When Michael Waltz resigned from the U.S. House of Representatives to become Donald Trump’s National Security Advisor, he vacated the remainder of his term representing Florida’s 6th congressional district. A special election is set for April 1st to fill out the end of Waltz’s term, before the winner has the chance to run for a full two years in 2026.
With the primary elections over, the race’s major candidates are known: Republican Randy Fine, Democrat Josh Weil, and Libertarian Andrew Parrott. Also running are Independent Randall Terry and write-in candidate Chuck Sheridan according to election records. Each major candidate has been contacted to conduct an interview ahead of the special election. What follows is that interview with Republican Randy Fine.
Chris Gollon: As with some of the other candidates who entered this race you do not currently reside in Florida’s 6th district. How much time have you spent in the district, and what efforts have you made to familiarize yourself with the unique needs of the people who live here?
Randy Fine: “I’ve spent a lot of time there. One of the most important places in Florida to me is the 6th congressional district. I’ve been very involved in Boy Scouts my whole life, but certainly since my kids became old enough to become Cub Scouts. The Boy Scout camp for the Orlando region, which includes four of the six counties in this district, including Flagler, is in the district. It’s Camp La-No-Che in Paisley, Florida. So I have spent more nights sleeping outside in this district than I have spent sleeping under a roof because I have camped for weeks at Camp La-No-Che over the last ten-plus years.
The 2024 beach renourishment project, shown here in Flagler Beach. ⓒ AskFlagler
“It’s a very important place to me, but since November 26 [I’ve been in the district] as much as I could. I wasn’t planning to do this. Most people running for Congress, they’re angling and they’re scheming for years…this wasn’t my plan. This was Donald Trump’s plan. And when President Trump asked me to run, I pointed out to him that I didn’t live there. He knew that but he wanted me to do it anyway. So I’m getting to know everybody as quickly as I can, but I’m not going to try to convince people I’m from there, because I’m not. I will say this: I will continue to get to know people long after the campaign is over.
“What I’ve also learned is there are no local issues in this district. There are none, not one, not a single one, because this is not a local area. This district is bigger than some states, and the problems in Flagler County have a lot more to do with the problems where I represent right now in Brevard County than they do with The Villages. In Flagler County they’re worried about beach renourishment and things like the St. Johns River and those kinds of things. In The Villages they’re worried about development. In Marion County they’re worried about springs. When you represent a district this big, the issues are statewide and nationwide and they unify people.
“Does that mean there aren’t local issues? There are, but they’re local to parts of the district, not all of it. So one of the things I intend to do after I win is create an advisory council in each of the six counties where the people who know the county best can help me make sure I have my finger on the pulse of what needs to be worked on there.”
CG: If you win the general election, will you be moving to the district?
RF: “I don’t have to move there in order to run again. I could live in Key West, the framers of our Constitution said you gotta live in the state, so that’s the requirement. That said, I expect that I will move at some point. But this isn’t my decision alone. I have a wife, I have two kids, and this involves them. They’re both in their formative years of school. Do I think I will probably get a place in the district? Sure, but moving and where [we move to] will be a decision I make with my family, because it’s not just moving. The people in Flagler County will be like, ‘why didn’t you move here, why’d you move to Marion County or Lake County, or Putnam County or St Johns County or Volusia County?’
“It’s a huge district, but, but I think it will be challenging for me logistically to spend as much time as I do in Washington, and then have my family 90 minutes away. So I don’t know, but my personal plan is this summer, after school gets out, to have my family start to tour the district with me.”
CG: Asked in 2021 about American reporters being in a building that was bombed amidst the conflict in Gaza, you answered that you were okay with it. While your support for Israel is noted and well-documented, do you stand by your past sentiment about the deaths of American non-combatants in Gaza?
RF: “I think if you choose to affiliate yourselves with Muslim terrorists, then you should expect bad outcomes.”
CG: Is that the case with this reporter?
