Lower the Cost of Living

It’s no secret that costs have ballooned out of control since Trump’s second inauguration. As of this writing, since January 2025, food costs are up 4.6%, gas prices are up a whopping 39.1%, and healthcare costs are projected to jump 10% or more next year.

That’s after last year’s budget reconciliation slashed ACA subsidies and Medicaid spending. And some of the biggest impacts of the OBBBA are set to take effect after the midterms.

For example, Medicaid recipients will be forced into new cost-sharing requirements that, according to the Center for American Progress, “could cost a family of four living on only $33,000 per year up to $1,650 in new, mandatory out-of-pocket costs.”

Floridians need meaningful relief from the impacts of Washington’s and Tallahassee’s mismanagement.

We need a break from tariffs, inflation, and a challenging job market worsened by DOGE.

We need government that honors our efforts to improve our own lives by ensuring that the things outside our control don’t get in the way of our hard work.

We need, as Nik Dean puts it, “practical representation.”

To that end, Nik looks at more than tax shifts or chipping away at a few costs while allowing big business to profit while workers, our families, and senior citizens are left behind. Instead, Nik looks at what can be done on a variety of fronts.

Nik knows that supporting a robust middle class means supporting small businesses and employers that offer good pay. His plans to address the cost of living include state tax incentives for businesses that share profits with its employees or provide other forms of equity in the company.

This sets up the relationship between worker, employer, and government so everyone benefits.

·      Workers earn more for the effort they put into the company, encouraging hard work and loyalty.

·      Employers experience less turnover—and costs associated with turnover—while paying less to the government.

·      Government, in turn, lowers its spending on services for underpaid employees—constituents whose hard work has earned them a living but who struggle to afford basic necessities.

Nik would also rein in hikes on fees and taxes that add up and threaten families’ and seniors’ financial stability. He’s a candidate who understands that cost of living is a serious issue without just one factor driving increases.

Complex problems deserve clear-headed examination and the willingness to consider multiple approaches, and Nik’s platform shows that awareness. 

Expand Access to Care

Two aspects of the affordability crisis impact everyone, whether directly or indirectly: healthcare and childcare. Even for those who don’t have young children, the difficulty working parents face in finding childcare ripples out to the rest of the economy.

But let’s look at healthcare first. Everyone needs healthcare at some point in their lives.

But with the Trump administration threatening affordable healthcare, we need leaders who see the need for consistent, reliable funding for modern medicine so that people can access it in their time of need. When seniors are skipping medication doses or foregoing prescriptions altogether because of unaffordable drug costs, the need for change is shouting from the rooftops.

Nik wants the transparent, patient-centered system we know we need—for our health and for our household finances.

He would increase Medicaid reimbursement rates, which would give healthcare providers an incentive to take on more patients who use Medicaid, increasing their access to care. He also wants to increase funding for community healthcare clinics. Such initiatives would ensure healthcare providers have enough money to cover their own costs, which will benefit everyone they serve.

Childcare costs have also climbed—to the point where affordable childcare can be out of reach for working parents.

In Florida, 15.3% of working parents have turned down work because of this problem. Their loss of income—almost $10 billion—ripples throughout the economy in the form of purchases they can’t make. That translates to money that doesn’t travel through local businesses and to other working families.

These working parents’ former employers feel the loss too. They’re hit with almost $5 billion in turnover costs.

Nik knows that this problem, one way or another, impacts all of us too. And Florida House District 38 values its children and the top-notch education the Seminole County Public School district provides.

As a representative in the Florida State House, Nik would advocate for more affordable childcare. His plans include state tax breaks for employers who provide comprehensive healthcare and childcare.

This aligns with his overall approach to affordability: ensure all parties have an incentive to spend money where it can do the most good.

·      Workers will be able to pursue employment according to where they have found the best economic opportunity for themselves.

·      Their children will be cared for in a stable environment, not having the rug pulled out from under them as their parents shuffle them from one caregiver to the next.

·      Employers will experience less turnover (and associated costs) and higher morale as working parents focus on their work, not on the next move they need to make to ensure their children’s wellbeing.

