This Democrat Smells Blood in Deep Red Florida (w/ Bale Dalton)

Added: 2026-05-06

[00:00:00]Hey everybody, welcome to the bowl work.

[00:00:01]I'm Tim Miller. Delighted to welcome a Democrat running for Congress in Florida against Corey Mills. He's also a Navy veteran and former NASA chief of staff.

[00:00:10]It's Bale Dalton. What's up, bro?

[00:00:12]>> Hey, Tim. How's it going? Thanks for having me on.

[00:00:15]>> It's going well. Um, we had, I guess, a couple weeks ago, Roger Sullenberger on to talk about all of the various crimes and misdemeanors and offenses and bigotries of Cory Mills. We've covered that a little bit, so we're going to get to that. Um, but I I I wanted to have you on in part because this district really encapsulates something that I've been talking a lot about, which is I think the Democrats have big opportunity to win in places that haven't traditionally been targeted. Um, you know, Cory won this district by 13 points, it's not a traditional swing district, but because of the year, because of how bad Trump's screwing things up, because of the bad candidate on the other side in particular, um, I I think this is the type of race that needs more attention. So, uh, before we get to like the Corey drama, I just want people to hear a little bit about you and give us your little kind of, you know, I don't know, first date pitch >> for the Bale Dalton candidacy.

[00:01:05]>> Absolutely. Well, uh, yeah, as you, as you noted, uh, I've been now in the Navy and Navy Reserve for over 23 years.

[00:01:12]It'll be my 24th anniversary here in about a month in May. uh helicopter pilot supporting special operations uh throughout Iraq, uh Afghanistan as a on the ground with the SEAL teams as a forward air controller and then commanded a helicopter squadron supporting special operations in the Horn of Africa and throughout the Pacific. Uh so those those have been some really good adventures, some goods, some bads uh there, but uh really the honor of a life to to to take care of, you know, 450 of my opinion the best sailors in the Navy. Um, I did some work for uh Florida's former senator, Bill Nelson, uh, doing national defense foreign policy work for him. And of course, near and dear to my heart, veteran services, making sure our veterans are getting the benefits that they earned and the care that they need in their own transition. And then yeah, uh even even maybe more exciting, I got the chance to help lead NASA as deputy chief of staff and chief of staff, you know, 14 centers across America, over 16,000 um researchers, scientists, engineers, and astronauts. Uh you know, showing the world what America can accomplish every day when we actually work together. So, it's been a life of public service that has been quite rewarding and many times quite frustrating. You know, now I'm running for Congress here in my my home district in Central Florida because, as you mentioned, we have a representative right now who seems quite uninterested.

[00:02:34]Uh maybe because he can't be because he's so distracted with what's going on with himself, but is uninterested in, you know, serving the needs of Central Floridaidians and they deserve somebody better up in Congress and we're going to give them that option.

[00:02:46]>> So, given that uh military history, I'm wondering what you make of uh what's happening right now. Um, and uh, they are I guess I don't we don't really know what to call it. We we're working on things. Uh, uh, a listener nominated decrease fire, which is what we're in now. We're not really in a war, not war.

[00:03:04]We're and we're not in the ceasefire, but we might be in a decrease fire. Uh, Trump said today that we're still I think the plan is we're just going to blockade the straight of Hormuz for a while longer. So the, you know, we need to close the straight to keep to get it open. Um, and I'm just wondering like what you made of, you know, this war, of how the defense department, the department of war, uh, has handled it.

[00:03:26]Um, kind of any other thoughts on on the foreign policy side of things? There is a part of yourself that has to to remove yourself a bit to just see how ridiculous this is because the real emotion that I have is just of one of just absolute fury. You know that we have service member I mean people I know people I served with uh that are in harm's way uh for an operation that seems to have no strategic direction from the top whatsoever. Um, I've been getting about a million texts today about the Armed Services Committee hearing. I I've been on the phones talking to voters trying to address their actual needs. So, I haven't seen a lot of it, but uh, considering the volume of texts I have, I probably need to go back and watch some. But, you know, look, you know, as a as a veteran and as a student of military history, you know, we're told that, you know, war is an extension of politics by other means, but in order for that to be successful, you have to have like a real strategic end state. and and you know, I don't I don't see us having that and it certainly hasn't been presented to the American people or their representatives in Congress. So, you know, once again, we've we've led ourselves into, you know, a war with no discernable end and put our service members in harm's way and left their families with questions about are they truly being taken care of or not.

