Tim Miller (3:51)

So given that military history, I'm wondering what you make of what's happening right now. And I guess we don't really know what to call it. We're working on things. A listener nominated decrease fire, which is what we're in now. We're not really in a war and we're not in a ceasefire, but we might be in a decrease fire. Trump said today that we're still. I think the plan is we're just gonna blockade the Strait of Hormuz for a while longer. So we need to close the strait to get it. And I'm just wondering, like, what you made of, you know, this war, of how the Defense Department, the Department of War, has handled it. Kind of. Any other thoughts on the foreign policy side of things?

Bail Dalton (4:35)

There is a part of yourself that has to remove yourself a bit to just see how ridiculous this is, because the real emotion that I have is just one of just absolute fury, you know, that we have service members, I mean, people I know, people I served with that are in harm's way for an operation that seems to have no strategic direction from the top whatsoever. I've been getting about a million texts today about the Armed Services Committee hearing. 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 considering the volume of texts I have, I probably need to go back and watch some. But you know, look, you know, 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, 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 discernible 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.

Aura Frames Advertiser (5:50)

Borg takes is sponsored by Aura Frames. Look, Mother's Day is coming and this is the last holiday where you want to get caught flat footed. Trust me, I've been there. It got ugly. Thankfully, Aura Frames, digital picture frames are a complete layup of a gift because you can give your mom more of her favorite thing. And what is that? It's you and your grandkids in pixel form. Whether you're reliving that trip to Disney or you're just reliving moments from your childhood. I love my Aura frame. I gave it to my mother in law last year. We put up all the pictures of her grandkids and her she loves it. She displays it right out there in her living room. These digital frames allow you to share your photos and videos effortlessly. Download the free Aura app or text photos straight to your frame and with free unlimited storage, you can add as many photos and videos as you want. You can even preload photos before it ships and then you can keep adding them at any time or anywhere. Every frame comes packaged in a premium gift box with no price tag. Their top rated App reached number one in the App Store on Christmas Day in 2025. Named number one by Wirecutter, you can save on the gifts moms love by visiting auraframes.com for a limited time. Listeners can get $25 off their bestselling carver matte frame with code Bulwark takes that's a U R A frames.com promo code. Bulwark takes support the show by mentioning us at checkout. And terms and conditions do apply.

Tim Miller (7:15)

How do you see yourself and where you would fit in the Democratic Congress? Like, is there somebody you think is doing a good job? You know, there's a lot of pretty negative feelings about people on the Hill these days. Yeah. Are there one or two examples of somebody thinks doing well?

Bail Dalton (7:29)

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, look, 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. And that's not what the American people need. But yeah, I think there are some. I mean, first of all, working for Senator Nelson, I think I worked for one of the consummate public servants, 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 with that as, you know, part of my ilk and part of my value structure. And, you know, look, I think we see some veterans 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, you know, service members in harm's way or not. So I think we're seeing a lot of good leadership from, you know, folks like Jason Crow and Pat Brian and Chris d'. Aluzio. You know, I'm sort of the same vintage with some of the same experiences.

Tim Miller (8:53)

I'm ozdementalist right now. You can't see this. I wrote down what I was like, who's he gonna say? I wrote down Pat Ryan. That's what I wrote down. Okay. I knew it. I felt it coming.

Bail Dalton (9:03)

Well, look, I think those guys have done a good job of using their prior service and their experiences and 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, 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.

Tim Miller (9:37)

I think that that's right. 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 little bit of this for us.

Bail Dalton (9:50)

You know, you got to give it to him, though, because he came straight out and admitted it. And, you know, 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

Tim Miller (10:02)

Washington D.C. accountability is important. Yeah, we'll get your point. Let's just talk about the district really quick so people can get their head. I said Daytona, but like, where is it? It's going like along the beach there. Does it make it over to Orlando? Like, what does the district look like?

Bail Dalton (10:16)

Yeah, it's just slightly northeast of sort of the bottom southwest corner is just northeast of Orlando. We've got the i4 corridor, Maitland, Altamont Springs, Sanford, Debary. 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. We're in Port Orange, which is just south of Daytona, down to New Smyrna. And this is a district that's filled with health, service, industry, aerospace workers. We've got incredible partnerships with the federal government and the Department of Defense and NASA, with folks out of our Embry Riddle and ucf, which is just to the south of this district. And also this district has been represented by both Republicans and Democrats before. Of course, Florida, it changes its lines quite often, which happens to be in the news today as well. Florida 7, where I'm. Where I'm running, has not. Would not be affected.

Tim Miller (11:12)

No change at all.

Bail Dalton (11:14)

Yeah, what we're seeing right now that is being debated is there's, you know, it's an R&5 district. We'll stay in our +5 district. It doesn't look like the borders are changed, you know, but on that point, not to get too far ahead of ourselves, but. And so just another crazy thing that we have, you know, representatives, whether they're in the state House in Tallahassee or in Washington D.C. think that they are able to just completely flaunt the will of the people. I mean, Floridians have spoken on this in 2010 with an amendment, voter approved amendment to our state constitution that said that redistricting can't be done in the way that they are doing it. And, you know, I think they're seeing in Tallahassee right now, again, a 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, 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.