·      Government—and we, the taxpayers who fund it—pay less to fill in the gaps left by employers who don’t pay their employees enough.

As with affordability in general, Nik understands that Floridians can’t keep kicking the can down the road. There are only so many price increases we can absorb.

We need a government that understands our need for our money to stretch further and responds to that need with the same care we show our own families—and provides solutions that allow us the ability to improve our own lives.

And we deserve a government that’s earned our trust.

That’s not the Republican-led government we currently have in Tallahassee. After over two decades of exercising power in Florida, the GOP has shown its inability to bring us sensible, real-world solutions to the issues we face.

Nik Dean vs. Emily Duda Buckley

Nik’s GOP opponent, Emily Duda Buckley, has a less clear take on affordability in Seminole County—and less robust solutions. As the Orlando Sentinel noted in its endorsement of Nik, Buckley’s “website offers almost no specifics about how she would tackle big issues like insurance, affordability and governmental integrity.”

What is on her website, though, is telling.

It includes an endorsement by Rick Scott, who helmed the company responsible for the largest Medicaid fraud in American history. As Florida governor, he lessened developers’ responsibility for the impact of their new developments, leaving Florida residents to shoulder the burden of infrastructure problems.

Another endorsement for Buckley comes from Blaise Ingoglia, Florida’s CFO whose questionable formulas for determining waste in government spending put local governments but not the state government he’s tasked with holding accountable in the crosshairs.

And U.S. Congressman Jimmy Patronis says Buckley will “keep our economy strong.”

This assessment of our economy is out of touch with Floridians faced with costs that are skyrocketing faster than our incomes can keep up with.

Buckley’s donors include the Florida House Republican Campaign and political committees connected to the oil, gas, and insurance industries. As a representative in the Florida House, would she truly represent her constituents in District 38, or would she work for these powerful interests that have already paid her?

Finally, Buckley’s own website reveals such a poor view of government that one wonders why she wants to join it.

“Government should live within its means like the rest of us,” it reads, as if government is simply another Florida household separate from yours and mine, rather than a tool that must be made to function on our behalf.

This statement reveals a misunderstanding of what government is meant to do. Taxes are meant to be spent for the people, to buy things for us that we can’t buy individually.

When our tax dollars are spent wisely, they can stretch further than if they stayed in our pockets. Pooling our money is how we make more cost-effective purchases: collectively.

But in Buckley’s view, is “the government” simply a black hole into which we must throw money, and our best bet is to throw less?

Where’s the option to spend taxpayer money wisely? Where’s the understanding that government can and should use that money to invest in its constituents’ wellbeing—to “promote the general Welfare,” as the U.S. Constitution says?

Floridians deserve representatives in the State House who want to use taxpayer money on behalf of the taxpayer.

We need job candidates who are serious about the requirements of the job and understand that knowing how to spend our money is a major requirement, not a talking point.

We need someone who respects the institution—the government—they seek to enter.

We need representatives who see government as the way society organizes itself and understands that simply shrinking it would diminish a tool we have for ensuring liberty and justice for all.

Vote for Nik Dean

For your next representative, elect someone who understands that our quality of life is at stake—someone committed to treating our money as a strategic investment.

Elect someone who knows the value of jobs that pay good wages. Nik Dean has made this an important part of his platform. He knows that households need enough money coming in that it increases our spending power, and jobs that pay well are a crucial part of protecting and growing the middle class.

Nik knows that government should work for the people it serves. This is a longstanding principle in our democratic republic, and voters are ready to remember it—and insist on it.

We can move on from the destruction that MAGA has wrought.

We can get back to treating our neighbors as our neighbors, showing respect to our communities by approaching our shared problems with real solutions.

We can choose better than the Florida GOP, which has allowed the cost of living to balloon out of control on their watch.

We can choose candidates like Nik Dean to represent us.

It’s time for Florida to move on from the Plakons. If you’re looking for a fighter who will stand up for your community and ensure your tax dollars go to supporting our quality of life, vote for Darryl Block.

