Trump-backed Mills uses MAGA playbook in race for Congress
Cory Mills is poised to join a crop of Trump-style Republican newcomers in Congress, flipping a district that includes Seminole County suburbs President Joe Biden won in 2020.
Mills showcased his platform last week during a rally in Geneva headlined by U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, telling supporters that progressives represent a threat to “God, family and country.”
“We are fighting not against the Democrats versus Republicans or the socialists versus conservatives. We are now fighting America versus anti-America,” Mills told a group of cheering supporters.
Mills, a military veteran and defense contractor, is getting a big assist from a redistricting map that Gov. Ron DeSantis muscled through the Florida Legislature. The new map lumped Democratic-trending Seminole County in with more Republican-friendly parts of Volusia County, while taking out a portion of Orange County that votes blue.
As a result, Seminole County — a part of the Interstate 4 corridor that has been trending Democratic — will likely see a dramatic change in representation in the U.S. Congress.
Mills, who is backed by former President Donald Trump, denies that Biden legitimately won the election. He is calling for a temporary halt in immigration and told a crowd he doesn’t “give a damn” if people call him a xenophobe.
He wants to charge book publishers with felony offenses and force them to register as sex offenders if they distribute “inappropriate or pornographic materials” to school libraries. He supports cutting off funding to Ukraine, which would mark a major shift in U.S. foreign policy.
He is against “red-flag” laws that allow the police to seize guns from people suspected of being dangerous.
Rep. Stephanie Murphy, a moderate Democrat, opted not to run for reelection four months before the lines were redrawn, giving Republicans an even easier path to the seat. Mills is favored to beat Karen Green, the vice chair of the Florida Democratic Party.
Green has warned that Mills is the next Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia congresswoman known for embracing conspiracy theories.
“We cannot have an election denier going into Congress,” Green said.
On paper, the race doesn’t appear to be competitive, as Green is heavily outgunned. Mills has raised nearly $2.5 million in campaign cash, compared with just less than $68,000 by Green, according to the latest figures available.
Democratic resources haven’t come in for Green like they did for Murphy when she defeated incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. John Mica in 2016. The House Democrats’ campaign arm spent more than $3 million to support Murphy in that race.
As for this year’s contest, District 7 voters haven’t gotten a chance to see the candidates debate. Democrats have accused Mills of ducking debates.
Mills is tapping into the culture war divide to fire up the conservative base and touting his Trump credentials. He served as a defense adviser in the Trump administration. The Texas GOP listed Mills as a keynote speaker for a “stop the steal” rally on Nov. 14, 2020, in Dallas.
He’s echoing some of DeSantis’ familiar talking points on the campaign trail and urging him to go even further on the Parental Rights in Education law, which is known by critics as the “don’t say gay” law.
On transgender issues: “I don’t need to be a biologist to know that there are only man and female.”
On the war in Ukraine: “I will not support foreign funding for wars that have nothing to do with America.”
On immigration: “Let’s shut our border down, build our wall. ... Let’s change the rules when it comes to chain migration. We are going to redefine birthright citizenship.”
On Trump: “The idea that we can go in and violate the former president of the United States’ Fourth Amendment rights at Mar-a-Lago, that we can weaponize the IRS and the FBI against the American people, I say hell no.” (The FBI executed a search warrant that was signed by a federal magistrate judge.)
On Florida’s so-called “don’t say gay” law, which prohibits classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in grades kindergarten through three or in a manner that is not “age appropriate”: “I think it should go all the way to 12th grade. I don’t think there should be any sexualization of our children at any time.”
Strapped for cash and resources, Democrats are trying to turn back the red tide.
State Rep. Joy Goff-Marcil greeted early voters at the Casselberry Library on Tuesday. She said Mills doesn’t represent the views of most Seminole County residents.
“The majority of people will not be represented in Seminole County, and I think that assuming he wins, it’s because of the Volusia County portion,” said Goff-Marcil, who is challenging Republican state Sen. Jason Brodeur.
Despite its reputation as a political battleground, most of Florida’s congressional seats aren’t competitive this year, said Aubrey Jewett, a political scientist at the University of Central Florida.
“It is a direct result of the gerrymandering that Gov. DeSantis apparently engaged in when they created these maps,” Jewett said. “Most of the districts are pretty clearly going to lean one way or the other.”
District 7 went from a seat Biden won by 10 percentage points to one that Trump won by 6 percentage points with the new boundaries, according to MCI Maps, which analyzes political borderlines.
Republicans are expected to control as many as 20 of Florida’s 28 congressional seats after the midterm elections.
Florida’s GOP-dominated congressional delegation will be a powerful force in Washington, Mills told his supporters.
“We’re going to make Seminole County red,” Mills said. “We’re going to keep Florida free. And, oh, by the way ... we’re going to make America Florida.”
Complete election coverage can be found at OrlandoSentinel.com/election.
