Florida’s 7th Congressional Republican Primary Debate
The Commitment 2026 primary debate series continues with the Republican primary race for Florida’s 7th congressional district.
Hi everyone, I’m Greg Fox with West 2 News and West.com, and this is part of our ongoing series of commitment 2026 election debates so that you get to know the candidates in *** variety of races from federal races on down to the state level and even some local races as well. Today we’re talking. Talking with the Republican candidates in Congress District 7. Let’s give you *** look at the map here so you know exactly what we’re talking about. The district remains exactly the same this year as it was in 2024, so I know you’ve heard *** lot about redistricting. This one did not change under *** new map by the governor. So it covers all of Seminole County and South Volusia County from Daytona down to the Brevard County line. We were fortunate to have 3 of our 4 Republican candidates here, and thank you all for being here so that voters can learn *** little bit more about you. We can hear the story of your experience and what your vision is if you are elected and sent to DC. Uh, not joining us is, uh, Congressman Corey Mills. Uh, he is the incumbent. Uh, he is seeking *** third term. He declined our invitation to debate. First, we’re going to give you each *** minute, uh, to, uh, give us an opening statement, and, uh, we’re going to start that with, uh, Ms. Ulrich. Uh, so if you can talk to the voters for *** second and, and tell us more about you. I’m Sarah Ulrich. I am *** 7th generation Floridian. I have *** degree in finance and an MBA, state licenses, professional certifications, *** lot of experience in corporate America, and I own *** small business. I also have 2 children in college. I’ve been married for almost 23 years. And *** breast cancer survivor and I’ve written *** book. I’ve helped thousands of people purchase their home. I’ve worked with thousands of global companies to make them more successful. I have spent decades negotiating and bringing people together to succeed in *** common goal through influential power. We need leaders we can trust who know how to get the job done. I will collaborate across the aisle for long-term solutions that serve you and will bring dignity back to DC. I am accountable to no one except you and God. Thank you very much, Ryan Elijah. One minute. Greg, first of all, thank you for hosting. Thanks, Wes, for hosting. I’m Ryan Elijah. I have raised my boys with my wife for 30 years now in this district. I have served on area boards. I’ve also coached Little League Baseball and youth baseball. We have been invested in this community. I’ve also been *** public figure as *** news anchor for 14 years. That has allowed me to build trust, and that trust has helped us get dozens of area leaders in. Business leaders that have signed on to endorse our campaign moving forward, but we talk about trust though, trust in government right now, it is shattered. Trust in our local representative, that is at an even lower level. I know we’ll address it later, but Congressman Mills should be on this stage tonight talking about your issues, but he can’t address the issues in his own life. I left my career, one that I loved, to fight for this community, and it starts by getting cost. We have to get costs lower. There are *** number of ways we can do that, including in health care. We can also look at supporting our fire, supporting our law enforcement, supporting the military, and looking at election integrity as well. Democrats have targeted this district. I’m not going to let that happen. We’re going to bring integrity back and we’re going to start getting District 7 in the headlines for the right reasons. All right, thank you very much. And Michael, Don Johnson, 1 minute please. OK, thank you, Greg. Appreciate it. My name is Michael Don Johnson. I’m *** father and *** grandfather. I’m also *** widower. I lost my wife in *** car wreck in Tallahassee, Florida. My family, my grandchildren, my children were all raised in this area of Florida. I’m *** full-time resident and even when I worked for the federal government for 30+ years, I traveled *** lot throughout the nation and overseas, but I always came back here to enjoy the weekends and holidays with my family. We attended the schools. I attended, uh, I attended the University of Central Florida for *** while, but I got my graduate degree at Webster University in St. Louis. I graduated from Southern Illinois University with *** master’s degree in Business also. When I was working for the federal government, I was able to probably be an overseer, an investigator, and auditor with *** lot of companies in this area, so I know *** lot of people within the defense industry and the government industry. I’ve been to NASA, you know, we had to shut down programs over there. I led teams that went over there. We shut down some of the billion dollar programs over there. So I’m the guy has been up to DC, walking the halls of the Senate and the Congress on the Representative side in the Capitol, and I appreciate you for helping, helping us with this debate. Thank you. All right, thanks to all three of you for those opening statements. Before we move on to my questions, I want to ask Mr. Johnson about *** lawsuit that you filed against Corey Mills. Essentially, what are those allegations? Uh, the allegations are that he used *** notary illegally outside the state of Florida, and the notary was doing the act that we have the evidence of that he did it within the Capitol grounds, which is illegal according to the House ethics rules within Congress. Uh, we also noticed that the signature block for the notary, it’s ***, it’s *** candidate’s oath. It’s that all of the candidates have to file with the, with the state of Florida, so it’s, it’s Florida law, um, and on that form there’s *** bunch of things you have to swear to, and then you have to have it