August 10, 2026 • 4 mins
Ryan Elijah (Republican Party) is running for election to the U.S. House to represent Florida's 7th Congressional District. Primary date is 8/18.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
This Judy Copierre and I am the market president for
Central Florida and happy to be here today as a
segment i'll meet the candidates with me today is Ryan
Elijah and he is running for US Congress seventh District.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Great to be with you, Judy, Thank you.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
So give our listeners just a little bit about you.
Introduce yourself if you will.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
So I have been a public figure here for the
last fourteen years. I've been in the media. I worked
as a news anchor at Fox thirty five and that's
where I really got involved. I was able to be
on boards. I was able to be our political reporter
and meet sheriffs, meet the business leaders in this community.
So a job that I loved that I could have
retired doing, but decided to, of course, take a different
route and leave TV and get into politics.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
So what prompted you to run for office? We all
had change.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
It's a big change. It's not something you take lightly.
I think we all have that moment where you're asked
to step up and lead. And that was it for us.
It was a number of local leaders before this said
this is a position that you might fill well. And
the closer we got to that the more doors opened.
I'm a man of faith, so I feel like God
opened a lot of those doors. When those doors open,
we decided this was our opportunity to jump in and
do the right thing.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Would you feel us the most important issue that you
want to address?
Speaker 1 (01:08):
I would say after talking to thousands of voters, it's
affordability for most people, and it hits different groups different ways.
But we've got to make and both parties together have
got to find a way to make things more affordable
for people in Central Ford. Is that's the number one
thing we target. Obviously have other positions too, like we
endorse by both sheriffs who are strong on law enforcement
and electionategrity. Those are all big issues, but affordability is
(01:29):
the number one thing I hear from most people.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
What experience do you feel best qualifies you for this position?
Speaker 1 (01:35):
I think one serving on a number of boards, whether
it's school board or hoa board where you're managing budgets,
you're leading the community. But even being a leader in
the community, I think that's the one thing. Trust and
integrity the two things I hear it the most coming
back from voters. We'll talk about the elected leaders that
have come behind us, since it's for that reason I've
kind of spent fourteen years being a public figure representing
them in a different way, and I think it just
(01:56):
made it a natural fit.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
So what would you say in your life has given
you that life experience that best qualifies you to step
into a completely new role.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
I think it's that serving in the public eye where
there is a lot of pressure on you. You're held
to a different standard and you have to represent people,
so you're bigger than yourself. And I think that's it
because for a lot of people, even being on TV
or being in the media, it carries a different responsibility
and that's something I've gotten used to. Your family has
to get used to because you're in the public life.
These last three and a half months, we've been very
much in the public life, and if you're used to that,
(02:27):
it certainly helps that you can focus on what's most important,
that's talking to voters and informing policies.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
What do you feel differentiates you from the other candidates?
Speaker 1 (02:36):
I would say trust. I just think it's a trusted
person in this community. In relationships, probably relationships even more so,
I think when you have those relationships that you know
community leaders and you know, whether it's law enforcement or
even the elected officials, you have that relationship already. It
makes a tremendous difference for us.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
What would you say are going to be your top
three priorities once elected?
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Well's how three priorities to talked about? Affordability, getting costs
down will be number one, standing with law enforcement, making
sure we have safe communities, and one that's personal for me,
and this is not one of my top seven, but
is a TV anchor. Consumer protection issues. We're really big
with me and my mom is eighty one years old.
She's in an assisted living and we take care of her.
And I've seen her scammed, well at least try to
be scammed time and time again. She gets fifty to
(03:18):
sixty phone calls a day. So I want to really
protect consumers, but farther than that, protect seniors and make
sure that we've got You would think things are in place,
they're not. There are things that we can do even
better to protect our seniors because they're vulnerable and in
my mom's case, that they're just not where they were
years ago, and so they're very vulnerable and we have
to do better to protect them.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Last thing, would you like the voters to know about you.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
I think a couple of things. Number One, I've lived
here for the last fourteen years. I've raised my family here,
and I'm committed to this community. I have those relationships.
Beyond that, both Shreiff Lima, both Sheriff Chipwood, and now
twenty local officials have endorsed us, And I think I'm
not huge on endorsements. I think voters decide how they're
going to vote. But when people step up against incumbent,
it's unheard of the fact that we have twenty different
(04:03):
In fact, it's probably more than twenty now. Endorsements from
very key people. I think since a strong message that
this community is thirsty for new leadership, and that's what
propels us. That's what really gets us out of bed
each day and keeps us going forward. We still have
work to do, but it's very humbling to have that. Well, Ryan,
it's been a pleasure to meet you again. This is
Ryan Elijah, running for US Congress District seven here in
(04:26):
the state of Florida. Thank you, good to be on Judie,
thank you
Hi.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
This Judy Copierre and I am the market president for
Central Florida and happy to be here today as a
segment i'll meet the candidates with me today is Ryan
Elijah and he is running for US Congress seventh District.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Great to be with you, Judy, Thank you.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
So give our listeners just a little bit about you.