Ensure We Can Make Ends Meet

Affordable housing in Central Florida has become a crisis. The National Low Income Housing Coalition names the Orlando area as the worst in the nation for this issue. . They also report that in Seminole County’s congressional district, which we share with part of Volusia County, “90% of extremely low-income renter households are severely cost burdened.”

Other basic necessities have ballooned in cost too. Grocery prices have increased by 30% since 2019, and Orlando is in the top six metropolitan areas for rising grocery costs.

Floridians keep working hard, adding jobs and trimming our budgets to pay the bills. We deserve a government that respects our work ethic and ensures economic fairness. We need leaders who embrace their responsibility to ensure our hard work pays off for us.

So what has our representative in the Florida State House done to address this crisis?

State Rep. Rachel Plakon’s own campaign website admits that “Floridians are having a hard time keeping up with rising prices.” Her big solution? Lower taxes.

Not ideas to increase our purchasing power.

Not ways to ensure our tax dollars make savvy collective purchases that individuals can’t buy on our own.

Just taking away from what we put into the collective pot—and no understanding that that tax money was meant to actually buy things of value for taxpayers.

And on a fun side note, Plakon’s first business was flipping houses. That’s right—our current representative in the Florida House made it her business to buy up houses and make them more expensive for the people who would live in them.

No wonder the cost of housing has ballooned under her watch.

On the other hand, Darryl Block would prioritize affordability in his decisions in Tallahassee. He’s made affordability a primary part of his platform, not a sad side note.

Darryl understands families need to stretch every dollar—and when it comes to the money taxpayers send to the state government, we need to know it’s being spent in our best interest. The era of stealing money from sick kids needs to end.

We need a new era. We need a time of increased purchasing power for regular Americans. We need a renewed respect for our social contract: where those who work hard achieve prosperity.

Here are Darryl’s top priorities when it comes to making our government work for us:

Protect the Rural Boundary and Our Natural Resources

Last year, our state senator, Jason Brodeur, attacked the rural boundary that was upheld by 82% of voters in 2024. While the bill Brodeur supported didn’t pass, developer and former state representative Chris Dorworth continues to imperil the rural boundary for his own enrichment.

Seminole County is known as Florida’s Natural Choice for a reason. We know how important it is to protect our natural resources and not sell them off to developers. We’ve seen what happens when Florida overdevelops and those who profit from new construction aren’t required to thoroughly consider—and pay for—the impact.

(That change was thanks to Rick Scott while he was our governor. This is what you get with Republicans in charge of Florida.)

Darryl Block has made the rural boundary an important part of his campaign. Recognizing that the rural boundary protects not only our land and wildlife but also our water, Darryl told the Orlando Sentinel, “This is not a partisan, Republican or Democrat, issue. These are issues that are important to all of us in Seminole County.”

Meanwhile, as the Sentinel observed, Plakon has put the rural boundary on her website but has not provided details about her position, either on the site or by returning calls for comment.

Given that our very own state senator, Brodeur, has so recently tried to destroy our rural boundary—and his buddy Dorworth continues his own attempts—we need a state representative who’s willing to make much more noise than Plakon has been thus far.

Defend Healthcare

Across the United States, healthcare is becoming less affordable. Thanks to last year’s budget reconciliation bill, Medicaid is experiencing the largest cuts in its history. Americans who buy health insurance under the Affordable Care Act are faced with skyrocketing premiums.

And public health itself is presided over by a secretary who openly flouts established science. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has sowed misinformation about vaccines and allowed measles to run rampant. He has endorsed a long-debunked wild goose chase to link autism with vaccines.

Our Republican officials in Florida are complicit in the destruction of quality, affordable healthcare. Governor DeSantis has encouraged anti-vaccination rhetoric despite the proven effectiveness of vaccines. Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo has presided over a measles outbreak, yet is currently trying to remove four vaccines from the childhood schedule required for public and private schools.

This has all happened with Rachel Plakon in office.

What has she done to make healthcare more affordable? To ensure our population maintains high enough vaccination rates to provide herd immunity?