notarized. And uh so we caught the different pins, uh, sizes and shapes on the signature board, and we noticed that the venue was in Sarasota, Florida. Well, this is not Sarasota, Florida. Everyone knows that we’re in Volusia in Seminole County here. So we put the case together and I’ll let my lawyer, you know, give you more information. All right, very good. Thanks for describing that. And of course you can be sure that West 2News and West.com will have updates on this lawsuit as we get closer and closer because ballots are about to be printed. OK, so we have to have some resolution in this case and I’m sure that the judge in Tallahassee will move this along pretty quickly. I want to get an idea of your priorities if you are, if you’re elected to Congress. And perhaps that would materialize in *** bill that you would file maybe first. So Ms. Ulrich, let’s start with you. What would be your biggest priority? If you are sent to DC, it’s no surprise we know that Washington needs to be cleaned up. So there are things that we can do on the legislative side to clean up Congress itself and hold them accountable. Term limits are very important, making sure that they can’t trade in stock, very important. I would love to see some residency requirements. Now that’s going to take. *** little bit of *** bigger process, but I could live in any state and run for this office. And when you do that, that’s where you get corporations and special interests purchasing our politicians. By the time that most people go into Congress, they are owned, and they own so many favors to people there, they are focused on. The priorities of the corporations instead of what we want as people across the aisle, there’s so many things that we can agree on that are important like balancing the budget, protecting this country. Yet Congress is not doing any of those because they’re not their priorities. We need to return this to serve it leadership. All right, and you said you’re for term limits. I am for term limits. Let’s, let’s begin with Mr. Elijah before you tell us what would be your priority. Are you for or against term limits? I am for term limits. I have said at many of my events, though some people have been in Congress two weeks and they should go already, and you’ve got others that could be 22 years and you want to keep them. So every rule doesn’t fit every lawmaker, but the way the system is right now, we’ve got to have term limits because I can tell you running against an incumbent, the system is not in your favor. And that’s why someone that is not good and doesn’t represent their district can stay 32 years. So yes, 4 term limits. All right, so what’s your priority? What’s your first bill? You’re going to file. Well, so aside from the ones that I mentioned before, First Amendment rights are big in protecting the consumer. That’s something I did in my old life as well. But I take care of my mom, who’s 80 years old, and 50 calls *** day is what she gets in terms of fraud calls and scam calls toward *** consumer. They are preying on our most desperate elderly people as well. We’ve got to fight back on that. There are certain laws that if you put *** state and federal together, we can get more teeth for law enforcement and make sure they’re not preying on our seniors. Obviously targeting. Medicaid fraud and some of those are big as well, but from the consumer front, one of the first things I’d want to do is attack where our elderly are certainly out there and they’re getting attacked with fraud. All right, Mr. Johnson, this turned into *** two-pronged question. First of all, are you for or against term limits? And then tell me what would be your biggest priority? OK, I’m for term limits also, and term limits not just for the politicians but also for *** lot of the staff up in DC. They kind of take over the bills and the writing of the bills and they’ve been there for *** long time, just like in Tallahassee. You know, the staff runs the show up there basically because we’ve been up in Tallahassee. Lobbying for election integrity bills and we had to deal with the staff. They knew more about what was going on than the politicians, and then we’d deal with them and then the politicians get on board after that. So I do believe in term limits definitely. Uh, my biggest priorities right now, um, is there’s *** lot of corruption going on up there right now with both parties, and you’ve all, we’ve all heard about the controversies. 4 people were supposed to resign and 1 didn’t, the one we’re running against, right, um. So we need to enact legislation and actually get on the House floor during sessions when we’re not technically in session and do special privileges resolutions to try to clear up some of the mess we have up there. We don’t have to introduce bills. We can just make it on the House floor, and some of our congressmen and congress ladies from Florida here have done that to help us try to clean up corruption, and that’s what I plan on doing. Because that’s the number one issue we have because that’s leading to all the other things that are going on regarding the bills that they push everything up until the last day and then we got 10,000 page bills that we’re all being forced to vote on. We need to stop that. Thank you. All right, thank you very much. As you all know, Congressman Mills, he was endorsed by President Trump earlier this year, but since that time, of course, we’ve had, well, let me Let me back that up. Before the endorsement and now after the endorsement, there have been House Ethics Committee investigations of Congressman Mills. I want to read you this from the May 11th press release by the House Committee on Ethics. It’s reviewing allegations that Representative Mills may have violated various laws, rules, or other standards of conduct. And as you all know, West 2 News has been bringing you *** collection of stories since over *** year ago on *** number of incidents involving Congressman Mills. Mr. Elijah, I