Winning warriors: Cory Mills, Michael Waltz advance in congressional election campaigns

Michael Waltz, the first Green Beret in Congress, won the Republican primary to keep his seat, while another combat veteran took Volusia County's other U.S. House of Representatives GOP primary on Tuesday.

Cory Mills, a veteran of Iraq, Afghanistan and Kosovo who started a company that manufactures riot-control munitions for law enforcement, won his bid over seven competitors for a new seat covering southern Volusia and Seminole counties. In the general election, he'll face Democrat Karen Green, who won her own primary over three challengers.

Waltz and Mills stood arm in arm at a victory celebration at the Hard Rock Hotel in Daytona Beach on Tuesday night.

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"I've said time and time again, I need reinforcements in Washington. We gotta fire Nancy Pelosi and the more veterans the better," Waltz said in a message posted on Twitter Tuesday night. "We're willing to die for that flag and we're willing to take the tough votes and fight for you."

Mills wasn't the only veteran among the eight Republicans seeking the nod, but he turned out to be the best equipped to survive a barrage of attacks from his chief rival in the race, state Rep. Anthony Sabatini, who finished second.

Just how nasty did it get? Sabatini called Mills "sub-human trash," while Mills supporters reported receiving text messages urging them to vote for Sabatini while attacking Mills' wife, Rana al-Saadi, a Catholic woman from Iraq, as "anti-Christian."

Mills, in the Twitter video, said: "I'm honored to be able to be in the fight. … We're going to secure our borders. We're gonna take America back. We're going to rid the communism and socialism from our schools and from our military."

He also vowed to "get rid of Fauci," i.e. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who has announced his retirement in December.

Mills won with 38% of the vote; Sabatini got just shy of 24%, while Navy SEAL veteran Brady Duke — who had raised the most money of the GOP candidates — got just over 15%.

Mills served in the U.S. Army in the 82nd Airborne Division and as a member of Joint Special Operations Command Combined Joint Task Force 20 in Iraq, where he served for seven years. In 2006, while serving in Iraq, he was twice injured by explosive devices. He was later awarded a Bronze Star.

One major campaign battle that helped Mills was landing the Volusia County Republican Executive Committee's endorsement in a vote in early July.

Mills recently moved to New Smyrna Beach after running his defense-law enforcement firm from Virginia.

On the Democratic side, Green will attempt to be the first Jamaican immigrant to win election to Congress. She hopes to fill the void being left by Democrat Stephanie Murphy, who's retiring from the House after three terms. The newly redistricted 7th is considered by politicos to be a safe Republican seat.

Green is an Apopka political consultant and longtime member of the Florida Democratic Party who serves as a minister in a non-denominational church.

Green won with 45%, easily topping Al Krulick, Tatiana Fernandez and Allek Pastrana.

Meanwhile, Waltz easily won the Republican nomination for his third term in Congress, defeating the Florida Republican Assembly-endorsed Charles Davis. Waltz, a regular commentator on military and foreign affairs on Fox News, got 78% of the vote.

Libertarian Joe Hannoush will challenge Waltz on Nov. 8.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: 2 Army veterans win Republican nominations for Congress, 6th and 7th