James Martin Makes Run to Flip Florida House Seat Blue

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Speaker 2 That right there was in Florida. There's going to be a lot of competitive congressional races coming up in 2026.
And could these races flip blue? Democrats making major inroads in Florida.

Speaker 2 And there seems to be something in the air there. Could they be poised to vote Democratic this time and turn some of those congressional seats blue?

Speaker 2 Let's just take a look at some of the national polling in Florida, where Donald Trump is deeply underwater.

Speaker 2 When we take a look at this strength in numbers, Elliott Morris chart right here, you see that Trump's underwater in Florida by about five points there.

Speaker 2 When you take a look at the latest economist tracker and we look at Trump's approval nationwide, we're seeing in several what are considered to be deep red states, Trump is in the negative.

Speaker 2 You take a look at California. I mean, you take a look at Florida right here, and Donald Trump is somewhere between negative 5% and negative 10%.

Speaker 2 Not quite California is what I was going to say, where he's like negative 50%. But in Florida, we're talking about negative 5%, negative 10% there.

Speaker 2 And when we look at what's been happening in some of those town halls, like look at Florida's, what, 21st congressional district,

Speaker 2 you'll see right here, MAGA Republican Congressmember Brian Mast. You know, he's being greeted with booze.
And he only attended this one, I think.

Speaker 2 This was back in April of 2025, but people weren't buying what he was selling, this extreme MAGA agenda that's hurting the people in the 21st Congressional District, like throughout Florida.

Speaker 2 And this took place in Jupiter, Florida. But just watch how pissed off people are.
And this was in April. Right now, people are, this times like a thousand.
Here, play this clip.

Speaker 2 These are all very

Speaker 2 specific examples. That's not a godly thing you say in the church.

Speaker 2 Now take a look. That was, again, MAGA Republican Congress member Brian Mast.
He leads the

Speaker 2 Foreign Intelligence Committee, Foreign Relations Committee in the Congress.

Speaker 2 Here he is right here talking about purging a Foreign Affairs Committee, purging the State Department personnel. That was one of his big agendas, getting rid of the State Department.
Think about that.

Speaker 2 The guy leads the Foreign Affairs Committee and he gets rid of the State Department. Here, play this clip.

Speaker 3 Well, it's purging of people throughout the State Department, other agencies, where we're freezing aid.

Speaker 3 These are all very important and necessary steps to make sure that we secure America, and we're going to support that.

Speaker 4 I'm sorry. Can I follow up on what you just said there? You want to authorize purging of State Department personnel.
What does that mean exactly?

Speaker 3 Well, if you want to take a look at the State Department, where DEI has been a priority over, let's say, diplomacy in many accounts, I can give you hundreds of examples of where they were authorizing.

Speaker 3 Sure. Let's list them off.
Half a million dollars to expand atheism atheism in Nepal, $50,000 to do, let's see, a transgender opera in Colombia.

Speaker 2 And everyone knows these culture war issues that are weaponized by MAGA people like MAST are all BS, and they've used it to absolutely destroy key functions of our government.

Speaker 2 And you know they don't care about the real issues.

Speaker 2 And again, imagine being the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, learning that you had a number of senior people in the Trump regime chatting on Signal and giving their classified war plans

Speaker 2 to a reporter and then saying, whatever, we don't care about it. Some of the most highly sensitive information.
This is what happened when Mass was asked about that. Play this clip.

Speaker 5 But you don't want, I mean, you have jurisdiction. Why don't you want to investigate?

Speaker 6 I don't think this rises to the level of an investigation like that, is my own personal opinion. And again, I'd give you the same point that I just made.

Speaker 6 If they start deleting 30,000 emails off a personal server, kept in their basement, well under under investigation by the FBI

Speaker 6 clean entirely then conduct that investigation these are set to delete at one week in four weeks he's not you're trying to conflate something that's not the reality they're not going out there trying to delete something while under investigation by the FBI they're not under investigation you are not investigating that's exactly right there is

Speaker 2 yeah you're not investigating what are you doing like what are you actually doing there other than trying to divide people also you just may remember that brian Mass, he's the guy who dresses up for whatever reason in the Israeli military uniform.

Speaker 2 You've seen him dressed up like that. I want to talk about though a guy by the name of James Martin, who is someone who may be able to flip that seat, that 21st Congressional District seat, blue.

Speaker 2 James Martin, fourth generation Floridian, U.S. Coast Guard veteran.
He held the rank of Lieutenant Commander of the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve.
Let's bring him in right now.

Speaker 2 Let's bring in James Martin, who's running for that congressional office. Good to see you,

Speaker 2 James, fourth generation Floridian.

Speaker 2 Let's talk about what I just showed you right there. You think you can flip this seat, Blue?

Speaker 4 Absolutely, Ben. I think,

Speaker 4 number one, talking to voters in the district, they're hungry for change. They've had enough of

Speaker 4 a lot of... you know, what we can plainly see is nonsense.
And I think the more important thing is it's the nonsense and then not delivering on concrete results for the folks in this district.