guess I would ask, Is this something that’s important to voters, or are they simply going to look at the Trump endorsement and say, Well, he’s our guy? It is incredibly important to voters. It’s the reason I got in this race. I would not have got in against an incumbent if I didn’t feel this seat was vulnerable and on the verge of going to Democrats in November. It is incredibly important. It doesn’t mean they don’t respect the president’s endorsement, and I said that getting in. I did this for the president and for the. Party and I think come November you’ll understand why. Come August 18th you’ll understand why. We’ve spoken to *** few 1000 voters and consultant may say they don’t know, they know. I don’t bring it up. I try to focus on what we’re doing for *** campaign. Most of them want to bring it up to us, and these are veterans. These are *** number of people who have seen 4 or 5 different fronts that they’re concerned about. Doesn’t mean they haven’t supported some of his votes in the past. It means they’re concerned. One thing I’ve said *** lot, that we’ve been in the headlines for the wrong reasons. So there’s *** definite concern, and it’s something we focus on *** lot, looking forward to making sure the decision we make in August doesn’t burn us in November. All right, Mr. Johnson, your thoughts on the investigations involving the congressman, his Trump endorsement, and whether voters in your view, care about that. OK, well, I’ve been on top of *** lot of the investigations. I’ve been the one that’s been filing *** lot of them, and, uh, and I think the the reporting that’s been done finally on what we’ve already claimed, we, we knew that we, that when he first ran years ago, um. The Trump endorsement, I think all of us on this stage here have been walking the streets of this district day after day, and I think all of us together probably knocked on tens of thousands of doors, believe it or not. In less than 6 weeks we were able to collect 3600 signatures. To get on the ballot and the main word that we mentioned was Corey Mills, and they said, give me that thing. I’ll sign it right now. So I, I’m looking at our voters that we got *** group of smart voters in our counties here. We’re highly educated counties here, and I think they’ll make the right choice and President Trump, I love him. But I think he made the wrong choice here, but I think he’s got *** group behind him that’s pushing for Corey Mills, and um. I think that the voters will actually override the president’s endorsement. Thank you. OK, Ms. Ulrich, same questions. Well, the ends justify the means, right? No, they don’t. So I have seen where endorsements, they are political fodder. They come from the establishment. And do your own thinking. Don’t outsource your thought process to anyone in the establishment or otherwise. If you want to complain, and there is *** lot to complain about right now, Do it with your vote that is what they are afraid of is you voting in the primary against their chosen people because that means you have power and use that power we should never outsource our vote is one of the great things about being an American citizen is that we do have the freedom to make our voice heard and I see this in the older generation they know. This they know the power that they have, and they get out and they vote in droves, but the younger people don’t do it. So please register to vote and make sure you go make your voice heard. All right, I’m going to stick with Ms. Ulrich as we get into this next question. We get inundated with emails from all members of Congress, but I’m just going to pick out some of the emails that I’ve gotten recently from Congressman Mills. It says he Let’s see, it’s brought back $100 million so far to District seven, while successfully handling 5800 cases for constituents who needed help. Uh, and so I guess I would ask, uh, convince voters you can do better. Well, one, I would love to see the paper trail on that. Uh, I don’t think that’s work that he’s put in, and I would say this somebody has to be the adult in the room. We are $2 trillion over budget last year because the federal government is doing *** lot of things the federal government was not meant to do. So somebody has to say you can’t have everything. Florida is *** donor state. We send out more federal dollars than we. Get back. So whatever somebody is bragging about, it’s not what we put into it, and we had to beg for those dollars back. Why are we begging for our money back? That is *** problem. We need to shrink the federal government and push it down to the state and local level. If your money is spent there in the local community, one, you get to spend your own money and you know how to support your community better than the federal government. Why were we paying for daycares and Minnesota, I have no idea. That’s not even something that the federal government is supposed to do in the first place. So let’s go back and say you can’t have everything. We need to survive and we need to not enslave our children with this debt. All right, thank you, Mr. Elijah. To voters who ask of all of you, uh, how can you do better, you would say what? Well, first, your staff is *** big part of who you are. So we’ve talked *** lot about the negative side of Congress. Mills, he has some good staff members, and they’ve worked hard for people in this district. I don’t think we take that away from them, that they do their job. They can’t control some things. That said, you do talk about bragging, bringing back money, and we have got, she hit it right on the head, some serious spending issues in Washington. So that’s not the only thing you want to hang your hat on. One thing that sets me apart is relationships with area leaders. Both sheriffs in this district I’ve known for *** very long time. They’ve been very supportive of what we’re trying to do. We’ve sat down with area leaders to talk to them directly with different. Mayors, different