Herd immunity protects vulnerable people who cannot safely be vaccinated—very young children, the elderly, cancer patients, people with disabilities. How does ignoring this issue show that these people are valued members of our community?

Darryl Block knows firsthand the challenges of navigating the American healthcare system when you need it most. When his oldest son passed away from a rare disease, Darryl successfully advocated at the state level for expanded screenings, which help families access answers—and treatments—when they can be more effective.

Darryl has already shown he has what it takes to stand up for Floridians’ healthcare needs. He knows that government should do more than get out of the way of deadly yet highly preventable diseases.

Government is meant to protect our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. These are all threatened when we allow diseases to run rampant and encourage the spread of not only viruses but also misinformation. We need leaders like Darryl who will stand up to that threat.

Fund Public Schools

In Florida, Moms for Liberty and MAGA have run roughshod through our children’s education. Book bans have become common. Thanks to defunding and Florida’s high cost of living, which leads some families to leave the state, schools are closing.

Governor DeSantis has gone to war on our children’s knowledge. He taught Florida’s children we “don’t say gay.” We apparently can’t say “critical race theory” either—not that it was ever taught in elementary schools, and not that the average Republican politician can accurately define it. And we certainly can’t have diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Then there are the more recent ways the DeSantis administration has failed our children and their education.

DeSantis himself turned against the poorly considered Amendment 3 because it would not put school funding on the chopping block. The police and firefighters’ unions have spoken out against this potential disaster of an amendment because it would defund first responders—including the police.

Yet that wasn’t enough for DeSantis, not without putting our schools at risk.

Florida’s teaching about climate change and evolution is under fire—precisely because Florida’s proposed curricula refuse to take these crucial concepts seriously. “Evolution” and “climate change” are being censored, and our children and their critical thinking skills are at risk of being left behind. 

And Florida is fiftieth in teacher pay. Out of fifty states, ours is right at the bottom.

We in Seminole County value our public school system, which is ranked among the top in Florida. We want our children’s teachers to be able to focus on teaching, not worrying about how to pay the bills and taking on side hustles because Republican officials don’t value public education.

Rachel Plakon claims she has “voted for RECORD increases in teacher salaries,” yet these “RECORD increases” have still put our teachers’ compensation at the very bottom.

We need leaders who understand our children are an investment in our future. And Darryl Block is that kind of leader.

Darryl has children who attend Florida’s public schools. His wife is a teacher at a local public school. He knows the importance of keeping our schools strong.

Florida can’t afford to treat our children like they don’t matter. Our children deserve a high-quality education—and the funding to make it happen.

Expand Veteran Support

Thanks to DOGE, Veterans Affairs lost valuable funding that improved efficiency and served our veterans. Even before this, veterans have experienced significantly less support than they deserve from the country they’ve faithfully served.

And in Florida, which has one of the largest veteran populations in the United States, 27% live in an ALICE household—Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed. As charitable organization Project Vet Relief puts it, these veterans are “struggling to afford basic needs despite working or receiving benefits.”

And about seven percent of our veterans are living below the poverty line. According to the 2025 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report to Congress, six to eight percent of Florida’s homeless population are veterans, and thirty-seven percent of Florida’s homeless veterans are unsheltered—“sleeping in places not meant for human habitation.”

There is clearly room for Florida to do more for those who have so bravely served our country. Darryl Block has worked with active-duty servicemembers in crisis. He has a track record of caring for those who’ve shown so much care for us.

Support Children and Families

The affordability crisis has also impacted families and their opportunities to care and provide for their children.

A lack of support for working families means mothers often have to go back to work before the postpartum period is over; they forego bonding time with their babies not because they want to but because they have to make ends meet.

Fathers and babies need this bonding time too. Paid maternity leave and paid paternity leave would benefit the entire family and society as a whole, yet according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only about a quarter of civilian workers had access to paid parental leave in March 2023.

And even after the baby’s first few months of life, difficulties acquiring quality childcare threaten young families’ livelihoods. Unaffordable childcare sometimes means a parent has to quit working because it doesn’t make financial sense for them to pay so much for the ability to keep working.

