Election 2022: Volusia-Seminole 7th District Congress candidates offer vast differences

Voters in the new Florida 7th Congressional District  — comprised of Seminole County and the southern half of Volusia County — should have no difficulty distinguishing between the two people running.

Politically, Republican Cory Mills and Democrat Karen Green fall squarely into the right and left. While some of their differences are as expected, because both are new to the scene, it's worth getting more familiar with who they are and what they're saying.

Endorsed by former President Donald Trump, Mills is a 42-year-old, twice-wounded combat veteran and defense and security contractor who was born in Winter Haven and recently relocated from Virginia to New Smyrna Beach to run in the 7th District.

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Green, a 57-year-old vice chair of the Florida Democratic Party who lives in Apopka, wants to become the first Jamaica-born member of Congress. She moved to the United States in 1990 and has owned her own political consulting business until announcing her run for Congress last spring.

Mills supports the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and allow states to determine the legality of abortion. Green said Congress needs to codify federal protections for women to choose.

As to the estimated 11 million immigrants who are in the United States without proper documentation, Green favors a process to become citizens. Mills said those who don't have legitimate asylum claims should be deported.

And the two have vastly divergent views on the 2020 election, how elections should be run and the future of democracy.

Analyzing the race, Mills has distinct advantages when it comes to campaign finance and the composition of the district.

Through Aug. 3, the most recent report available, Green had raised less than $28,000. Through Sept. 30, Mills had collected nearly 100 times that amount, $2.4 million, much of which he spent during a primary featuring eight contenders.

The makeup of Congressional District 7 before the primary was 36.2% Republican and 31.8% Democratic, with nearly 30% with  no party affiliation.

"Our poll numbers show us well out in the lead, with about 13% undecided," Mills said Friday. Early vote-by-mail totals, which has been a Democratic stronghold, in this case favor Republicans, he added.

Green isn’t ready to write off the district, though. She said she believes a younger demographic — the median age was 37.9 for the current 7th District, according to the Census Bureau — combined with a class of professionals will result in many Republicans refusing to vote straight-ticket. She believes Mills' election denials will disqualify him in many voters' minds.

On the economy and slowing inflation

Mills blames the Democrat-led Congress and President Joe Biden for the 8.2% inflation rate, and aims to lower spending.

"There has been a complete attack on American energy that's driving up costs," Mills said. "And the billions of dollars we continue to send over to Ukraine, treating Ukraine as a proxy war or a kinetic war, when the reality is that this is China and Russia waging economic warfare on the West."

Green said the United States has entered into "a recession like nothing seen since the Great Depression," which she said is the result of the pandemic, and it's a worldwide occurrence, complicated by the conflict in Ukraine.

She supports aid to Ukraine and a "New Deal" approach — big federal spending, such as the Infrastructure and Jobs Act of 2021.

"I think there’s going to have to be a position like it was after the Great Depression. The federal government is going to have to step in to help in most cases as it was then," she said.

On post-Dobbs abortion rights, family matters

The Supreme Court's June ruling in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization ended nearly 50 years of federal protection for women's right to choose abortion, allowing states to legislate the issue without restriction.

Green said she is "horrified" that the court didn't take into consideration "a health crisis" and the economic hardship the ruling will have on families.

"I literally believe this is a freedom reversed. I see the reversal of Roe v. Wade as an encroachment on a woman’s right to choose and her health rights," she said.

"Sometimes you have unplanned children," Green said, "and a family that is already struggling with five children, with an income that is already struggling, and this happens in the act of love, I don’t think we should as a state, as a governor, have that right (to ban abortion). I think it should be the family’s choice."

Mills, who is pro-life and supports the court's ruling, said the federal government has grown by leaps and bounds in the 109 years since passage of the 17th amendment, allowing voters to cast ballots for U.S. senators, a duty previously held by state legislatures. He told an audience in Port Orange last week he favors a return to that system.