commissioners, finding out exactly what they need. That’s our job as *** representative to listen to them and find out exactly what they need. And then there are certain federal appropriations we’ll want to bring back and some that they’re not worth it because it’s just going to add to the debt. So you’ve really got to battle which ones those are. But we are supposed to represent this district, and I think you do that by being committed to it and having great relationships. All right, Mr. Johnson, same question. OK, so the $100 million that Mills put up on *** big billboard on 1792, I noticed, um. He, he put categories down in *** couple of postings he’s done over the past year, but when you add them up and compare to agencies with the, uh, the monies, they don’t even match. So the, the, so the cuckoo math that he’s coming up with to come up with that money is ridiculous. And by the way, I know some of the staff people. They were good people. They are now hired on by the federal government. They’re federal employees. They’re paid by the federal government, our taxpayers’ money. Each congressman in Congress gets about $2 million *** year budget, and that budget is spent on doing things for the constituents here. But Mills is sending out birthday cards to people, wasting their taxpayer money. I wouldn’t be doing that. The budget that they have in this office, I would cut it down and give most of that money back to the Congress, because *** lot of our congressmen are hardly spending any, any of it. Corey Mills spends almost all of it, and people are making money off money off of per diem and travel, taxi rides, buying food. If you look at the list, it’s all published in the Clerk of the House. It’s there. Thank you. All right, uh, I’m, I’m gonna make this *** 30-second response question here. Uh, we’ll start with Mr. Johnson. There are different hues and shades within political parties, OK? You talk about the center left, the center right, the extreme right or left. Do you describe yourself as *** mega Republican or *** traditional Republican or some other kind of Republican? That’s *** good question, Greg. I’m, I’m actually on, on, in the middle of both of those, right, in on both sides, right, because I’m in the middle of the middle, yeah, middle of the middle, right, yeah, you know, because I was probably one of the first, one of three people in this county that actually jumped on board with President Trump in 2015, actually right after I retired from the federal government, and, um, and I got *** lot of pushback from the current establishment that was there at that time from both counties, Seminole County mainly because that’s where I lived at, live at, but, um. But as far as the center’s part, yeah, that’s it. All right, Ms. Ms. Ulrich, are you *** mega Republican, *** traditional Republican, or some other kind of Republican? Well, I am very conservative, raised conservative. My mom was *** pastor’s kid of *** pastor’s kid. I’ve been *** Republican since I could. Vote that being said, I’m agnostic toward the president. It is not Congress’s job to support the president as the person. It is to support the office and be *** check and balance for the American people. So I am for the American people and what works for them. Uh, I, I’m going to say it here. I did not vote. Go ahead, finish the sentence. I did not vote for President Trump or Kamala Harris because they did not have the character that I thought was going to make this country whole again. All right, very good. Mr. Elijah, are you *** mega Republican, *** traditional Republican, or some other kind of Republican? It’s an interesting question. I put conservative on my signs. Because I identify as *** conservative, we have people who have come to our events that have been supporting all governor candidates, and they’re conservatives. I support the president’s agenda, but I’m *** conservative who wants to stick to those principles, so that’s where we fall in that. OK, very good. Approximately 1 in 4 people in District 7 is over the age of 60. Which also happens to be the most active voting group. Their two main concerns are Medicare and Social Security. Mr. Elijah, if elected to Congress, Are those things 100% safe, or do you envision supporting or proposing bills that would adjust how those programs work right now? It’s tough to guarantee anything in Washington right now, that’s for sure. But I can tell you this, and I mentioned it before with my mom, it’s very personal to me. Social Security and what we are fixated on the autopilot part of the budget is 74% of our budget. You can have the best mathematician, and it’s very hard to make that work long over time. We’ve got to cut out fraud. We’ve got to rearrange how the funding goes. We’re not going to have enough. We’ve got about 6.5 years before we run out of the reserves for Social Security. We’ve got to find *** way to fix that. And the way to do that is one, look at how we’re spending, but also cut the billions of dollars in fraud and missed payments. That’s what I want to attack. All right, Mr. Johnson, same question about Medicare and Social Security. Where are they in your book? I think they’re important. I think that. When we pay into Social Security as we’re growing up before we reach age 61, 65, 67, 70, that all of our tax money that is put in, I mean all of our money is put in, should not be taxed when we’re paying in because at the young generation, tax rates are actually lower because people don’t make that much money. When you get older, you’re in *** higher bracket because you pay more taxes because you got, you got more money coming in. I believe that no Social Security income should be taxed, period, because we paid it in all of our lives. We paid taxes on it when we were putting it into the system. We didn’t get *** deduction for it when we put it in through all those years, so I believe that when we get the money back, it should be not taxed. I am