RF: “I don’t think you know the specifics. I think in the case of this building, they were cleared out of it and no one died. So you should, if you want to ask me about specific situations, make sure you’ve done your homework in advance. But in this instance, I believe if I remember right, I believe the AP chose to embed itself in a building where it was clear that Hamas was operating. Bad decision.”
CG: You also tweeted calling yourself the ‘Hebrew Hammer’ and advising representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib to ‘consider leaving before I get there’ with the hashtag #BombsAway. That was taken by some as a physical threat toward those representatives. Was your phrasing there meant to intimidate?
L-R: Congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib. ⓒ U.S. House of Representatives
RF: “No reasonable person would take it that way. And by the way, that’s pretty light by my standards. What I meant is, I do not believe they will enjoy serving with me because they are Muslim terrorists, and I will call them out for doing it. And my debating style is direct and it is aggressive, and it is forceful, and I just don’t think they’re going to find the experience useful. ‘Bombs away’ is a term that is used for airplane bombers that are flying over something, and they release the bombs, and they say, ‘bombs away!’. So unless you can find that I own an aircraft with a bomb hold that I fly around and drop bombs on people…what I do throw is rhetorical bombs, and that is what that phraseology refers to.”
CG: Can you expand on why you refer to Omar and Tlaib as ‘Muslim terrorists’?
RF: “Well, they support Muslim terror.”
CG: Are there any particular votes you can cite?
RF: “My goodness, Ilhan Omar…there’s so many documented cases of the two of them. I don’t need to provide them to you. You can find them yourself. There’s no shortage of cases. And they’re not the only ones who support Muslim terror, you’ve got [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez], there’s others. There’s plenty.”
CG: President Trump announced he plans to hold 30,000 undocumented immigrants at Guantanamo Bay. All it would take for detainment there is the accusation of a crime like theft. With a backlog of pending cases and a deportation plan costing up to $66 billion by one estimate, can the system handle Trump’s migrant policies without keeping detained immigrants waiting in limbo for years in our facilities?
RF: “I think that’s a good reason if you’re an illegal immigrant to head home.”
CG: But given how this is likely to pan out, which is ICE mobilizing to go after these people where they are, is our system currently prepared for the way in which the Trump administration is planning to tackle this without leading to great backlogs of people being detained for long amounts of time?
RF: “I don’t know. I don’t know. I mean, we’re dealing with a massive problem that Joe Biden allowed our country to be invaded by tens of millions of people. If I were them, and I didn’t want to deal with this, I’d go home. The only responsibility for being an illegal immigrant is on the person who chose to come here illegally. Unless someone can show me an illegal immigrant who was captured against their will and dragged to America and forced to be here, these are people who’ve made a conscious decision to be in this country illegally. Whatever happens, happens.”
CG: Are there any measures you may support to streamline the system so that these policies can be enacted as quickly and efficiently as possible? Or do you feel that isn’t necessary?
RF: “I believe that if you do two things, the vast majority of the problem resolves itself. I believe that if you round up criminal illegal immigrants – and by criminal, I’m not simply referring to the criminal act of being in the country illegally, but I’m talking about they did other bad things – if you’re doing that, and you eliminate the free stuff, the only people who…there’s three groups of illegal immigrants, right? There’s the criminals. The Democrats do disagree, but these criminal illegals that Biden let wander around, they need to get rounded up and they need to be sent home, and they won’t leave without that happening. And they’ll try to come back in again, as we’ve seen in many of these cases.
“The second group are the people who came here for free stuff. You take away the free stuff, you take away the incentive to be here. And the third group are the people who came and just want opportunity. They don’t want anything for free, they’re not here to commit crimes. They’ll figure out what to do on their own. I don’t think anyone’s looking around for them now. I think that if you, if you cut off the free stuff, and you start rounding up the criminals, I think a lot of the people we don’t want to be here will go home on their own.”
CG: Some of the people who would be taken to Guantanamo and possibly other facilities under the recent signing of the Laken Riley act…this could include people who are merely accused of crimes, like you said, beyond being here illegally. Is that something you could see as being a potential issue with people being detained with no due process in sight?