According to Florida TaxWatch, 15.3 percent of working parents declined work due to childcare conflicts for their children under six years old. The organization also reports that 14 percent of working parents “experience income losses exceeding $9.8 billion due to leaving the workforce altogether.”

And what does this cost their employers? Almost $5 billion because of the turnover.

Clearly this is a problem we should all care about—parents, childcare workers, businesses, citizens, and residents.

Yet what has Rachel Plakon done for the working families of Florida?

For that matter, what has the Florida Legislature under Republican leadership done to ensure that parents can provide for their children—materially and developmentally?

We need a change in Tallahassee. We need leaders like Darryl Block, who knows parents aren’t the only stakeholders in their children’s futures.

Darryl would ensure families are able to meet their children’s needs. His platform prioritizes parents’ ability to choose to work instead of being forced out through a lack of affordable, quality childcare.

Electing a candidate who cares about our children’s wellbeing, development, and education is the obvious choice in a county that prides itself on its schools. Now it’s time to follow up by ensuring families can access childcare. We know that, when we invest in our children’s futures, we all benefit.

Send Darryl Block to the Florida House

Darryl Block supports working families.

He knows we need more buying power than the current affordability crisis—in the nation and particularly in Florida—has brought us. For too long, conservatives have talked down to workers, acting like we just aren’t working hard enough. But we’ve worked harder and been more productive, and still Republican officials have allowed our buying power to fall behind.

One important part of our buying power is our tax dollars. Darryl knows that when we pay Tallahassee, we’re paying them for goods and services—and we should expect to get those goods and services.

We don’t pay Tallahassee to shill for data centers.

We don’t pay Tallahassee to cover for insurance agencies’ dodgy practices as they rake in our money and cry poverty.

And we certainly don’t pay Tallahassee to take money from poor sick kids and funnel it into political propaganda.

It’s way past time for us to hold those in government to a high standard. We should expect them to be stewards of our money, to use it wisely the way we use our own money wisely. We cannot pretend it is unrealistic for We the People to expect this.

And in this election, it’s not unrealistic. Accountability is within reach.

Even in Florida, we have options. We don’t have to accept MAGA mismanagement and corruption forever. We can vote for Democrats like Darryl Block up and down the ballot.

We’ve gotten rid of scandal-plagued Cory Mills, but Ryan Elijah would bring more MAGA chaos to our congressional district. Bale Dalton would bring positive change to our pocketbooks and our community.

This election, if you want real change, the choice is clear. You need to vote for Dalton as your congressional representative.

This blog will give you the facts on why Bale Dalton is the clear choice to represent Seminole County in Congress.

Ryan Elijah: “EVERYTHING MAGA”

Ryan Elijah, previously a news anchor, ousted Cory Mills from the Republican ticket in last month’s primary election. Earlier, Donald Trump had endorsed Mills, but after Mills’s loss, Trump changed his tune.

He made his point clear on Truth Social right after the primary. “Ryan stands for EVERYTHING MAGA,” Trump posted. “He has my Complete and Total Endorsement!”

So, what has MAGA brought us?

MAGA Brought Us Another War

Last February, Donald Trump launched an attack on Iran. He assured us his illegal war would be over soon.

It is not over and shows no signs of ending. Trump has attempted an end run around the need for congressional approval, but ceasefires don’t mean these are different short-lived wars.

It is one war, and it is putting America at risk.

This war takes for granted the lives of those who serve, including an Army Reserve captain from Florida who was killed in the conflict. How many more do we need to lose before Congress will insist on an end to this war of choice?

The way to end it is to ensure Democrats win both chambers of Congress and hold the Trump administration accountable for its wanton disregard for American lives.

MAGA Gave Us Higher Gas Prices

Trump’s war in Iran has led directly to a spike in prices at the pump. As predicted, Iran used the Strait of Hormuz as a chokepoint, ensuring less oil gets through.

As an opponent of renewable energy, which could have taken America in the direction of energy independence, Trump has gotten us into this mess. MAGA congressional representatives show no signs of holding him accountable.