on Social Security and I get part of my salary from Social Security and actually this past year. My, we call it annuity, right, the Social Security annuity, it actually went down and you know why? Because I don’t get much from Social Security, but they raised our taxes on, on our, on the health portion of our premiums. Is that something you would You would file *** bill to take away, correct that. What that’s something you try to correct that if you I definitely want to trust the insurance agencies that run the Social Security because it’s not done by the government. That’s all done by outside entities, by the way. So we need to go into the competition area and have more competition to get the house costs down because I, when we go out, we still have to pay copays, which is ridiculous, right? You know, because I have two different types of insurance. I have the Medicare, which is required by law to have, and then I have *** federal retirement insurance, but I still have to pay huge copays when I go in, which is ridiculous. And my position was that if we had to pay out of our pocket, then we should reduce our premium that month. You know, like, for example, I had, I have *** lot of MRIs done because I’ve got something going on with me right now, and I’ll let you guys know down the road. Thank you. All right, I’m going to give Sarah some extra time and I’ll get back to you, Mr. Elijah, for some extra time too. Talk to me about maybe the sacred trust you carry for Social Security and Medicare if you’re elected. Well, I have paid into it my entire life, and I doubt I will ever get it back, and I know *** lot of younger people are with me on that. When it was initially set up, Social Security was taking 2% of your paycheck. Now it’s 12.4%. We can’t count on the workers coming after us to be able to support us, and the system is unsustainable. We’ve got to fix it now so that we have that net for people as they get older and more vulnerable. And speaking of older and more vulnerable, when we first talked, it was after you had done 23 interviews Newsmax, Fox News, and WDBO. And each of them said that you were the first challenger to Mills, and you think that trust is very important, so said, especially with the older crowd like your mom, that they need to be able to trust you. You didn’t correct any of them on that and you said, well, I couldn’t, you know, it’s just going. These are people in your own industry that you could not even correct. How can we expect you to stand up to people in DC if we can’t trust you right now in the first weeks of your campaign? So Sarah, if you’re going to be in Congress, you need to understand how the media works. When, when I talked to Greg. I don’t write Greg’s headline. What it is, they determined I was the first viable candidate. It’s not my job to correct their headline. It’s about how much money you raised. It’s about some of the people that support your campaign. If we do an interview and he does *** story, I don’t say Greg, you have to correct that. It’s the wrong way. This is how those three determined my campaign was. It’s not my job to correct their headline. Mr. Johnson, you want to weigh in here because I think I did *** story with you before I did with Ms. Ulrich. Yes, you did. Thanks, Greg. Appreciate that. We actually had *** debate last night or forum last night at the same place at the at the Casbury Beets Organization is *** great place, um. I know when I, I know I was tracking when Mills filed, right, because remember Mills didn’t file. They had to send him *** warning letter because he needed to stop collecting money or file, and 30 days later he finally filed. This was back in February of the previous year. Um, so then, you know, I was debating whether I step up because I was waiting for some better candidate to step up the run, right? So I finally stepped up, follow her for 1 and 2, and, um, and then I was followed, I think by Sarah, probably, right, you know, and, um, and then I know that, uh, Ryan followed up after that, but, um, yeah, it’s, it’s, I, I believe in truth and honesty about with, with politics, but you know what I’m saying. We have to deal with it somehow, right? You know, I’m saying I’m, I don’t want to criticize people on this stage because we’re gonna win in November. Well, I want to point out it shouldn’t be the media or endorsements that decide these races. It’s the voters. So just because the headline didn’t say that doesn’t mean they’re not viable candidates. They are. I’ve, I’ve stood with them. Voters decide these races, not the media, not endorsements. Ms. Ulrich, I agree. The voters should decide. So make sure that you come out and have your voice heard. All right, very good. Let’s move on. Recent surveys indicate the economy is far and away the biggest concern in this election year. I think that’s *** big duh. I think everybody knows that, right? People filling up at the pump, they feel it there. People who are struggling for affordable housing, they feel it there. People struggling to buy groceries are feeling it there now. This is the interesting part about this question because this is unusual in Central Florida, but in District 7. Actually, the median income is higher than that of the state of Florida, so that’s *** good, good thumbs up to District 7, but they’re still dealing with 4% inflation, *** little bit higher than that, of course, at the end of July, the Fed could end up raising interest rates 12, or even 3 more times this year. Ms. Ulrich, let’s start with you. What is your approach to making things more affordable, uh, not just for District 7, but the rest of Florida if you’re elected? It’s no surprise that corporations and special interests run this country, and that is why you’re hearing talk about socialism from young people who do not understand the dangers they’re in and that it does not work. And it is because we have moved from free market capitalism. Into oligarchs and monopolies who are