John Matthews
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON — (WMAL) A familiar name to Maryland voters – and to WMAL listeners – is returning to the political arena in a new state.
Dan Bongino, who ran as the GOP nominee for U.S. Senate against Ben Cardin in 2012, and later against John Delaney in the MD 6th Congressional race in 2014, is running to represent Florida’s 19th District in Congress.
Bongino’s announcement comes a month after incumbent Republican Curt Clawson declared he would not run for re-election, citing an illness in his family. Bongino, a former Secret Service agent who once served on President Obama’s detail, told WMAL he was recruited by conservative GOP activists in Florida to run for the seat.
“I was asked by a number of pretty prominent conservative activists to give a look at a number of seats and I said no. This seat in particular is very conservative though, and there’s no conservative running, and I’m tired of the excuses.” says Bongino.
Bongino, who moved to Florida last year, won’t have much time. The GOP primary in Florida is August 30th, so he says he’ll spend all of the time between now and then knocking on doors and introducing himself to the voters there. Bongino says he’ll knock on 6,000 doors between now and election day.
The top issue in Florida? Bongino says it’s the same everywhere these days – terrorism – especially in light of what happened in Orlando at the Pulse nightclub last weekend, where nearly 50 people were killed by a long gunman who had sworn his allegiance to ISIS.
“I wish we could say it wasn’t a national threat,” says Bongino, “this is vaulted into people’s number one priority down here, in Maryland, in the DC area, and everywhere else.”
After his retirement from the Secret Service, and amidst his burgeoning political career in Maryland, Bongino has also served as a frequent guest and fill-in host on several radio stations, including WMAL.
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