Rick Wiles
Rick Wiles (Republican Party) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent Florida's 21st Congressional District. He lost in the Republican primary on August 20, 2024.
Wiles completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Rick Wiles was born in Hagerstown, Maryland. His career experience includes working as a business owner and president in the media industry. Wiles also has experience as a minister, filmmaker, and author. As of 2024, he was affiliated with the National Rifle Association, the National Association for Gun Rights, USS Liberty Veterans Association (honorary member), the Florida Sheriffs Association, the Florida Wildlife Association, and Faith & Values Fellowship.[1]
Elections
2024
See also: Florida's 21st Congressional District election, 2024
Florida's 21st Congressional District election, 2024 (August 20 Republican primary)
Florida's 21st Congressional District election, 2024 (August 20 Democratic primary)
General election
General election for U.S. House Florida District 21
Incumbent Brian Mast defeated Thomas Witkop and Elizabeth Felton in the general election for U.S. House Florida District 21 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
✔ | Brian Mast (R) | 61.5 | 276,685 | |
Thomas Witkop (D) | 38.5 | 173,515 | ||
Elizabeth Felton (No Party Affiliation) (Write-in) | 0.0 | 0 |
Total votes: 450,200 | ||||
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
The Democratic primary election was canceled. Thomas Witkop advanced from the Democratic primary for U.S. House Florida District 21.
Republican primary election
Republican primary for U.S. House Florida District 21
Incumbent Brian Mast defeated Rick Wiles in the Republican primary for U.S. House Florida District 21 on August 20, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
✔ | Brian Mast | 85.8 | 60,395 | |
Rick Wiles | 14.2 | 9,957 |
Total votes: 70,352 | ||||
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Ljubo Skrbic (R)
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Wiles in this election.
Campaign themes
2024
Video for Ballotpedia
Video submitted to Ballotpedia Released May 24, 2024 |
Note: Wiles' campaign on July 9, 2024, added additional information to his original survey response about term limits.
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Rick Wiles completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Wiles' responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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|• Founder and Owner: Faith & Values Media Group
Inc.
• Owner: American Reserves LLC (emergency
preparedness foods)
• Founder: Prazor Inc. (Christian music streaming). • Majority member: Doxa Music Group LLC. • Retired pastor. • Morning Manna online Bible class teacher. • 25-year veteran of broadcasting and podcasting. • Host of TruNews (news analysis and commentary). • Author: Final Day: Ten Characteristics of the Second
Coming of Jesus Christ.
• Executive Producer: Sacrificing Liberty (4-hour
docuseries about the 1967 attack on the USS Liberty).
• Honorary member: USS Liberty Veterans
Association.
• Davos: Invited three times by Trump White House
to attend World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland. (Witnessed President Trump stand up to the WEF globalists and defend America).
• Holy Land: Invited by King Abdullah II in December
2022 to attend royal dinner in Amman to learn about His Majesty’s plans to preserve and enhance the original site where Jesus Christ was baptized.
• Married: 50 years. • Children: A son in Palm City, FL, and a daughter in
Ft. Pierce, FL.
• Grandchildren: Ten (eight are adopted). • Residence: Rural Fort Pierce area. • Loves animals.
- America's borders - especially the southern border with Mexico - have been erased. Politicians talk about "the border crisis." It is not a crisis. It is a deliberate policy to eliminate America's borders. Our real opponents are not the illegal immigrants. Our true adversaries are the American globalists who want to merge North and South America into a unified state similar to the European Union. We must demand the re-establishment of our sovereign borders. We must also round up and deport every young Chinese man illegally inside the USA. They are a Trojan Horse army inside our land waiting on Xi Jinping's war cry. And we must round up and deport every violent criminal illegally inside our country.
