Dan Bongino, a former U.S. Secret Service agent who ran for Congress in Maryland in 2014 and for Senate in 2012, is now gunning to fill retiring Rep. Curt Clawson’s seat in Florida’s Congressional District 19.
“I’m running because no one wants to tell you the truth. You’ve been lied to for so long by legions of politicians with their own personal agendas,” Bongino said in an ad titled “Truth” posted to his Twitter page Monday morning.
“My goal is to clean up the junk, the frauds,” Bongino told The Daily Caller in a phone interview Monday morning. “The Hill has become a mess of excuse makers and clowns.”
Bongino said he plans to focus on cutting taxes, controlling spending and fixing the health care system in Washington.
“We have to take Obamacare and rip it out and burn it,” he said.
The author and editor for Conservative Review formally announced his candidacy on WFWN 92.5 Fox News Radio Monday morning.
“This a conservative district. Conservatism matters. Being a Republican is not enough anymore. We need conservatives,” said Bongino during the interview, which was streamed live on his Facebook page. “We have enough sellouts, we have enough people full of excuses. … The district deserves a conservative voice, and I think that I’m that voice.”
“If we start electing people who are wishy-washy on core issues, on life, on taxes, on the Second Amendment. I mean, all is lost at that point,” added Bongino.
Bongino formally filed for candidacy with the Federal Election Commission on June 6, and he will take on Republicans Chauncey Goss and Francis Rooney in the District 19 Republican primary in August.
In his last run for office in 2014, Bongino narrowly lost to John Delaney by fewer than 3,000 votes in the race for Maryland’s 6th House District.
Clawson, who currently holds the District 19 seat, announced that due to his the failing health of his father, he would unexpectedly not be running for re-election, according to Politico.
Clawson was elected in 2014 after a special election to replace the empty seat left by conservative talk radio host Trey Radel, who resigned after pleading guilty to cocaine possession in 2013.
District 19 is part of the west coast of Florida, covering parts of Cape Coral, Marco Island and Naples and includes a population of more than 690,000.