MAGA Harms Our Economy with Tariffs

The Yale Budget Lab forecasts that American households will each pay upward of $1,000 for Trump’s tariffs. And with over half of small businesses in America absorbing tariff costs, this policy has harmed American companies’ bottom line too.

Yet Trump has persisted despite the Supreme Court declaring his tariffs unconstitutional. He recently increased tariffs on longtime ally Canada, triggering retaliatory tariffs on American products.

No wonder American voters say tariffs—and their opposition to the harm they cause—are an important reason for their vote in the midterms.

MAGA Increases Inflation

Trump’s tariffs and war in Iran have driven prices up after Biden got inflation under control and made the American economy, according to even the conservative The Economist, “the envy of the world.”

Yet when the Federal Reserve raised the interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point this month, Trump rambled and griped because he can’t admit that his policies have sunk American incomes.

This is the opposite of how you address an affordability crisis.

MAGA Opposes Science

The branch of MAGA known as MAHA sows unwarranted doubt in vaccinations and the scientific method itself.

Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has spread misinformation about vaccinations that led to preventable measles-related deaths in Samoa, and he refuses to accept the longstanding scientific finding that autism and vaccines are not linked.

Someone who falls in love with a claim and then goes looking for proof long after it’s clear the proof goes the other way is not a scientist: that’s a demagogue.

MAGA Wages Culture Wars

The movement has entrenched us in culture wars that harm the most vulnerable among us.

In Florida, it has led to a near-total abortion ban despite the will of the majority of Florida voters in 2024 to uphold abortion rights.

It has also led to Governor DeSantis’s Stop W.O.K.E. Act, the “Don’t Say Gay” law, and his targeting of a primary engine of economic activity in Central Florida: Disney. All three attacked free speech with taxpayer money.

MAGA’s obsession with policing individuals’ choices led to a fight over marijuana that got so heated that the governor’s wife’s own charity, Hope Florida, was involved in a scheme to transfer $10 million meant for Medicaid recipients—sick children from low-income families—to political action committees that opposed the 2024 amendment that would have legalized recreational marijuana use.

How many more taxpayer dollars are we willing to watch Republican officials fritter away on attacking recreational marijuana use and fighting Mickey Mouse in Orlando? 

MAGA Harms Education

MAGA has defunded public schools and instituted book bans. This has been especially devastating in Florida, where DeSantis took over New College of Florida, scrapped its gender studies program, and threw away its books.

MAGA’s threats to teachers and librarians were noted by children’s author Judy Blume, who said, “They are criminalizing teachers and librarians. It’s not just that they’re threatening their jobs, they’re threatening them.”

Florida needs access to education and knowledge. That doesn’t come through menacing those who have answered the call to protect education and knowledge so everyone can learn.

MAGA Threatens Hardworking Americans

MAGA has been gutting the foundations on which we build our lives.

We saw it last year in DOGE, which resulted in cuts to critical care for veterans, slashed funding for cancer research, and leaked Social Security data.

We saw it in the plans the Trump crowd has drawn up for making America into a theocracy: Project 2025.

And less than two years in, Americans are feeling the impact to our economic security and our way of life as a free society.

Ryan Elijah: Out of Touch and Extreme

Trump himself said it: Ryan Elijah is “everything MAGA.”

And so far, Elijah seems to have embraced that.

He has said Trump’s tariffs are “working” and dismissed concerns that businesses and even CEOs have about their impact. Elijah’s own words about Trump were, “You have to trust him.”

He also said the American economy is “in a great spot now.” This is in a year when a Gallup poll showed “a record 55% [of Americans] now saying their financial situation is getting worse.”

Elijah also supports Trump’s illegal war with Iran, glibly saying that his potential constituents “understand there is a cost of freedom.” We are talking about a war that has worsened Americans’ ability to make ends meet and has taken American lives—more than the Pentagon has reported. We are talking about yet another “forever war” in the Middle East—in this case a clear war of choice.

As if one war wasn’t enough, Elijah is also leaning into the culture wars. He has said that no elective abortions should be allowed and that so few pregnancies are life-threatening that abortions to protect women’s lives are a “moot point.” And on his own website’s endorsements page is Mathew Staver of Liberty Counsel, designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group.