- The United States has been in a state of perpetual warfare since September 11, 2001. The U.S. invaded and occupied Afghanistan for 20 years. We invaded and bombed Iraq. We bombed Libya. The U.S. is illegally in Syria with military bases to protect American oil companies that are stealing Syria's oil. Our latest war folly is Ukraine. The U.S. has spent over $175 billion propping up the corrupt Ukrainian government since early 2022. American taxpayers are subsidizing Ukrainian government salaries, pensions, and social welfare programs. Israel is the other country with its snoot in the trough always wanting more money from America. I will oppose the funding of all foreign wars. Let them fight their own wars. Let's take care of America first.
- Inflation is seriously hurting American families. As a young married man in the mid-1970s, I remember struggling to provide for my family. The USA was in a 15-year cycle that started during the presidency of Gerald Ford and ended during the presidency of George. H.W. Bush. We are in a new 15-year stagflation cycle. Inflation is caused by excessive government spending and foolish monetary policies by politicians and central bankers. Washington is spending $1Trillion every 100 days! Our government borrows money from foreign lenders so that it can give away the money to foreign governments. Total madness and foolishness! I will work to revive President Reagan's quest for a Balanced Budget Constitutional Amendment.
I am troubled that citizens are not aware of the imminent danger of nuclear war with Russia. The Russians are rightfully fed up with the bullying tactics of Yale, Harvard, Princeton, and Oxford graduates who believe they have a divine right to rule the world, and that the rest of us are too uneducated to have a say in how America conduct foreign affairs. I am also passionate about protecting the people from the ruling class's plans to re-engineer civilization through artificial intelligence, robotics, synthetic biology, and other technologies. Our farmers must be protected from plans to eliminate livestock and meat, and to force people to eat insects and fake laboratory meat. We must also expose the climate change hoax.
Jesus Christ. He is my King, Savior, Lord, Healer, and Defender. He is everything. There is nobody whom I love and admire more than Him. He forgave my sins and saved my soul. He died on the Cross for me. If He was willing to die for me, I should be willing to live for Him.
The first and foremost book to understand my worldview is the Holy Bible. In particular, the New Testament scriptures. I have approximately 10,000 books in my library. Most of them are very old. Some were printed in the 1600s and 1700s. I have the complete set of the Works of Theodore Roosevelt (autographed by his widow Edith). I love to read old biographies of American patriots (Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Grant, Teddy Roosevelt). Regarding films, I would cite two movies that starred Mel Gibson: The Patriot and Braveheart. Both films share the same theme: Freedom!
Honesty and integrity. Character is what you do when nobody is looking. Whatever happened to statesmen? Love of God and country is of paramount importance in elected officials. We need to put Christ in the Capitol!
Honesty, integrity, good character, boldness, stamina, and energy. I also have a physical ailment that would be an asset in Washington. I cannot swallow BS.
I am seeking a seat in the House of Representatives. What is a representative? A representative is a person who represents the views of the citizens in his/her district. My views are not important. What is important are the views of the people who live in Florida's House District 21. I will, to the best of my ability, always seek to vote in the House according to what I discern to be the majority opinion of the voters of District 21. Therefore, I will employ various methods to listen to the people - including digital polls, townhall meetings, and face-to-face conversations with voters. I will vote the way the majority of District 21 voters desire me to vote. If elected, I will go to Washington to represent their views, not mine.
I desire to do my part to preserve, defend, and pass on to my grandchildren a God-fearing nation that does what is right, a nation where freedom and liberty are cherished and defended from enemies foreign and domestic.
I saw French President Charles de Gaulle in Montreal in July 1967 a month before my 14th birthday. My family visited the Expo 67 world's fair in Quebec. I vividly remember seeing Mr. de Gaulle walking closely by us surrounded by RCMP officers. I asked my father, "Who is that man and why are so many policemen walking with him?" President de Gaulle later that day stirred an international uproar during a speech from the balcony of Montreal's city hall. The French president proclaimed, "Vive le Québec libre !" (Long live free Quebec!). Canadian authorities (and Britain's monarch Queen Elizabeth) interpreted his proclamation as a call for Quebec to separate from Canada. Mr. de Gaulle promptly departed Canada and returned to Paris.