Speaker 4 And even I'll take it one step further, you see a concrete pattern of Brian Mass not

Speaker 4 voting for the interests of this district. So taken all together with the right candidate, absolutely will flip this district blue.

Speaker 2 You know, your background being in the Coast Guard, you served overseas in combat zones.

Speaker 2 You were involved in interdictions from drug cartels who were actually trying to, you know, bring their drugs into the United States. So you were actually the front lines in doing that.

Speaker 2 So I'm sure you must have a perspective on what we're seeing here with instead of these kind of interdictions that the Coast Guard would do, we're now seeing, you know, people like MAST and the Trump regime just say, you know what, why even do that?

Speaker 2 Let's just send in, you know, you know, drones or warplanes and just kill the people.

Speaker 2 And we won't have to ask questions. We won't show people anything.
Just kill them. I think right now it's over

Speaker 2 82, 85, 90 people killed. And we have a lot of people, a lot of veterans saying

Speaker 2 there's real serious issues with that. What do you make of it?

Speaker 4 Sure. Well, I think the first thing to know, Ben, is, of course, they're patently illegal, these extrajudicial airstrikes.
But the second thing to know is not only are they illegal, they're not smart.

Speaker 4 And what I mean by that is they're not smart for a number of reasons. First of all, of course, the justification we're being given is that

Speaker 4 these are narco-terrorists who are trafficking fentanyl into this country. Of course,

Speaker 4 anyone who follows the issue, even from a distance, will know that these boats are not trafficking fentanyl and finished fentanyl comes from Mexico.

Speaker 4 And the second thing to know is, of course, that when we do interdict these folks, as I have, a lot of times we get really good intelligence from them. So not only are we

Speaker 4 doing things illegally and we're not doing them under the proper justifications, we're throwing out great intelligence. And then the third, the last thing I would say is, of course,

Speaker 4 and this is for the talking point, maybe for your uncle at Thanksgiving sort of a thing who doesn't want to listen to any of that and thinks that we should be tough guys is these are expensive.

Speaker 4 You know, these are are expensive missiles. We're lobbying at these guys when we could be arresting them and getting good value from them.
So that's what I would say.

Speaker 4 And that's what I would want folks to know about those

Speaker 4 airstrikes in particular.

Speaker 2 You know, and that's why speaking to you, someone who actually was involved in the water, in the interdictions, doing the questioning, seeing the people, seeing the drug seas, knowing the region, and for you to say, let me explain to you how we did it versus what's going on, I think that's a big deal.

Speaker 2 Also, I mean, your perspective right now, I'd love to hear about it.

Speaker 2 Coast Guard was in the news again because of potentially changing their policy, changing what was on their list of hate symbols to say that the swastika, the noose,

Speaker 2 the Confederate flag would no longer be hate symbols, but simply, you know, symbols of controversy or words to that, or words to those effect. What's going on there?

Speaker 2 And then they did an about face, but what happened there?

Speaker 4 Sure. So the thing that I would want folks to know here is a few things.

Speaker 4 One, so it's being characterized, I think, in many circles as fake news, which is, of course, patently not the case, you know, because

Speaker 4 the thing is the policy did change and it was, it changed and it was simply set to take effect December 15th. And I think it's being characterized by a lot of folks as fake news.

Speaker 4 But really the sad reality is, and know, it's deeply upsetting to me as a member of the Coast Guard.

Speaker 4 I've was a member of the Coast Guard until I was, from the time I was 18 years old until I separated in January. So this is deeply upsetting to me.

Speaker 4 The thing of it is, is anytime you change a law or policy, there is a reason.

Speaker 4 So what I have called for and have asked, what was that reason?

Speaker 4 Why was it changed in the first place?

Speaker 4 How was it drafted in such a way? Let's be charitable and say it was a mistake, as I, of course, hope it is.

Speaker 4 How was it drafted in a way that even approached downplaying hate symbols, right? And then lastly, of course, what are the safeguards to ensure that something like this never happens again?

Speaker 4 Because of,

Speaker 4 you know, I think the very straightforward implications of

Speaker 4 causing an upset in the ranks. I mean, what I think most people, of course, the part that's getting the most attention is the hate symbols.

Speaker 4 But sort of in the fine print of this policy is the change that members, Coast Guard members, only have 45 days to report such an incident if something were to happen where

Speaker 4 a swastika or a noose was displayed to them. That doesn't really work if you're on a six-month patrol and you don't feel that your chain of command is going to be able to

Speaker 4 adjudicate the matter properly. And you just have to keep that to yourself.
And, you know, that's no way to treat,

Speaker 4 in my view, some of the most junior people or any member of the Coast Guard, really. So I'll leave it there.
But I think the biggest thing to come back to is that it was not fake news. It did change.