buying and selling our politicians so that by the time they get in office they’re not interested in the things that we’re interested in. They are protecting the people that they were hired to protect and it’s not us, so we must get. Out we must make our voice heard. And so if we can put restrictions on campaign donations or campaign links so that Congress people do not go there to enrich themselves, it is service. You get in, you serve, you get out. If I do this right. The job is not going to be *** whole lot of fun. It will be rewarding and it will be the right thing, but I’m not going there to make *** name for myself or to make myself rich. All right, Mr. Elijah, uh, affordability. How do you make it happen if you’re *** rookie congressperson? Well, it starts with energy prices. I mean, that makes such *** big difference. Not only does it affect our national security, but everything all the way to. The grocery store to the people that are driving their trucks around, it starts with energy prices. You mentioned inflation and interest rates. We’ve got to get interest rates down. We can’t do that when inflation is up where it’s at now. So we’ve got to get the cost down. We start with energy costs. If you start getting that down, I talked to *** homebuilder who’s one of our donors the other day, and he said things are rough right now because Florida has seen homes go up so high. The problem is interest rates are also high. And so that’s not going to change itself until we start getting those long term interest rates, and those move different than short term rates, but it starts with interest rates. If we can start attacking that and continuing to remove regulations in government, I’m *** big economics person. I’ve been an investor on the side. It really makes *** difference if we can remove regulations, let these businesses grow, that will make *** tremendous. This difference and make our economy do great. The market’s done great. The problem is Main Street and Wall Street don’t always go together. Yes, Mr. Johnson, you mentioned you’re on Social Security, so affordability, I’m sure, rings out as something that concerns you personally. So what exactly would you do to help make it more affordable, perhaps more affordable for seniors? Um, as you mentioned earlier, *** lot of voters out there in this district are over age 60. In fact, I think more than 75 to 80% actually were over 60 years old that voted in this election in the primary, mainly when we’re out there knocking on doors. There’s *** lot of rich neighborhoods out there, by the way, so people are living good right in this county in Volusia County, because we’ve got the beaches, we’ve got the river, we’ve got the lakes, so *** lot of people have built gigantic mansions. They’re all gated, beautiful communities, but on the other side there’s communities that we walk in where when we talk to people, they come to the door and you can see they can’t even maintain their lawns and everything else, right? And they come to the door and they talk and But they don’t want to lose the equity in their homes. When the word affordability is being used, it’s telling the senior citizens that worked all their life to have *** home that you want to devalue it. I don’t want to do that. We want to keep the house prices the way they are and increasing, in fact, right? But for the younger generation, very few of those people vote, and I’m asking them to get out and vote and show us what we want you to do in order to make things more affordable for your generation. All right, thank you very much. In one of the biggest court victories in years for environmentalists, in March, the US Circuit Court of Appeals in DC ruled that the federal government, not Florida, has the sole authority to issue permits for wetlands construction in the state of Florida. It means that wilderness areas along the St. Johns River, for example, in District 7, will have *** stronger layer of protection and not to get too into the weeds, pun intended. But on the flip side of that, it’s become quite *** challenge for *** developer to then go through the Army Corps of Engineers to try to get permits. So I get it. We want to be able to balance wilderness protection along with development, but perhaps you have *** different idea, Mr. Johnson. How exactly do we handle that, especially in District 7, where development is massive right now as *** suburb of metro Orlando? I’ve been attending *** lot of city council meetings the past couple of months, and that’s one of the biggest discussions going on when groups come in. You’re, you’re, you’re seeing people plead the city fathers and mothers to stop developing our city, right? We’re, we’re being flooded out. The congestion is getting too great, you know, you’re changing our quality of life here, so I see it every day, right? And I’m ***, I’m *** conservationist, always have been. I belong to the Sierra Club. I don’t belong to it anymore. But I, I, I believe in free. I grew up on *** farm, right, and, and I grew up in an area where you had to go 3 miles down the road to see the nearest, you know, building or store, right? So I believe in open spaces. Our county that I came from in Illinois, when the farmers started giving up their land in Saint Louis area started encroaching that area there, they started acting smart and left *** legacy for that county. And developed the county into like larger estate plots, you know, for the county. And now if you go back up there now, *** lot of the rich people that lived in the Chesterfield area of Saint Louis are now building their their homes in the county I’m from, and they got good quality of life. I think Ms. Ulrich, I think *** lot of people want to think and say that they want to, you know, protect the environment and keep the natural areas of Florida as much as they can, but as you’ve all three just mentioned here in the last few minutes, you know, costs are soaring, developers are having so