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[00:06:11]>> How do you see yourself and where you would fit in the Democratic Congress?

[00:06:14]Like is there somebody out there you think is doing a good job? You know, there's a lot of pretty negative feelings about people on the hill these days. Are there are there one or two uh examples of of somebody you think's doing well?

[00:06:25]>> Yeah, absolutely. I mean, look, the the overall negative view is warranted, right? We've just seen certainly in my lifetime a greater percentage of people who seem to be, you know, addicted to power or addicted to being on TV or addicted to have this information that we now see them trading on for monetary value. Uh and that's not what the American people need. And but yeah, I think there's some I mean, first of all, working for Senator Nelson, I think I worked for one of the consmate public servants uh you know, used to tell us public service is a public trust. And the main thing that we were focused on, no matter what part of the staff we were was constituent services and making sure that the people who are represented are actually getting somebody that cares about them and cares about trying to solve their problem. So certainly grew up uh with that as uh you know part of my ilk and part of my value structure.

[00:07:17]And uh you know look I think we see some veterans uh who happen to be in Congress right now who are trying to you know hold our government as a whole accountable for these decisions we're making and where we're you know exhibiting our values in terms of where we're putting our money and where we're putting our uh you know service members in in harm's way or not. So, I think we're seeing a lot of good leadership from, you know, folks like Jason Crowe and and and Pat Ryan and Chris Duzio.

[00:07:44]Um, you know, I'm sort of the same vintage with some of the same experiences. And >> the mentalist right now, you can't see this. I wrote down what I was like, who's he going to say? I wrote down Pat Ryan was what I wrote down. Okay. I knew it. I felt it coming. Well, look, I think those guys have done a good job of using their prior service and their experiences in trying to hold, you know, accountable folks that too often speak flippantly about where we are spending this huge amount of our taxpayer money and treasure and more importantly where we're putting our service members lives at risk. I mean, absolutely, the goal of the federal government is to provide for our national defense. Uh but we have to be doing so in a much more responsible way and it's way too expensive monetarily and it's way too expensive with the lives of our service people to be going it alone.

[00:08:33]>> I think that that's right. I I I don't know if I want to compare myself to Oz the Mentalist because I do think it was kind of a big big miss for him to not be able to predict what >> little bit of little bit of miss >> for you know you got to give it to him though because he came straight out and admitted it and uh you know and in today's day and age when somebody is able to admit a weakness or admit you know missing something that's a pretty rare thing in Washington DC >> accountability is important. Okay. Um talk let's we'll get your part. Let's just talk about the district really quick so people can get their head. Um I I said Daytona, but like where is it?

[00:09:07]It's going like along the beach there.

[00:09:08]Does it make it over to Orlando? Like what does the district look like?

[00:09:11]>> Yeah, it's just slightly northeast of sort of the bottom southwest corner is just northeast of Orlando. Uh we've got the I4 corridor, uh Matland, Aon Springs, Sanford, Deerry. And then if you just take that sort of line up I4 where it goes north south and take it all the way to the east coast. Uh we're in Port Orange which is just south of Daytona down to New Smyrna. And this is a district that's you know filled with uh you know health service industry uh aerospace workers. We've got incredible partnerships with the federal government and the department of defense and NASA uh with folks out of our uh you know Embry Riddle and UCF which is just to the south of this district. Um, and also this district has been represented by both Republicans and Democrats before.

[00:09:56]Of course, you know, Florida changes its lines quite often, which happens to be in the news today as well. Um, Florida 7 where I'm uh where I'm running, has not will would not be affected. Um, >> no change at all.

[00:10:09]>> Yeah. What we're seeing right now, uh, that is being debated is there's, you know, it's an R plus 5 district. We'll stay in R plus5 district. it doesn't look like the borders are changed, you know, but on that point, and not to get too far ahead of ourselves, but it's just another crazy thing that we have, you know, representatives, whether they're in the state house in Tallahassee or in Washington DC, think that they are able to just completely flaunt the will of the people. I mean, Floridaians have spoken on this in 2010 with a amendment, voterapproved amendment to our state constitution that said that redistricting can't be done in the way that they are doing it. Uh, and you know, I think they're seeing in Tallahassee right now, again, bunch of texts coming in from the crowds in Tallahassee that are telling people, Republican or Democrat, like, look, our system is not for politicians to pick their districts. Our system is for people to vote who they think will best represent their area. And uh you know this this what's going on in Tallahassee has been going on for almost 20 years now in terms of you know people our elected representatives just not holding themselves accountable to the will of the people. And that's something that's got to change.

