Three stars of Republican Politics, including Niceville High School graduate and Florida District 1 Congressman Matt Gaetz, rallied at the Niceville Community Center with about 300 supporters primarily clad in Republican Red a week before the primary contest on August 20.

Local candidates for Okaloosa County Commissioner Paul Mixon, Andrew Rencich and Drew Palmer as well as incumbent Okaloosa County Sheriff Eric Aden warmed the crowd up with stump speeches about their campaigns and the importance of re-electing Gaetz to the US House of Representatives. After county candidates spoke, Former Florida Senate President and current candidate for the district 1 Florida Senate Seat Don Gaetz, Matt’s Father, whipped up excitement from the crowd and rolled out some of his trademark stump speech humor. He told the crowd that he and his wife, Vicki, were so glad that Matt, known for aggressive attacks on democrats and republicans like Speaker Kevin McCarthy alike, “had finally come out of his shell.” The crowd received the elder Gaetz’s tongue-in-cheek comment with a roar of applause.

The Congressman hopped onto the stage after a rendition of the national anthem by Representative Gaetz’s Wife, Ginger. He worked through his campaign stump speech with charisma – bringing the crowd along with him as he attacked his opponent, Aaron Dimmock, for serving as a stooge for Kevin McCarthy, only living in the district for a couple of months, and promoting DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) policies as a consultant after his time in the military.

Gaetz also spoke about local military forces deployments to Mali and Niger in West Africa. “Yesterday, we had a great rally with Congressman Chip Roy over in Pensacola. I had probably the most meaningful experience of this campaign so far for me. A gentleman came up to me and said, ‘Matt, I was one of the guys stuck in this year, and you emailed with my wife, and you saved so many of us and got us out of a situation where we were being held hostage.'” Gaetz critiqued the Biden administration’s handling of the situation, accusing the administration of abandoning personnel and in the country after a coup. “I fought for those people. I went to the floor every day, and I lambasted the Biden administration for leaving them. When they brought their generals before us in the Armed Services Committee, I asked what they were doing to get our folks out. I got eyeball to eyeball with the ambassador of Nigeria. Because of our advocacy, we got the troop rotations, we got them home, and we kept every northwest Floridian safe.”

Interview

After the rally, Gaetz hosted a press gaggle with Senator Rand Paul and Central Florida Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna. I asked him about the two items over which the congress has the most control due to their responsibility for Eglin Air Force Base: local housing affordability and the colony of endangered Rice’s Whales which currently hamper some of the base’s testing on the Eglin Air Force Base Range.

Housing in Niceville is a Big Issue in Okaloosa County more generally, and a big part of that is people coming to work here at Eglin Air Force Base. What can the national government do about costs to reduce housing costs so people can afford to live here?

“I have been representing the Niceville community since 2010 and it is true that one of the challenges we have now is everyone wants to live here. Whether it’s retirees coming here, or whether it’s the growth of the military mission that has put pressure on housing prices. Now that’s a better problem to have than everybody leaving like in places like Detroit or New York, but it means we have to unlock solutions, and in this National Defense Authorization Act, I got legislation included that will give Eglin Air Force Base more authority to be able to develop some of the orphan parcels that they have south of the Niceville bypass next to Lewis Middle School. And if they are able to have some more density in those areas, then they can put some of the enlisted folks there, some of the junior officers so that we have adequate housing supply. I don’t think I can stop people wanting to live in Niceville. Our streets are safe, our schools are excellent. There’s a lot of patriots and veterans who choose to live here. We’re just going to have to manage that by unlocking inventory.”

The Rice’s Whale is something you’ve had to deal with the last couple of years. Can you give an update on a on what the latest is on those whales and what they are doing to the military mission?

“When Donald Trump is president again, we will not surrender Eglin Air Force Base to 52 whales, which is the risk right now under President Biden and Kamala Harris, because the Department of Commerce has been bossing around the Department of Defense, as it relates to literally tens of whales out in the Gulf of Mexico,” Gaetz said, “The new technologies that they’re developing at Eglin are helping us assess where the pods of whales are so that we can ensure that our experimental missile testing can still occur. But I’ll tell you this, in China and in Iran, they’re not wondering these questions as they develop their autonomous systems and their hypersonic systems. So we better get with the program here in Northwest Florida, I know President Trump will put our priorities first.”