Army veteran and political newcomer Michael Waltz has been elected to U.S. House District 6, beating Democrat Nancy Soderberg for the vacant seat.
Waltz's platform had four main components: finding a way to make health care affordable, securing the border, giving children the best possible education and keeping taxes low.
While his new role in Congress marks the first time Waltz has been elected to office, it won't be his first time in Washington, D.C. He served as a defense policy director for Secretaries of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates.
Other career accomplishments include 21 years in the U.S. Army, leading the search for Bowe Berghdal as a Special Forces officer and co-founding a small business that supports the U.S. Department of Defense.
This race marks the second time Soderberg ran for U.S. House District 6. She is a foreign policy strategist who has worked as foreign policy director for the Bill Clinton and Al Gore's 1992 campaign, senior foreign policy advisor to Sen. Edward Kennedy and deputy assistant to the president for the Department of National Security Affairs under Clinton's administration.
Congressional election winner @michaelgwaltz talks to @news6wkmg after declaring victory in District 6 race. The Green Beret says Congress is broken and Washington is obstructing @POTUS conservative agenda. Hear more at 11 #ElectionDay #Election2018 pic.twitter.com/BHayYzJ6UD
— James Sparvero (@News6James) November 7, 2018
She has been involved in politics since the 1980s, but this would have been her first elected role.
"It's been 16 months. We came up short, but we rain the best campaign this district has ever seen," Soderberg said on Election night before congratulating Waltz on his win.
Waltz will be sworn in to his new role representing the residents of Flagler and Volusia counties Jan. 3, 2019.
!function(e,t,n,s){var i="InfogramEmbeds",o=e.getElementsByTagName(t)[0],d=/^http:/.test(e.location)?"http:":"https:";if(/^\/{2}/.test(s)&&(s=d+s),window[i]&&window[i].initialized)window[i].process&&window[i].process();else if(!e.getElementById(n)){var a=e.createElement(t);a.async=1,a.id=n,a.src=s,o.parentNode.insertBefore(a,o)}}(document,"script","infogram-async","https://e.infogram.com/js/dist/embed-loader-min.js");