{"id":364164,"date":"2026-08-06T09:58:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T09:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/364164\/"},"modified":"2026-08-06T09:58:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T09:58:12","slug":"scandal-plagued-u-s-rep-cory-mills-faces-fellow-republicans-in-fiery-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/364164\/","title":{"rendered":"Scandal-plagued U.S. Rep. Cory Mills faces fellow Republicans in fiery debate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Embattled Central Florida Congressman Cory Mills faced off in a fiery primary debate with three fellow Republicans Wednesday evening, in which the political issues were largely overshadowed by his many controversies.<\/a><\/p>\n

Mills, R-New Smyrna Beach, who is currently serving his second term in Congress, is the subject of a House ethics investigation<\/a> and has been accused of misrepresenting his military record, engaging in unethical business dealings<\/a>, assaulting a girlfriend<\/a> and stalking an ex-girlfriend<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At the Volusia GOP debate in New Smyrna Beach, Mills strenuously denied reports that he was under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice, as well as allegations levied by his opponents including that he had stolen valor from veterans and was married in a mosque.<\/p>\n

He compared his legal woes to those faced by President Donald Trump before his return to the White House and what he called allegations by the \u201cfake news\u201d media. He said \u201cthey\u201d are trying to get him out of power just like Trump because they both fight against the D.C. \u201cswamp.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t back down and they want to eliminate people like that because they want swampy people who will \u2026 come in here and do exactly what they want,\u201d Mills said, \u201cnot what the American people and not what their constituents want. That\u2019s why they want to ruin me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"VolusiaVolusia GOP Committeeman Vic Baker talks with U.S. Congressman Cory Mills before the Republican primary debate for Florida’s 7th Congressional District, at the Brannon Center in New Smyrna Beach, Fla., on Wednesday, August 5, 2026. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda\/ Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n

While Mills maintained he has never been found guilty of anything, his three Republican primary opponents still took the opportunity to grill him at every turn, even when the topic of the debate was about issues like the economy or foreign policy.<\/p>\n

Florida\u2019s 7th congressional district is Republican-leaning, having voted for Trump over Democrat Kamala Harris by 5 percentage points in 2024, and covers all of Seminole County and the southern half of Volusia County.<\/p>\n

Mills is facing three Republican opponents in the Aug. 18 primary<\/a>: former Fox 35 Orlando anchor Ryan Elijah, real estate agent Sarah Ulrich and U.S. Army veteran and 33-year Department of Defense employee Michael Don Johnson. Elijah and Johnson especially hammered Mills during the debate.<\/p>\n

Elijah said he has spoken with sources, whom he did not name, that Mills was indeed under DOJ investigation despite the congressman\u2019s denials. Elijah said if Mills wins the primary, he will lose to a Democrat in the general election.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a member of Congress that is on the verge of getting kicked out \u2026 He has lost the trust of this district,\u201d Elijah said. \u201cWe\u2019re all concerned here, but if you look the other way, we\u2019re going to get a huge surprise in November.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Mills asked Elijah to name his sources, he declined, causing some in the crowd to repeatedly yell \u201cfake news\u201d at him.<\/p>\n

Elijah\u2019s campaign had just been buoyed by the endorsements of Mills\u2019 Republican colleagues in Congress, U.S. Reps. Anna Paulina Luna and Mike Haridopolos, who in a joint statement Wednesday called Elijah a \u201ctrusted voice in our community\u201d and a \u201ctrue patriot and freedom fighter,\u201d according to The Hill<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Johnson, who had previously ran against Mills in the 2022 GOP primary, accused the congressman of stolen military valor and said he had spoken to soldiers who could prove it, but did not name them. He was frequently booed by some in the crowd when he repeatedly brought up the issue.<\/p>\n

While Ulrich was the least confrontational, she did ask Mills where he had gotten married, to which he responded that he got married at a courthouse.<\/p>\n

This led to one of the more bizarre moments in the debate, as Johnson followed up a few minutes later by saying he had been to that courthouse and then held up what he implied was a marriage certificate showing Mills was married in a mosque.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s either fraudulent that you filed a fraudulent marriage certificate document or you got married at the mosque,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cAnd in order to get married at the mosque, you got to go through 40 hours of Islamic training to be a good Muslim husband.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response, Mills replied he was a proud Christian and called what Johnson said \u201cnonsense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond the controversies, Mills repeatedly emphasized his endorsement by Trump and refused to break with the president when the candidates were asked how they disagreed with him.<\/p>\n

Elijah and Johnson were also mostly uncritical of Trump, although Johnson said he disagreed with the president\u2019s endorsement of Mills \u2014 earning him a laugh and cheer from some in the audience.<\/p>\n

Ulrich gave the strongest response to the Trump question, saying she didn\u2019t agree with how the United States entered the ongoing war in Iran. She said the U.S. was now in a \u201cquagmire\u201d and was weakening itself on the world stage in the face of threats from China and Russia.<\/p>\n

The GOP primary victor will face the winner of the Democratic primary between Bale Dalton, Alan Grayson and Marialana Kinter in the November election, as well as Libertarian Christopher Dennison.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Embattled Central Florida Congressman Cory Mills faced off in a fiery primary debate with three fellow Republicans Wednesday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364165,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[2811,28,114,3686,115,139,141,140,99,1014,109,2261],"class_list":["post-364164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-election","tag-florida","tag-latest-headlines","tag-new-smyrna-beach","tag-news","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-politics","tag-seminole-county","tag-social","tag-volusia-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}