[00:11:22]>> Yeah. I don't know. I looked at that map and I'm not, you know, uh I don't I know enough to be dangerous about Florida politics, you know, and I I they'd probably end up still picking up a seat or two, but I think that there's some backfire potential in there. Like a couple of those seats that uh you know uh uh Republicans won by 16, 17, 18. Now they move the district down to 8 n 10.

[00:11:44]And you know, depending on how bad things get with the economy, with the war, people being upset about exactly the type of thing you're talking about, I think they might be putting a couple of their folks at risk. Um, so let's talk about Cory Mills in particular. You said you were focused on constituent services. I I assume he's not doing well on that count, unless you're counting on kind of like cyberstalking people in the district or if there are any arms dealers in the district. He's probably treating them pretty well. But uh, give us some of the hits on your opponent.

[00:12:13]Well, I mean, he's certainly putting the judicial system to work. Uh, you know, in terms of, you know, as a federal judge had to issue a restraining order against them on behalf of a woman here in Florida, um, whom he was, as you said, cyberstalking, blackmailing, uh, attempting revenge porn uh, against. I mean, it's just crazy. I mean, this this woman had to tell Corey Mills over 11 times to stop contacting her, and he refused to listen. um you know at at some point you got to give it up and uh you don't want that point to be when a judge tells you you're a danger to a woman. Uh and then you know was in the news last week I think again uh this domestic violence dispute up in Washington DC on behalf of another woman also not his wife u there in his you know $20,000 a month penthouse which he didn't pay rent on for a while either.

[00:13:05]So, I mean, this this guy's just got a host of things. And, you know, that's just one silo of of his problems, how he treats people, specifically women. You know, he's a foreign arms dealer that has refused to disclose what countries he sells weapons to, uh, while sitting on the House Armed Services Committee and overseeing, in fact, in one of the subcommittees he's on, you know, these export licenses for weapons. So, it's an incredible conflict of interest that Congress has allowed to go on since 2024. I mean, he he likes to say he's only been under investigation and that he referred himself a couple months ago in November. These these uh in this investigation's been going on since 2024. And you know, we've also seen that uh I mean, I guess, you know, when somebody tells you who they are, you know, believe him. Uh he's also telling stories that have about his military service that have been refuted by people who have actually served with him. Uh, and so, you know, whether that constitutes stolen valor by law or not, that's up for the judiciary to decide.

[00:14:06]But certainly as a veteran, I'm not interested in having anybody near uh, you know, my my people are making decisions on their behalf that uh, can't get their own story straight about their own uh, military time.

[00:14:17]>> Is there anything else out there you're you're watching? Uh, you're out among the people. Sometimes I feel uh I've got a great job, but I do feel a little bit like we have to go do our live events and uh you know I've got to go to Jazzfest and you know I've got to go you know talk to the the guys at the bars that I frequent. I got to go to Miss Maze to hear what's happening out there because I'm in my [ __ ] hole all the time. I love that Tim said he had to go to Jazzfest as to go just to hear what's happening out there event in the uh in the Gulf Coast there. But yeah, you know, the best part of um of you know, this adventure is getting out and talking. Uh you know, look, this is this is I'm from this district. I'm from Central Florida. I grew up here. uh talking to friends and families and neighbors who are who are fed up and you know we've focused mostly on the corruption and and grift that they're experiencing and their representatives in Tallahassee and Washington DC and that's a big part of it but also you know talking to folks who are like look I don't have time to care about that stuff because this cost of living crisis that I'm in takes up all of my time you know people are unable to even think aspirationally anymore which is what our country was founded on Right? Create a better life for your kids and for those that are coming behind you. You know, folks are heads down every day making crisis decisions at the kitchen table about, you know, how they're going to put food on the table. I mean, small business owners that are getting squeezed on both sides, right, by this chaotic tariff implementation where they're cost of goods is going up.

[00:15:53]They've got to raise their prices. They lose customers. They can't keep employees on. Employees are, you know, dependent on a job for for health care.