Introduce yourself if you will.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
So I have been a public figure here for the
last fourteen years. I've been in the media. I worked
as a news anchor at Fox thirty five and that's
where I really got involved. I was able to be
on boards. I was able to be our political reporter
and meet sheriffs, meet the business leaders in this community.
So a job that I loved that I could have
retired doing, but decided to, of course, take a different
route and leave TV and get into politics.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
So what prompted you to run for office? We all
had change.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
It's a big change. It's not something you take lightly.
I think we all have that moment where you're asked
to step up and lead. And that was it for us.
It was a number of local leaders before this said
this is a position that you might fill well. And
the closer we got to that the more doors opened.
I'm a man of faith, so I feel like God
opened a lot of those doors. When those doors open,
we decided this was our opportunity to jump in and
do the right thing.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Would you feel us the most important issue that you
want to address?
Speaker 1 (01:08):
I would say after talking to thousands of voters, it's
affordability for most people, and it hits different groups different ways.
But we've got to make and both parties together have
got to find a way to make things more affordable
for people in Central Ford. Is that's the number one
thing we target. Obviously have other positions too, like we
endorse by both sheriffs who are strong on law enforcement
and electionategrity. Those are all big issues, but affordability is
(01:29):
the number one thing I hear from most people.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
What experience do you feel best qualifies you for this position?
Speaker 1 (01:35):
I think one serving on a number of boards, whether
it's school board or hoa board where you're managing budgets,
you're leading the community. But even being a leader in
the community, I think that's the one thing. Trust and
integrity the two things I hear it the most coming
back from voters. We'll talk about the elected leaders that
have come behind us, since it's for that reason I've
kind of spent fourteen years being a public figure representing
them in a different way, and I think it just
(01:56):
made it a natural fit.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
So what would you say in your life has given
you that life experience that best qualifies you to step
into a completely new role.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
I think it's that serving in the public eye where
there is a lot of pressure on you. You're held
to a different standard and you have to represent people,
so you're bigger than yourself. And I think that's it
because for a lot of people, even being on TV
or being in the media, it carries a different responsibility
and that's something I've gotten used to. Your family has
to get used to because you're in the public life.
These last three and a half months, we've been very
much in the public life, and if you're used to that,
(02:27):
it certainly helps that you can focus on what's most important,
that's talking to voters and informing policies.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
What do you feel differentiates you from the other candidates?
Speaker 1 (02:36):
I would say trust. I just think it's a trusted
person in this community. In relationships, probably relationships even more so,
I think when you have those relationships that you know
community leaders and you know, whether it's law enforcement or
even the elected officials, you have that relationship already. It
makes a tremendous difference for us.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
What would you say are going to be your top
three priorities once elected?
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Well's how three priorities to talked about? Affordability, getting costs
down will be number one, standing with law enforcement, making
sure we have safe communities, and one that's personal for me,
and this is not one of my top seven, but
is a TV anchor. Consumer protection issues. We're really big
with me and my mom is eighty one years old.
She's in an assisted living and we take care of her.
And I've seen her scammed, well at least try to
be scammed time and time again. She gets fifty to
(03:18):
sixty phone calls a day. So I want to really
protect consumers, but farther than that, protect seniors and make
sure that we've got You would think things are in place,
they're not. There are things that we can do even
better to protect our seniors because they're vulnerable and in
my mom's case, that they're just not where they were
years ago, and so they're very vulnerable and we have
to do better to protect them.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Last thing, would you like the voters to know about you.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
I think a couple of things. Number One, I've lived
here for the last fourteen years. I've raised my family here,
and I'm committed to this community. I have those relationships.
Beyond that, both Shreiff Lima, both Sheriff Chipwood, and now
twenty local officials have endorsed us, And I think I'm
not huge on endorsements. I think voters decide how they're
going to vote. But when people step up against incumbent,
it's unheard of the fact that we have twenty different
(04:03):
In fact, it's probably more than twenty now. Endorsements from
very key people. I think since a strong message that
this community is thirsty for new leadership, and that's what
propels us. That's what really gets us out of bed
each day and keeps us going forward. We still have
work to do, but it's very humbling to have that. Well, Ryan,
it's been a pleasure to meet you again. This is
Ryan Elijah, running for US Congress District seven here in
(04:26):
the state of Florida. Thank you, good to be on Judie,
thank you
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