Speaker 4 And anytime law or policy changes, there's a reason. So what was the reason?

Speaker 2 Yeah. And the fact that that is what they're focusing the changes on, like that individuals are in a room saying, What are we going to do today with all of the issues going on in our country?

Speaker 2 And that's what I want to talk about next: the issues going on in our country, in the district, and there's so many things that need to be done.

Speaker 2 But the fact that in this current Trump regime, you've got people saying, you know what, that's what we're going to be focused on.

Speaker 2 I just want to give people a little bit more about your background so they know that you were selected to command two Coast Guard cutters in Fort Pierce, that the Coast Guard teams that you were working with and responsible for for seized more than 200 tons of illicit narcotics with a street value of more than $3.5 billion,

Speaker 2 the detainment and onward prosecution of more than 450 suspected drug traffickers, and the interdiction of more than 250 migrants at sea.

Speaker 2 And so we think about the work that you've put it through in your career, and you contrasted with what the regime is doing now, just killing over 85 people, and you know, which

Speaker 2 patently illegal and, as you you said, not smart. I just think that contrast is more clear when people know just the extent of your background, you know, leading these teams.

Speaker 2 Before we go, though, I want to talk about your district.

Speaker 2 You know, obviously, you know, people are suffering and struggling under this Trump regime, whether it's the economy, inflation surging, people heading to Thanksgiving, things are far more expensive right now while Trump and MAST pretend that things are cheaper and go, we've made everything so much better.

Speaker 2 Everything's amazing. Everybody's rich.
Obviously, insurance is through the roof in Florida. The cost of living there is virtually unaffordable for many people.

Speaker 2 So as you're traveling throughout your district, what are you hearing and what are you going to do for your people that mask isn't doing for the people?

Speaker 4 Well, thanks for that question, Ben. I think you highlighted a huge part of it.

Speaker 4 Of course, affordability and the economy, which is something I'm going to be laser focused on and very focused on, whether it's property property insurance.

Speaker 4 An issue that's a

Speaker 4 big thing for folks here is actually we have a major clean water crisis where without getting into all the details, the big lake that's in the center of the state of Florida, Lake Okeechobee, it's very polluted.

Speaker 4 Folks may have seen it's the most polluted lake in America. The thing to know there is we have

Speaker 4 for

Speaker 4 complicated reasons, we have discharges that come from that lake into our local waterways.

Speaker 4 And the estuary that we have in the district, the Indian River Lagoon, is actually the most biodiverse lagoon in

Speaker 4 North America, more biodiverse than the Everglades. And the reason, and this sounds very esoteric, but the reason that that's important is that is the lifeblood of

Speaker 4 this district, of this place.

Speaker 4 If that doesn't work,

Speaker 4 people's property values go down, people can't fish, and that's both commercial fishermen,

Speaker 4 recreational fishermen. So folks are very seized with that.

Speaker 4 And the reason I mention is Brian Mast has sort of positioned himself as a champion on clean water while quietly, you know, you may have seen last week, hollowing out the EPA,

Speaker 4 both the enforcement mechanisms that the EPA has and

Speaker 4 some of the definitions that

Speaker 4 really enable

Speaker 4 the federal government to

Speaker 4 enforce clean water rules. So I just wanna make mention of that, but

Speaker 4 because it is a huge part of the affordability of this place, of property insurance,

Speaker 4 I think

Speaker 4 we heard it best.

Speaker 4 I heard a quote, everything that Trump and Brian Mass is doing is making you either poorer or sicker. And that's what I come back to.
And

Speaker 4 it's almost at the bottom of any issue. So that's what we're going to be laser focused on moving forward.

Speaker 2 Yeah. And that's why, you know, to me, all these issues are connected, because their priorities and their focus on, hey, let's bring the swastika back.

Speaker 2 Let's do this, you know, or it's like, let's destroy the State Department or, you know, mess. Let's just start randomly talking about like bathrooms in Peru.

Speaker 2 And it's like the American people like, dude. I just want to be able to sit at my Thanksgiving table and be able to afford the turkey this year.

Speaker 2 Like, I just want to be able to then be in a place where I can afford my rent and afford insurance. Like, can you talk about that versus all of this kind of weird stuff?

Speaker 2 Anyway, before we go, James, where can people find out more about the campaign?

Speaker 4 Sure. So we're at jamesmartinforflorida.com.
And then we're on. From there, we're on all social media, except for Substack.

Speaker 4 I did get admonished by a lady last week that I was not on Substack, but we'll get there. So that's

Speaker 4 for Florida.com and we're on all social media channels. Thanks again, Ben.

Speaker 2 Well, people will see this on our Substack. So there you have it.
James Martin, he's running for the 21st Congressional District in Florida against MAGA Republican Congressmember Brian Mass.

Speaker 2 Thanks for joining us, James.

Speaker 4 Thank you, Ben. Appreciate you.

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