[00:16:02]And you know that ACA subsidies expiring is a crisis of Congress's own making, leaving you know tens of thousands in you know over 45,000 people in this district alone without healthcare at all and over a h 100,000 people will see their premiums have already seen their premiums go up two, three, and four times. So you know if you're paying $2,500 for your family of four to try to take care of your health, you know, now you're you're looking at $5,000 $6,000.

[00:16:29]I mean, people cannot do that right now, and they certainly can't do that with a future that they see as only getting worse. You know, we were promised an economy that would be getting better.

[00:16:40]It's getting worse. We were promised a government that would be working more efficiently. It's getting worse. So, people are people are fed up and I'm right there with them.

[00:16:48]>> All right, last thing. uh Democrats have lost a bunch of ground in Florida and I do think sometimes there's a you know sense of you know blaming other forces out there right like it's not actually the Democratic the Democrats campaign or their platform and their policy problems it's the voters are dumb or there was cheating you know whatever there's always a lot of excusem but like the reality is Florida was a real swing state not that long ago I mean Ronda Santis barely won against Andrew Gillum in 2018 like, you know, we're all enough to remember that. Uh, and so like when you look at just how ugly it's got between 2018 and 2024 for the Democrats in Florida, like how do you assess why that was and like what the party can do to write the ship?

[00:17:35]>> Yeah, I think ugly is the right word. I mean, there's just so much ugliness now.

[00:17:41]And what I referenced before is once people are getting in power, it seems like the only thing they care about is staying in power. They don't care about creating good policy. They don't care about, you know, serving the people of which they represent. They only care about staying in their seat. And I think that has just uh you know that that's been a negative momentum, right? A snowball effect which has just created a real ugliness issue. You know, when you call everything a war, then people become warors. And in order to have a war, you have to have an enemy. So, we've had communities in Florida just pit against each other by this divisiveness that's been thrust upon them by bad actors and our, you know, elected representatives. And so, you know, the other thing that happens when I talk to people is they're like, "Look, I'm tired of be tired of being told I have to hate my neighbor, right? I grew up in Central Florida when it was the purplest of purple, right? I think my right door and left door, next door neighbors were both registered Republicans. They are both supporting my campaign, by the way, uh because they are interested in somebody that is going to choose some of this partisan politics and actually, you know, do what's right for the people. And so, yeah, I think where we are in Florida today is we've watched, you know, things sort of happen surreptitiously over time. Sort of that, you know, drip drip drip, you know, torture of politics. And I think people are now awakened to the fact that, you know, their really their rights and their representation have been taken away from them slowly over time. And I think we're going to see a big ground swell uh against that. Again, Republican, Democrat, independent. You know, government is not working for them. And they're being tired of being told they have to hate their neighbor because the communities and neighborhoods are where we live as you referenced. like you know that that is no way to live in a place where you're either you know scared to go outside because of policies or scared to go outside because you know your neighborhood has become you know such a vis visceral uh you know hatred and so people are tired of that.

[00:19:41]>> Well I hope you're right. I'm a little skeptical. I think maybe some people like like spewing hate. You know some people like the hate fire but >> there are definitely definitely a lot of keyboard warriors out there uh as you well know. And I think one of these things is we need to have, you know, people being willing to put themselves out there and, you know, hear the hard questions and and respond to them in ways that they, you know, may not agree with right at that moment, but at least they're having a conversation with somebody who's grounded in rational thought and is grounded in the idea that, you know, public service is a public trust. And and they just don't have that right now. And, you know, we're finding lots of support from folks of all stripes. Uh, and so, you know, I think that is indicative of, you know, maybe some positive momentum in the other direction.

[00:20:29]>> All right. He's Bale Dalton. He's running in Florida 7. Bale daltton.com if you want to, you know, get the texts or whatever. Uh, >> yeah. Yeah. Check us out. There's even an area where you can sign up to get news where you don't necessarily have to get texts and emails, but yeah, baleton.com. Check us out. We're running a campaign uh laser focused on Florida 7 and giving the people there uh again my my friends, families, and neighbors what they need.

[00:20:56]>> All right. Appreciate you, brother.

[00:20:57]Thanks for coming on the Buller. We'll talk to you soon. Keep us posted. All right, >> Sam. Thanks for having me. We'll stay in touch.