Governor DeSantis ran a successful bid to become the 46th Governor of Florida, and that meant his congressional seat was up for grabs as well.
As one Republican moved on to replace Governor Scott, another Republican moved on to replace Governor DeSantis. In turn, Michael Waltz, special forces Green Beret and newly-elected freshman congressman is now representing Florida’s 6th congressional district.
However, he’s assuring that this isn’t his first go around when it comes to the political arena.
In a conversation with the Floridian about getting situated as a sunshine state congressman, Waltz recounted his military service and his background as a small business owner while also being a father and having partial custody of a 15-year-old daughter.
Concerning his military service, Congressman Waltz informed that he’s “still in the National Guard.”
Born and raised in Jacksonville, Florida, Congressman Waltz said that “both the Navy SEALS and the Green Berets have reserve National Guard units."
That’s really been important for me because my day job for many years was… under Secretary Rumsfeld, Secretary Gates, when they were defense secretaries, and then eventually Vice President Cheney as his counter-terrorism advisor,” said Waltz.
He reminisced, “there I was in the White House situation room, helping them craft the policy and the strategy.”
With the new Adam McKay movie, Vice, in theaters, Waltz commented on the film about Vice President Cheney by saying that what the movie got right is that Cheney’s wife, Lynne Cheney, is “truly the brains behind that family.”
And, when asked what it was like to work with Vice President Cheney, Waltz noted that he wouldn’t call Cheney “Mr. Personality” when you meet him.” He noted that Cheney’s “a stoic, Wyoming kinda guy’s guy but truly one of the smartest individuals I’ve ever been around,” adding that Cheney “knows how to get things done in D.C.”
As a small business owner, Waltz explained that his day job the last 8 years was a business dedicated to “threat finance.” Specifically, what the company did was “take the Goldman Sachs kind of financial forensic analysts, marry them up with the intelligence you get from CIA or from others and… if you want to find the bad guy you follow all the money or if you want to choke the group off… you choke off their money.”
This background, Waltz argues, is what made him walk “the walk when it comes to what it takes to build a business and to grow our economy.”
And, while Waltz is a decorated veteran who’s seen many sides to the political landscape, Congressman Waltz doesn’t feel like a freshman congressman.
Instead, Waltz assures that he’s ready to “hit the ground running.”
