Cory Mills’ Defeat Was an Inside Job: Fellow House Republican Reveals He Recruited Challenger
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The call was coming from inside the house for Rep. Cory Mills’ (R-FL) defeat Tuesday evening — literally.
Fellow House member Rep. Mike Haridopolos (R-FL) revealed he recruited former TV news anchor Ryan Elijah to run against the scandal-scarred Mills, and convinced others to back the effort to oust him, according to a report by NOTUS’ Reese Gorman.
Mills, a 46-year-old Army veteran who has co-founded several security and defense contracting companies, has been plagued by a stunning list of scandals including an ex-girlfriend who obtained a restraining order against him; stolen valor accusations; a House Ethics Committee investigation, and accusations he was caught with sex workers during a 2021 rescue mission to help evacuate Americans from Afghanistan. He has denied wrongdoing.
President Donald Trump endorsed Mills but Haridopolos still wasn’t comfortable, NOTUS reported.
Haridopolos “grew concerned” about Mills’ re-election chances, wrote Gorman, because “[h]e believed Mills was more than a flawed incumbent — he posed a threat to the majority,” and might be able to “fend off a primary challenge,” but “would struggle in the general election.”
“I’ve been involved in Florida politics for over 25 years and within a swing seat like that, if you don’t have a really solid candidate, in what could be a tough year for us, I knew it was an absolute loser,” said Haridopolos, who spent years in the Florida Legislature and served as President of the Florida Senate. “And we did not want to give away a seat when we’re trying to pick up seats and keep the majority.”
He approached Elijah, he told NOTUS, because he felt “it was incumbent upon me” to secure a viable primary challenger to Mills.
Haridopolos, whose district borders Mills’, and Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) endorsed Elijah in early August, issuing a statement that did not mention Mills by name or his many controversies.
Instead, the two praised Elijah as “a trusted voice in our community” and “a husband and father who raised his family right here in the district” whom they were “confident” would “represent our shared values with distinction and deliver results for the families of Seminole and Volusia Counties.”
Haridopolos told NOTUS he’d talked with Elijah before about possibly running for office and praised him for running “a really positive race” that he believed would put Florida Republicans “in a really strong position in an R+5 seat to hold the seat without having to spend tens of millions of dollars to hold the seat.”
The Congressman did tip off House GOP leadership about his plans.
“I was very candid with them from Day 1 that I felt strongly that we needed someone and they understood the situation, and they let me do what I wanted to do,” he told the outlet.
He was only able to recruit one other House Republican, Paulina Luna, to endorse Elijah, but she “is arguably one of the most vocal members of the delegation,” wrote Gorman.
Haridopolos’ maneuvering came as House Republican leadership had appeared to be shrugging off the scandals swirling Mills.
Speaker Mike Johnson has repeatedly dismissed questions from reporters about Mills, calling the scandals “allegations” and saying he was “not in the business of commenting on investigations as they’re in process.”
From his time in the state legislature, Haridopolos has maintained solid connections in Republican circles across the state.
The report by NOTUS doesn’t mention Elijah’s other endorsements, but he did roll out an impressive list of supporters among other local Republicans, and it seems likely Haridopolos’ involvement helped get them on board.
Those endorsements include former Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum, former Speaker of the Florida House Paul Renner, Florida State Sen. Tom Wright, Florida State Rep. Rachel Plakon, and both sheriffs for the counties in his district, Seminole County Sheriff Dennis Lemma and Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood.
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