Tom Ellsworth

supported the other guy, but they came to me and asked me to become the director of emergency management for the state of Florida because that was my background in the private sector.

I was doing emergency management.

So, you know, I didn't want to take the job because I was like, how am I going to go work for a guy I fundamentally disagree with?

But then I, you know, I talked to those parents that, you know, buried their kids because government, if you look at what happened in parking, government failed those

parents they had the fbi had hits on the kid the school board did you know the sheriff's office um and so i i took my political hat off and i went to go work for ron desantis for two and a half years i led the entire covid response for the state of florida uh when i think we got covid right more than any the other 49 states um and then he appointed me to the broward county commission i'm a i'm a twice appointed ron desantis democrat as my socialist opponent likes to point out

And then after that, I ran for Congress.

And so, you know, that's kind of the history.

You know, my wife is from here.

You know, my kids, you know, we're all here.

We love Florida.

Respect.

And by the way, did you get approached by the administration to run FEMA?

Was there some talks with you in FEMA?

Yeah, I mean, look, I met with the folks.

I'm not going to go into the details, but I met with the folks at the highest level on whether they would be interested and I would be interested.

Because I do think the president was right that FEMA needed reform, and I was interested in reforming it.

But unfortunately, that's not the direction that Noem has gone with FEMA.

She's basically just dismantled it.

Yeah.

Okay.