This is at a time when we need our elected representatives to focus on shoring up the shaky ground we’re trying to build our lives on.

For all of us, that ground has been hollowed out by tariffs, inflation, an unnecessary war, and a mismanaged economy. And for some of us, that ground is hollowed out even more as our so-called leaders threaten our healthcare and our freedom to live our lives.

We need a representative who will shore up this ground so our hard work in building our lives can do us some good. What we don’t need is another representative plagued by ethical issues and a lack of transparency.

Ethics Issues—Already 

Ryan Elijah already has an ethics complaint filed against him. The complaint filed with the House Ethics Committee observes that two of Elijah’s accounts—one worth over a million dollars—were not properly itemized.

This means that voters are left in the dark about where Elijah’s financial interests lie.

Other holdings of Elijah’s were itemized, allowing voters to see what the candidate has invested in—and showing an awareness of how to appropriately disclose investments.

As End Citizens United President Tiffany Muller put it, “Ryan is denying voters the ability to identify potential conflicts of interest and raising serious questions about what he doesn’t want them to know.”

At least Cory Mills was actually in office before getting a complaint sent to the House Ethics Committee.

The Carpetbagger Candidate

Before Ryan Elijah entered the race to become the next congressional representative of Florida’s seventh congressional district, he ran for office in Indiana. 

Back in 2010, he said of himself, “I’ve lived in this community my entire life with the exception of the five years I was in Florida.”

That community was Fort Wayne, Indiana—not Seminole County, Florida. And those five years in Florida were spent working in Jacksonville—again, not Seminole County.

In that earlier congressional run, he also said, “I feel it is important to hold the torch for Hoosier values.”

Going to Congress is clearly a longstanding aspiration of Elijah’s. What is less clear is why we should expect him to be loyal to Florida’s Congressional District 7 when Donald Trump clearly presumes his loyalty and Elijah has done nothing to counter this.

Vote for the Candidate Who Supports Us

Seminole County needs an economy that works for us—not a congressional representative that calls it “great” when Florida has become the worst state for renters and almost half of Floridians struggle to afford basic necessities.

Seminole County needs the price of gas to come down from its jump of over 40% since Trump started his ill-conceived and ill-executed war with Iran.

Seminole County needs access to affordable healthcare—and respect for the scientists who have made that healthcare possible in the first place.

And Seminole County needs a representative who understands the role of government in supporting public life—not another MAGA lackey who sees his own constituents building their lives and tears the floor out from under their feet, whether through DOGE, Medicaid cuts, or Project 2025.

In 2026, we need candidates who know we can’t keep going in a failing direction. We need change.

And Bale Dalton will help us turn things around.

Dalton: For Affordability and Accountable Leadership

Dalton is a veteran. Having served in the Navy and being deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, he understands the cost of war and knows better than to take the lives of American military members for granted.

Dalton is from Central Florida. He knows Floridians are getting squeezed at the grocery store, at the gas pump, and by property insurers.

To make Florida affordable again, Dalton will work to stop Trump’s illegal tariffs, oppose monopolies, increase the federal minimum wage, and support labor unions. With Florida’s property insurance scandal making headlines, Dalton will fight to hold these companies accountable.

Dalton also supports affordable healthcare; his platform includes protecting Medicaid and Medicare and lowering premiums under the Affordable Care Act. Other priorities include negotiating drug prices and opposing surprise medical bills.

Dalton is a refreshing change from the culture wars MAGA has bogged us down in. He supports the right of patients to seek medical care apart from a hovering federal government, whether those patients are pregnant women making decisions about their own bodies or families making decisions about gender-affirming care for their children, together with those children’s pediatricians.

He also has the courage to come before the voters and debate his opponent, Ryan Elijah. As of this publication, Elijah is still refusing to debate.

That’s not surprising if you don’t think your ideas can stand up to voters’ scrutiny.

This election, vote for a change for the better. Vote for the candidate who will make sure everyone has a fair chance at building a good life. Vote for Bale Dalton for your congressional representative.