many challenges, impact fees aren’t going away in most cities and counties. So what exactly can the federal government do, maybe from Congress’s standpoint to Try to make it *** little easier because don’t forget, the more housing we have, potentially those housing prices and rent prices can come down. Again, the federal government should do less. I am native Floridian. My family has had Their land taken by eminent domain for the expansion of the roads that we need, we are building out, but we are not building the infrastructure that is needed to support it. So while I don’t think that the federal government should have their hand in what Florida does and telling us how we use our land, I also don’t feel sorry for developers and their increased cost. They are making *** lot of money. They are obviously putting into political races for *** lot of people. So when you look, if you don’t like the massive scale of development going on, look at who’s being donated to and go, Wow, they might owe that developer something when they get in office. You know, I own *** small business. We renovate. Homes one at *** time. We take homes that cannot be lived in. The last one we did was *** Hoarders house, and we fix those up so they can be lived in and then put back on the market. That is how you increase the housing supply. All right, Mr. Elijah, what are your thoughts on this? So we’re the victims of our own success, and we’ve we’ve seen this growth. It kind of reminds me of data centers where that’s at. There’s really nothing at the federal level. So Senate Bill 484 got involved and it gave local control. Roll back and I think this is where I stand on this. Look, we have to do our job to protect the environment. That’s very important. I think all three of us up here would agree with that, but states and local governments are going to do that in the best way. What we’re going to have to develop. We can’t not develop, but you do it with common sense regulations. I’m *** fan of smaller government. You find *** way to do that with common sense regulations that allows the expansion but without giving up these things that make Florida so special. There are about 1.5 million Florida veterans and roughly 45 to 46,000 of them live in District Seven right now. In May, the US Department of Veterans Affairs came out with its grades on veteran healthcare, and our own Orlando VA Medical Center earned *** five star report. Look, we get emails and calls into our station about people saying, hey, I know somebody who’s *** veteran. They’re not getting the care they need, not specifically at the Orlando VA Center, but at other medical facilities operated by the VA. Um, so Mr. Elijah, talk to me about how close *** look under *** magnifying glass you will make that as *** priority if you’re elected, *** huge priority. We’ve got two members of our staff that are veterans. I’ve put it on all our cards, and you don’t put that on there unless you’re really serious about that. I’ve been to *** number of clubs, VFWs. We’ve been to American Legions, because the only way you can find out from them is to go to their door and to talk to them. And the good news is for most of our veterans, they like the, the care and the service that we’re getting. They have done too much for our country. Country for us not to fight for them. The government’s not very efficient. We understand that. So we’ve got to find *** way to make sure, and I think our staff, when I look at my staff, we’re going to get someone on the veteran side that knows Central Florida, that knows these areas where you hit the ground running, because our vets have done too much for this country that we have to make sure we make that *** top priority. It’s not only getting the service, but making sure their wait times are where they’re at. And we just got *** report this week on the wait times, and those are things I think we have to continue to track. Mr. Johnson, how important is that to you? I’m *** vet and um. I belong to *** couple of veterans organizations, the Vietnam Vets of America Association and the Cassowbury Vets Group over there in Cassowbury. Um, and we, we hear the complaints about the local VAs up in Daytona Beach up there, even the new facility, you know, our groups go through the groundbreaking everything, but getting appointments, uh, the management of the, the, of the system needs to be looked at very hard. And as we mentioned earlier, Mills was claiming he’s getting money back, and some of that money back, he’s saying he’s getting stuff back for the veterans. My, my feeling is that it’s not Congress’s job to help with these veterans on their personal cases. What I would introduce in Congress would be *** special office, *** special unit within the VA. That if people don’t go through the process normally and they get *** cog in it, then they go off to the special office and they walk them through the benefits that they deserve, the appointments they need, because right now if you go to some of the meetings, you hear stories that will break your heart about the VA not taking care of them properly. Thank you. All right, so *** priority for you, uh, Ms. Ulrich, uh, in particular, does this ring *** bell with you? Is this something that would be *** big priority for you? It is. I have talked to hundreds of veterans, and the number one complaint I hear is when they have health issues that they go down this rabbit hole of paperwork hell, and they feel like they are being put on *** waitlist to die and nobody cares because they have to get through all of this paperwork to get the help that they need. And I would say *** lot of the health issues that they’re having are things that happened to them in the service, and some of them were preventable. So we need to make sure going forward that our military men and women are not being harmed so that they can continue to protect us. We can save money. We can take care of everyone. They can live to see their