I have a mind to think with.”

Asked about positions of the Republican Party on national issues, Brown said she’s for Social Security reform using private, individual accounts. One reason is that blacks on average don’t live as long as whites and so, as a group, spend less time receiving checks in retirement.

Brown also said she’s for the large new Medicare prescription-drug benefit but said the plan needs to be tweaked to be more fair to independent pharmacists.

Thompson has been in office 13 years. A published report has said Espy has attracted campaign contributions from many Republican donors.

Brown said that’s OK with her.

&#8220I’m not having any issues,” she said when asked about the report.

Brown said she’s also a mother, a grandmother and a student who’s working on her bachelor’s degree at Jackson State University.

In choosing whether to vote in primary elections, voters in Mississippi neither register by nor are restricted by party affiliation or lack thereof. A lawsuit on behalf of Mississippi Democrats seeking to change that system has been filed in U.S. District Court in Oxford but no ruling in it has been made.

Brown expressed no opinion on that lawsuit.