My unofficial first job was milking cows and bailing hay on a nearby farm. Loved it! My official first job was flipping hamburgers for several years while in high school. I was married at age 20 and was employed by a lending institution. Two years later I started my first job in media marketing working as an advertising sales rep for an FM radio station.
The Holy Bible. It is the Word of God and the source of wisdom.
Foghorn Leghorn. He is a rooster, not a chicken.
Anything sung by Frank Sinatra.
I work too much. I break out in hives and start itching when I'm around lazy people.
To know the uniqueness of the House of Representatives, one must first know the origin of the institution. America’s first constitution was the Articles of Confederation drafted in 1777 and ratified in 1781. The 13 states were governed by a one-chamber Congress of the Confederation. The new nation had no president. James Madison and Alexander Hamilton led the effort to amend the Articles of Confederation. A Constitutional Convention was convened in 1787. Delegates argued about the structure of a new Congress, its size, and its powers. Eventually, the delegates reached the Great Compromise (also known as the Connecticut Compromise). It provided for a two-chamber legislature. The House of Representatives would represent the people. The Senate would represent the states. The House is no longer the people’s House. It has become the lobbyists’ puppet. We must curtail the influence of money in Washington and liberate the House to represent the people again. I will be the people's congressman.
Truthfully, it would be better if they had little or no experience in government and politics. Members of Congress should have careers outside of politics. A person's time in public office should be service to our country, not time invested in a 40-year career in Washington. Our Congress spends too much time in Washington. There is no need in our modern age to physically meet in Washington. Committee meetings could easily be conducted digitally with members in their home districts. Congress should be limited in how many days they can be in session each year. Representatives and Senators need to be in their home communities more often instead of living in Washington. We need more farmers, ranchers, teachers, truck drivers, scientists, doctors, and other career professionals in Congress instead of full-time politicians who have nothing else to do than meddle in our business and finance foreign wars.
If we fail to re-establish our borders and deport millions of illegal immigrants, we will be conquered from within. A hard lockdown of the border is Priority #1. The second priority is the round up and deportation of dangerous illegal immigrants including young fighting-age Chinese men and violent criminals from any country. The third challenge is to impose fiscal sanity in government spending. We cannot continue to spend trillions of dollars that the government does not have in the Treasury without borrowing or the Fed issuing "funny money" that spikes inflation and devalues our currency. Personally, I favor abolishing the Federal Reserve, the federal income tax, and the IRS. Let freedom ring! The fourth challenge is unity. We are a deeply fractured nation in 2024. The ruling class is deliberately keeping the people divided and fighting amongst ourselves. We must return to being one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Yes, with a limit of three terms. [Yes, with a limit of six terms for a total of 12 years.]
I fully support term limits for all elected offices. Twelve years should be sufficient for members of the House and Senate. Representatives and Senators should also spend far less time in Washington and far more time in their home districts. Make them return home to earn a living like the rest of us.
I can name five representatives as role models. 1) Thaddeus Stephens; 2) William Jennings Bryan; 3) Louis McFadden; 4) Goodloe Byron; and 5) Paul McCloskey. Why these five? Thaddeus Stephens was a bold, outspoken opponent of slavery. Stephens led the movement to pass the Thirteenth Amendment to our Constitution which abolished slavery. Stephens was also a champion of free public education. William Jennings Bryan was a God-fearing, decent man who ran for President three times. He is most known for his Cross of Gold speech in 1896. Louis McFadden was a fearless opponent of the newly formed Federal Reserve Bank. He blasted the Bank for orchestrating the Great Depression. McFadden warned that our nation's economic system was taken over by an international cabal through the creation of the Federal Reserve, the adoption of the Income Tax, and the establishment of the IRS. Sadly, Mr. McFadden's good name was smeared by the cabal whom he fiercely opposed. Goodloe Byron was the first Congressman I personally knew. He recruited me in 1968 when I was 15 years old to volunteer in his campaign. He was a good and decent man who died too young. Goodloe Byron strongly believed that members of Congress should vote according to the views and opinions of the voters in his/her district. My fifth role model is Pete McCloskey. He passed away on May 8, 2024 at age 96. Colonel McCloskey was a U.S. Marine, a decorated Korean war hero, a California congressman, the co-founder of Earth Day, and a Republican presidential candidate against Richard Nixon in 1972. Pete was a warrior who fought for peace.
