Dan Bongino

Early life and education

Bongino, who is of Italian ancestry, attended the City University of New York, where he earned both a bachelor's and master's degree in psychology, and Penn State University, where he earned a masters in business administration.

Professional career

Bongino worked with the New York Police Department for four years, from 1995 to 1999. He joined the U.S. Secret Service in 1999 as a special agent, leaving the New York Field Office in 2002 to become an instructor at the Secret Service Training Academy in Beltsville, Maryland. In 2006, he was assigned to the U.S. Presidential Protection Division during George W. Bush's term. He remained on protective duty after Barack Obama became President, leaving in May 2011 to run for the U.S. Senate.

Bongino has been a radio host and commentator on both local and national radio programs. He has been a guest host for both the Sean Hannity and Mark Levin radio shows and sometimes fills in on WMAL radio in Washington, DC and WBAL radio in Baltimore. Bongino has also provided guest commentary on both political and security matters for the NBC Nightly News, CBS This Morning, the Fox News Channel, CNN and MSNBC and a multitude of print and online outlets.

Bongino currently hosts a podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud and Stitcher called "The Renegade Republican with Dan Bongino."

2012 U.S. Senate election

Bongino ran for the U.S. Senate in Maryland in 2012. Former gubernatorial candidate Brian Murphy was his campaign chairman. Bongino won the Republican primary on April 3, 2012, with 33.8 percent of the vote, defeating nine other candidates. He ran against Senator Ben Cardin and Independent Rob Sobhani in the November 2012 general election, finishing second with 26.6% of the vote.

2014 House of Representatives election

Bongino ran for the U.S. House of Representatives seat from Maryland's 6th Congressional District in the 2014 election against incumbent Democrat John Delaney. The district is considered the 9th least compact Congressional district as a result of redistricting after the 2010 census. In October 2013 Bongino was endorsed by an Allen West-affiliated group. In July 2014 Bongino was endorsed by Rand Paul. Bongino lost a close race, coming within a few thousand votes of an upset victory, despite the incumbent being heavily favored according to The Cook Political Report.Ultimately, Bongino could not overcome a 20,500-vote deficit in the district's share of Montgomery County--far more than the overall margin.

2016 House of Representatives election

After moving to Florida in 2015, Bongino contemplated running for the United States Senate and Florida's 18th congressional district in 2016. However, in June 2016, Bongino declared that he would seek the Republican nomination for Florida's 19th congressional district. He faced Chauncey Goss, a Sanibel City Councilman who sought the seat in 2012, and Francis Rooney, a businessman and former United States Ambassador to the Holy See, in the primary.

In an August 2016 interview with a Politico reporter, Bongino went on a profanity laced rant against the reporter, who asked about a story in the Naples Daily News that Bongino said was dishonest. The recorded phone call was published by Politico.

The "Constitutional Conservatives" PAC ran ads against Bongino in that race.

Bongino placed third in the August 2016 primary, losing the nomination to Rooney.

Political positions

Bongino is a member of the Groundswell, a coalition of conservative and libertarian activists fighting to advance conservative causes, according to public documents.

Bongino opposes the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (commonly referred to as Obamacare) and penned an editorial against it.

Bongino has downplayed the Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections investigation, calling it a "total scam."

Controversies

Bongino made a "screaming, profanity-laced" complaint in 2016 to a reporter in a recorded conversation about his run for office. He later explained that he was under stress due to his wife's illness and said that the reporter had goaded him.

Bongino received criticism for using his Secret Service background as part of his run for political office and for his claim of having secret information based on conversations he overheard in the Obama White House. He has also defended President Obama in terms of the Birther allegations. In 2016, Bongino criticized leakers, saying "Grow a spine, you gutless punks."

Books

In late 2013, Bongino's book about his career as a secret service agent, Life Inside the Bubble, was released and immediately made it onto both the New York Times and Amazon Best Sellers list. The book discusses his experiences protecting presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama and investigating federal crimes along with his 2012 run for the U.S. Senate in Maryland.

The book caused controversy, with an anonymous former colleague criticizing him for trying to use his proximity to President Obama in his political career: "He's trying to draw attention to himself and he's hijacking the Secret Service brand. That's all he's got going for him." Bongino claimed to have had access to "high-level discussions" in the White House. Anonymous former colleagues said he "tends to exaggerate his importance on the presidential detail and exaggerate his proximity" and that "We don't sit in on meetings at the White House. We don't sit in on high-level meetings."

In response to the criticism from an anonymous former colleague, Bongino stated "There's nothing confidential in the book" and "It's not a tell-all. It's my tale of the Secret Service."

His book, The Fight: A Secret Service Agent’s Inside Account of Security Failings and the Political Machine was published in January 2016 and made it onto the New York Times Best Sellers list in March 2016.

Personal life

Bongino is married to the former Paula Martinez, who was born in Colombia, and has two daughters. In 2012, Bongino and his wife were small business owners and their core business concentration was security-consulting, Internet design and development. In 2016, Bongino said the business was shut down in 2012 when he ran for office. In a June 2016 personal disclosure, he reported making a living in media.

Bongino announced in April 2015 that he was moving from Severna Park, Maryland to Palm City, Florida due to "a non-emergency family situation." In 2016 Bongino said the move was due to his wife's health condition (lupus) and to be closer to her mother.