RF: “The idea here is that if you are accused of a crime and you are an illegal immigrant, you become ineligible for bail. That’s basically what you’re describing. The best solution for that is for the illegal immigrants to go home. I can assure them of this: there is no one trying to keep them here. They can get in their cars today and head south.”
CG: Your campaign site says you intend to ‘Defend life’, but doesn’t list the extent to which you’d support abortion restrictions at the national level. You’ve voted for state legislation banning the procedure after six weeks, with exceptions for rape, incest, or human trafficking. Would you support legislation which imposes a stricter ban than this, or which eliminates those exceptions?
RF: “I believe that life is created at conception. When the opportunity comes before me to support that, that’s what I’m going to do. Running abortion bills will not be my priority. It hasn’t been in the legislature. But when bills come before you, you have to vote yes or no, and on those things, I will vote yes. I don’t subscribe to the Barack Obama method of voting present. That’s why you’re elected. I’m not going to answer hypotheticals, I’m just telling you that my theory, my view on the issue, is that I support life.”
CG: The Republicans control the House by three seats, pending the outcomes of multiple special elections including yours. With that thin a majority, how important is bipartisanship to you in order to be an effective legislator?
RF: “I’m gonna have to learn how things work in Washington. In Florida, the vast majority of the bills that we pass are bipartisan even though we’re an overwhelmingly Republican state. So I think a lot of the things that I work on will probably be bipartisan. You know, as you’ve pointed out, I care quite a bit about Israel and antisemitism. There are incredible advocates…clearly, you have the pro-Muslim terror Democrats, but then you’ve got guys like Jared Moskowitz who care about it immensely, and I would work with him. I think it’ll depend on the issue.”
CG: Another campaign promise you have is to lower insurance rates and hold private insurers accountable. What reforms would you propose to accomplish this that you believe can garner support in Congress?
RF: “Absolutely. Fighting illegal immigration is critical to getting insurance rates down. Everyone’s always been focused on homeowners insurance, and it’s a problem, it is. But all of the sudden auto insurance has just spiked in cost, and the most expensive part of my personal auto insurance policy is not to insure myself. I don’t know what yours is like, but you probably have a line on there that says uninsured and under-insured motorist insurance. That’s the most expensive part of my policy. And every single illegal immigrant that is in this country that is driving shouldn’t be here, shouldn’t be driving in Florida, doesn’t have a driver’s license, doesn’t have insurance. So if they hit someone, it’s that person’s insurance that has to pay. So illegal immigrants directly drive up the cost of insurance in Florida. It’s just one of the many ways that they make our lives more difficult. So absolutely, that’s one of the things I want to work on to get insurance prices down.”
CG: The United States in recent years has increased its natural gas exports, and is currently the world’s leading exporter. As some of the chief importers of American natural gas increase their investments in green energy, not to mention the implementation of alternative energy sources in the American private sector, are you worried about the economic impacts of lowering demand for natural gas?
RF: “No, because the market will adjust accordingly. First off, it won’t be a shock to the system. The demand would reduce gradually. As demand goes down, prices will go down and the markets will adjust. But I think we’ve seen in Europe that reliance on sun and wind is very risky. Honestly, the form of alternative energy that’s secure is nuclear, which is something that I support, but people for whatever reason don’t want to do that.
“Then the sun and the wind is very risky, and frankly has its own set of environmental problems. I’ve seen some work about the environmental impact of wind mills. It’s not zero. You know, the environmental impact of making solar panels. It’s not zero. I drive a Tesla, but I never try to tell people that I don’t use fuel. It’s got to get the electricity from somewhere. So there is no such thing as clean energy, it’s a myth. It’s just a question of how it’s not clean. So the spinning of the windmill may be clean, but the making of the windmill is not, the damage to the environment from the spinning of the windmill is not. Every form of energy has trade offs. There’s not a single one that doesn’t have pros and cons.”