Tim Miller (12:27)

Yeah, I don't know. I looked at that map and I'm not, you know, I don't. I know enough to be dangerous about Florida politics, you know, and they 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, you know, Republicans won by 16, 17, 18. Now they move the district down to 8, 9, 10, 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. So let's talk about Corey Mills in particular. You said you were focused on constituent services. I assume he's not doing well on that count. Unless you're counting on kind of like cyber stalking people in the District or if there are any arms dealers in the District, he's probably treating them pretty well. But give us some of the hits on your opponent.

Bail Dalton (13:17)

Well, I mean, he's certainly putting the judicial system to work in terms of. As a federal judge had to issue a restraining order against them on behalf of a woman here in Florida who he was, as you said, cyber stalking, blackmailing, attempting revenge porn 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. You know, at. At some point, you got to give it up. And you don't want that point to be when a judge tells you you're a danger to a woman. And then, you know, was in the news last week, I think, again, this domestic violence dispute up in Washington, D.C. on behalf of another woman, also not his wife there in his, you know, twenty thousand dollar a month penthouse, which he didn't pay rent on for a while either. 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. While sitting on the High 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 and that this investigation has been going on since 2024. And you know, we've also seen that. I mean, I guess, you know, when somebody tells you who they are, you know, believe them. He's also telling stories that have, about his military service that have been refuted by people who have actually served with them. And so, you know, whether that constitutes stolen valor by law or not, that's up for the judiciary to decide. But certainly as a veteran, I'm not interested in having anybody near. You know, my people are making decisions on their behalf that can't get their own story straight about their own military time.

Tim Miller (15:21)

Is there anything else out there? You're watching, you're out among the people. Sometimes I feel I've got a great job, but I do feel a little bit like we have to go do our live events and you know, I've got to go to Jazz Fest and you know, I've got to go, you know, talk to the guys at the bars that I frequent. I gotta go to Ms. Mays to hear what's happening out there because I'm in my fucking hole all the time.

Bail Dalton (15:46)

I love that Tim said he had to go to Jazz Fest as have

Tim Miller (15:50)

to go just to hear what's happening out there among

Bail Dalton (15:54)

in the, in the Gulf coast there. But yeah, you know, the best part of, of you know, this adventure is getting out and talking. You know, look, this is, this is, I'm from this district, I'm from Central Florida. I grew up here talking to friends and families and neighbors who are, who are fed up and you know, we've focus mostly on the corruption and grift that they're experiencing and their representatives in Tallahassee and Washington D.C. 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 their cost of goods is going up, 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 healthcare. And, you know, that ACA subsidies expiring as a crisis of Congress's own make and leaving, you know, tens of thousands, and, you know, over 45,000 people in this district alone without health care at all. And over 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 looking at 5,000, $6,000. 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. It's getting worse. We were promised the 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.

Tim Miller (17:53)

All right, last thing, 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 excuse making. Like, the reality is Florida was a real swing state not that long ago, and Ron DeSantis barely won against Andrew Gillum in 2018. Like, you know, we're all enough to remember that. And so 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 right the ship.

Bail Dalton (18:40)

Yeah, I think ugly is the right word. I mean, there's just so much ugliness now. 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, 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 war yours. 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 elected representatives. And so, you know, the other thing that happens when I talk to people, they're like, look, I'm tired of being 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, because they are interested in somebody that is going to shoe 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, they're 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 groundswell 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 reference, like, you know, 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 visceral, you know, hatred. And so people are tired of that.

Tim Miller (20:46)

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.

Bail Dalton (20:53)

But there are definitely, definitely a lot of keyboard warriors out there, 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 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 they just don't have that right now. And, you know, we're finding lots of support from folks of all stripes. And so, you know, I think that is indicative of, you know, maybe some positive momentum in the other direction.

Tim Miller (21:34)

All right, he's Bail Dalton. He's running in Florida 7. Bail dalton.com if you want to, you know, get the texts or whatever.

Bail Dalton (21:43)

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 to get texts and emails. But yeah, bail Dalton.com check us out. We're running a campaign laser focused on Florida 7 and giving the people there again, my, my friends, families and neighbors what they need.

Tim Miller (22:01)

All right, appreciate you, brother. Thanks for coming on the bulk. We'll talk to you soon. Keep us posted.

Bail Dalton (22:04)

All right, Sam, thanks for having me. We'll stay in touch.

SpinQuest Advertiser (22:08)

You know what? It sucks to be bored. But when I get on my phone and play real casino games on spin quest.com the time flies by. That two hour wait at the DMV seems like 10 minutes. Play your favorite slots, live blackjack, live preps with a live dealer. New players, $30 coin packs are on sale for 10 bucks. Play spinquest.com and you'll never be bored again.

Tim Miller (22:32)

Spin Quest is a free to play social casino void where prohibited. Visit spinquest.com for more details. Hi, I'm Alicia.

SpinQuest Advertiser (22:39)

And I'm Stacy.

Tim Miller (22:40)

And we make Trashy Divorces, everybody's favorite good podcast about bad relationships.

Bail Dalton (22:46)

Looking for something true, crimey, without the gore or the body count?

Tim Miller (22:50)

We've been churning out funny, feisty feminist episodes since 2019.

Bail Dalton (22:54)

So if you're looking to put some

Tim Miller (22:56)

scandalous stories told well into your ears this summer, check out Trashy Divorces.

Bail Dalton (23:01)

Wherever you listen to podcasts, trust us, we've covered someone you love or someone

Tim Miller (23:06)

you love to hate.