I often hear young fathers and mothers talk about their struggles to survive financially in America today. I have a soft spot in my heart for young families. It troubles me that young parents are cutting back on expenses to pay for necessities while the super-rich such as Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates continue to suck in billions of dollars and live luxurious lives. The Middle Class is being eliminated. Something is not right. Something has got to change. I want to be the people's congressman. I will stand up to the Big Boys.
Joe Biden won the 2020 election.
I am a retired pastor. Preaching is the art of the absolute. There can be no compromise of the Gospel. Politics, however, is the art of consensus. In government, leaders must seek consensus to find a solution acceptable to various factions without compromising core principles and values. Jesus said, "Blessed are the peacemakers." We need more peacemakers in Congress and fewer political combatants always searching for the next fight and more publicity.
I will be a relentless advocate of a balanced budget. I am opposed to tax increases that hurt and hinder Middle Class families and small to medium size businesses. The U.S. budget must be slashed and spending brought in line with present revenue. I will be an advocate for working people and small business owners.
Many of our government agencies such as the Department of Justice and the FBI are rotten to the bone. They need a thorough house-cleaning. Investigations must be nonpartisan and fair. Corruption is unacceptable regardless of political parties. My concern is not so much about matters currently under investigation or previous investigations. I am troubled by the important things that are never investigated. Why was the Jeffrey Epstein teenage sex blackmail operation never investigated? Epstein was not a billionaire. He was an actor who played the role of a billionaire. His "girlfriend" Ghislaine Maxwell was his handler. Her father Robert Maxwell was an Israeli spy. He died a strange death like Jeffrey. Maxwell's daughter took control of the family blackmail business. Why is everybody in Washington terrified to talk about Epstein? I know the answer and so do you.
It would be easier to tell you who HAS NOT endorsed me: The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the ADL , the CFR, the Bilderberg Group, George Soros, Klaus Schwab, the World Economic Forum, Bill Gates, Anthony Fauci, Yuval Harari, Bill & Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, the Federal Reserve Bank, Big Pharma, Big Tech, international bankers, Democratic Socialists of America, Antifa, and the Communist Party USA.
I have extensive knowledge of foreign affairs and would serve well on the Foreign Affairs Committee. However, I don't see how my membership on that committee would serve Florida. I am more interested in using my time to make life better for Floridians. Most likely, I would seek membership on Agriculture, Small Business, Science and Technology, Energy and Commerce, or Natural Resources.
Most of what goes on in Washington is a sham. Nothing but smoke and mirrors to fool the public. Can you name the last decade Congress passed a balanced budget? Can you name the last time the Federal Reserve Bank was audited by independent examiners? When was the last time the gold in Fort Knox was inspected by independent auditors? I am a businessman who can read spreadsheets. There is no business sense in Washington. There is no common sense in D.C. Dave Ramsey should be the next Speaker of the House! Ron Paul should be the Chairman of the Federal Reserve. Peter Schiff should be Secretary of the Treasury. I reiterate my determination to revive President Ronald Reagan's quest to achieve the ratification of a Balanced Budget Constitutional Amendment. We must not allow the Washington winos to have access to the liquor cabinet. Constitutionally requiring them to pass a balanced budget each year on schedule would be equivalent to confiscating the liquor cabinet keys from the drunks.
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Campaign finance summary
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See also
2024 Elections
External links
Candidate U.S. House Florida District 21 |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on May 25, 2024