He is concerned about "the complete removal of a father's role in society," talking about how television sitcoms morphed from "Leave it to Beaver" to the depiction in "Modern Family" of nuclear, same-sex and blended families.

"I'm a firm believer that not just Hollywood, but our justice system was out trying to deteriorate and weaken the nuclear family," Mills said. "We saw for decades whenever there was a court case, the father’s role was completely marginalized. And in many cases, he was never even granted proper custody of his child. And we wonder why these 15- 16- 17-year-olds are going out and having unfortunate incidents with mass shootings."

On new funding for IRS revamp

The Inflation Reduction Act provides $80 billion over the next 10 years for the Internal Revenue Service to step up service and enforcement from the past decade, when it has been defunded and understaffed. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated it will result in the collection of $204 billion over the next 10 years.

The White House touts the plan as part of its approach to ensuring multi-millionaires and corporations — many of whom have used loopholes and offshore accounts to reduce their tax burden — pay their fair share.

Republicans including Mills say incorrectly that the plan is to hire 87,000 agents to audit the 1%. The plan from which the 87,000 figure was pulled, states that the hires will help to address a large number of impending retirees, and includes not just auditors, but "specialized enforcement staff" and other workers who will provide improved service to taxpayers.

Mills has described the hires as "deep-state IRS agents" who will be provided weapons and policing powers.

"Since when did the IRS become a police force to detain, and, if needed, carry out deadly force, all for ensuring all those pay their fair share?" said Mills, who has vowed to defund the Inflation Reduction Act.

Green said she supports stricter tax collection.

"The IRS obviously needs more people working," she said. "I do not think corporations should be exempt from paying their fair share of taxes."

What should be done about undocumented immigrants?

Green said she supports enhanced border protection, but also streamlined processing of asylum seekers, as immigrants are a vital part of the economy.

"They’re working in the agricultural fields, they’re working in hospitality and you know where they’re working most that nobody talks about? ... In the health care field," she said. "They are home health aids, they are CNAs, they are nurses and they’re doctors. And they’re looking after our senior parents and our sick children."

She said people must fight against "the stigma, the misinformation that's out there ... that they're taking away our jobs."

"The reality is that these people come to our country, in most cases, immigrants come to this country because they are looking for a better life," Green said. "The American Dream, like I came to have."

Mills, whose wife Rana is an immigrant from Iraq, said she entered the United States legally despite a long processing time and the trauma of having her brother murdered and her father dying a week later.

"They had enough respect for the law of the land and they followed the process," Mills said. "We need more Americans who are willing to follow the process."

He said illegal immigration though the "porous" United States-Mexico border creates a "social drain." He supports defunding "sanctuary cities," finishing Trump's border wall, enhancing border protection with technology such as cameras and early detection systems and bolstering the number of U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents.

"(Immigrants) who are not here legally and are not here deemed to be asylum seekers or refugees need to be deported," Mills said. "No one wants to say it because they are terrified of being called a xenophobe or a racist, but you want people to follow and abide by America's laws."

Legitimacy of elections, strength of democracy

The 2022 election follows a presidential election that still reverberates. Despite dozens of court challenges and state audits of the 2020 race, Mills contends Biden's victory over Trump wasn't legit.

"There has been plenty of proof that there has been fraud," Mills said. "We know people voted in Michigan who had been deceased for years."

That claim has been debunked by a USA Today Fact Check.

Nonetheless, Mills argues that election security is of paramount importance.

"This is an issue every single American should want to ensure," Mills said. "People are still concerned whether their ballot counts. Let's prove once and for all that we can trust our elections and our elections supervisors."

Green, who calls Mills "an election denier," said she was appalled about reports of some Capitol rioters' aims to assassinate Vice President Mike Pence and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

"I’m running in this race because of Jan. 6th, when I saw what happened because democracy was stolen, almost stolen," she said, comparing that days events to ones that normally occur in countries led by dictators.

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This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Cory Mills, Karen Green have very different views for Volusia-Seminole