Dan Bongino gave it another go but came up short in the Republican Primary in Florida’s Congressional District 19. The Florida polls closed at 7:00 pm and before 8:30 pm, Francis Rooney had been called the winner of #FL19. The final results (via The New York Times) are as follows:
- Francis Rooney – 46,800 (52.7%)
- Chauncey Goss – 26,520 (29.9%)
- Dan Bongino – 15,434 (17.4%)
This was Bongino’s first Republican Primary lose. He won the Republican Primary for U.S. Senate in Maryland in 2012 and won the Primary for U.S. Congress in Maryland’s 6th District in 2014.
Here are the numbers for his 2012 Primary race:
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Republican | Daniel Bongino | 66,561 | 33.8 | |
Republican | Richard J. Douglas | 55,907 | 28.4 | |
Republican | Joseph Alexander | 17,567 | 8.9 | |
Republican | Bro Broadus | 10,503 | 5.3 | |
Republican | Rick Hoover | 10,241 | 5.2 | |
Republican | John B. Kimble | 10,088 | 5.1 | |
Republican | David Jones | 8,002 | 4.1 | |
Republican | Corrogan R. Vaughn | 7,869 | 4.0 | |
Republican | William Thomas Capps, Jr. | 6,768 | 3.4 | |
Republican | Brian Vaeth | 3,602 | 1.8 | |
Total votes | 204,268 | 100 |
Here are the numbers for the 2014 Primary race:
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Republican | Dan Bongino | 23,933 | 83.5 | |
Republican | Harold W. Painter, Jr. | 4,718 | 16.5 | |
Total votes | 28,651 | 100 |
Bongino had never faced a Primary where a candidate was as well funded as Rooney (who gave his campaign an estimate $3.9 million). That is some serious cash for a congressional race. I would think it would be difficult for anyone to overcome that kind of self funding.
The phone conversation with the Politico reporter during the early voting in Florida did not help Bongino. It was widely reported and I am sure that had some affect on the final voting numbers in this election.
Bongino and his team must have known this was a real possibility yesterday. Bongino is usually very active on Twitter but yesterday there was not much coming from his account. He had two tweets in the morning:
At 9:30am
At 10:29am:
That last one is never a good sign from a candidate. Generally when those type of tweets come from a candidate or campaign account, they know it is not going to be a good day.
The final tweet came at 9:14pm. The race had been called for Rooney by then and what I can only assume is out of total frustration, this was sent out…
Of all of the things that could have been sent out to his followers…we (or they, since I am blocked from his Twitter account) got that to end the evening. My hope is that something more thankful or appreciative to the over 15,000 district voters (and thousands of other supporters and followers) comes from him today via social media. Maybe it will…we will see. I know he thanked his followers at 10:29am, but it would have been nice to see him congratulate his opponent and thank his followers one last time at the end of the evening. That is just my own personal opinion. On a lighter note…I have to say that some of the comments of Bongino using the hashtag for “pound” on Twitter were hilarious.
What is next for Dan Bongino? I have no clue. He is in Florida and I am in Maryland and don’t keep up with his day to day activities. I am sure he will continue to make appearances on Fox, CNN and other stations when they need an ex Secret Service agent or security expert. I would bet he will continues his appearances on Sean Hannity (radio) and WBAL (radio). He has his podcast (of which I will listen to the next episode – betting it will be a classic). I guess the question is will Bongino run for office again in 2018 (or further out at some point). If I were to guess, I would think he may have one more fight in him. He may not feel like it today, but he still has a significant following and it would not surprise me to see him get into another race down the road.
Have a great Wednesday (or now better known as…HUMP DAY)!!!!
Scott E
Update: Those not blocked by Bongino on Twitter received an update this morning:
I am personally happy to see that come from his account.
Some of today’s politicians just don’t understand how the internet works. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/8/31/1565482/-Donald-Trump-Thinks-Clinton-Poured-Bleach-On-Her-Server-Literally
That is funny!!!
Is it funny or totally stupid when Trump repeats the claim today that Clinton used BleachBit to poor acid on the emails? He said that is “expensive” and asked “who does that?” Well, nobody because BleachBit is free and has no acid. https://www.bleachbit.org/press/faq
Dan Bongino Loses Florida Congressional Race to Francis Rooney. It doesn’t matter who win we will provide private jet charter flight service to any Floridian at http://www.wysluxury.com/florida
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