kids. And their grandkids and not just live to see them but live to see them in good health. That is so important and we all know as you age, uh, if your body is breaking down on you, that is the one thing you cannot buy back. So let’s not ruin it in the first place. All right, thank you very much. Our time is coming to an end, so I’m going to give you each one minute for *** closing statement. Mr. Johnson, talk to the voters. OK. Hi everyone. I have been in this district most of my life. My family grew up here. And shared common values with our communities here, the football games, the basketball games, going to church here, following the politics over the years, and it seems like in this area of the country, especially Central Florida, we’ve had some bad representation. And I know this channel West 2 News has reported on someone throughout the years. I’m in here to bring integrity back to our district. I have nothing to gain. Out of this system. I won’t take *** salary. I’m on pensions already. I will give money back to the charities in this district, and I will tell everybody who they are and how much they get. They’ll be right up there front and center. I, I plan on running this time and then if you guys elect me, I’ll run again, but after that I’m out. And we’ll vet someone that will take my place. I think that I have the experience that this district wants, and I will use it in Washington DC for you. Thank you. Thank you very much, Ms. Ulrich. One minute, please. We have got *** shot for real representation in Congress. Don’t waste your voice and don’t waste your vote. Register by the 20th unless that’s passed by now. The primary election is where we win or lose, so get out and vote. Congress has forgotten that they are responsible for protecting Americans. Instead they’re protecting the greedy and the powerful and using us to extract wealth and labor. We do not need government insiders or professional talkers. We don’t need people who will blend in in Washington DC. We need people who will stand out. We need someone who can influence and knows how to implement change. We must unite. Do not let others make your choice for you. If you want something different, you must vote for someone different. I’ll work for Florida.com. Thank you. Thank you. And one minute, Mr. Elijah. So talking to thousands of voters, I get the same thing back and forth. The government is broken and it’s not listening to them. I left my career. I left my salary. That’s how all in I was because I have *** passion to lead and I have *** passion to make *** difference. You be *** good representative by listening to people. Having great connections and then fighting for them. Unfortunately we have seen both parties have way too many ethics violations. We need to change that. The 7th district has been in the headlines for way too many times for the wrong reasons, and I can tell you this if your personal life is compromised, you simply cannot serve in government. It is that simple. That is the choice we have to make coming up August 18th. Look at some of the races. They’ve made the wrong decision in the primary. If we make the right decision here, we’ve already won an election recently in Seminole County where I believe people understand that we’re going to have an easier time in November attracting independents and making sure this district stays in the conservative hands, and we’ll make sure to go to elijahforcongress.com, find out more about this. Greg, thank you for hosting. Well, thank you all for being here. *** strong conversation. I really appreciate the time you spent. And I think the voters will appreciate it as well so that they can get *** look before this August 18th primary election on the Republican side, as these are three of the Republican candidates, uh, in the District seven Congress race. Again, that includes all of Seminole County and South Volusia County. And of course, uh, these, uh, continuing series of debates are part of our commitment to you on West 2 News and West.com. Thanks for watching.
Florida’s 7th Congressional Republican Primary Debate
The Commitment 2026 primary debate series continues with the Republican primary race for Florida’s 7th congressional district.
Updated: 6:13 PM EDT Jul 10, 2026
The Commitment 2026 primary debate series continues with the Republican primary race for Florida’s 7th congressional district.>>Watch the debate aboveThis district covers all of Seminole County and south Volusia County from Daytona down to the Brevard County line. The Republican candidates for this debate are Ryan Elijah, Sarah Ulrich and Michael Don Johnson.Candidates were asked about views on the budget, such as social security and Medicare for seniors. They discussed affordability including energy pricing and housing.Moderated by political reporter Greg Fox, this debate is part of an ongoing series of debates that will focus on the general races across the nine districts that WESH 2 covers. The debates will appear in their entirety at WESH.com with portions airing in WESH 2 newscasts and social media posts ahead of the Nov. 3 election.
ORLANDO, Fla. —
The Commitment 2026 primary debate series continues with the Republican primary race for Florida’s 7th congressional district.
>>Watch the debate above
This district covers all of Seminole County and south Volusia County from Daytona down to the Brevard County line. The Republican candidates for this debate are Ryan Elijah, Sarah Ulrich and Michael Don Johnson.
Candidates were asked about views on the budget, such as social security and Medicare for seniors. They discussed affordability including energy pricing and housing.
Moderated by political reporter Greg Fox, this debate is part of an ongoing series of debates that will focus on the general races across the nine districts that WESH 2 covers. The debates will appear in their entirety at WESH.com with portions airing in WESH 2 newscasts and social media posts ahead of the Nov. 3 election.