Trey Radel

Early life and education

Trey Radel was born in 1976 in Cincinnati, the son of Kathleen (Sollinger) and Henry Jude Radel, Jr. He attended Elder High School. Radel majored in communications and minored in Italian at Loyola University Chicago.

Journalist career

Radel was trained as an actor and a comedian and performed improvisational work at Second City in Chicago. Radel began his working career as a journalist, working as both an anchor and a reporter. He interned for CNN at its headquarters in Atlanta. He then worked for the CBS affiliates in Houston and Chicago. He was a TV and radio talk show host of Daybreak, on WINK-TV & WFSX-FM 92.5 Fox News Radio.

He bought the Naples Journal, a community newspaper in Naples, Florida, which he reformatted and expanded, later selling the paper to the Naples Daily News. He founded Trey Communications LLC, a conservative media relations firm. The company purchased and sold domain names, including some of a pornographic nature.

He and his wife founded a nonprofit organization called the U.S. Forces Fund, which focuses on helping injured soldiers returning home from abroad.

Radel is the author of Democrazy. Published by Blue Rider Press, an imprint of the Random House company, the book will be released March 28, 2017.

U.S. House of Representatives

Republican 14th District Congressman Connie Mack IV decided not to run for reelection to his seat, in order to challenge Democratic U.S. Senator Bill Nelson. Radel decided to run in the open seat, which had been renumbered as the 19th District. Five other Republican candidates also filed to run. Controversy occurred when it was discovered that the campaign committee "Friends of Trey Radel, Inc." had purchased his opponents' domain names nearly a year before he announced he was going to run for office. When this was revealed, he denied knowing about it, blaming it on staff, but eventually admitted he had purchased the domain names. Subsequently, his campaign committee created websites and attached them to his opponents' domain names, purportedly for the purpose of disseminating the voting records of the opponents, which were posted on the websites. Radel's political philosophy is conservative, but he nevertheless has said he supports the principles of the DREAM Act. Radel was endorsed by the incumbent Connie Mack IV, former U.S. Senator Connie Mack III, and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Chauncey Goss (who finished second to Radel in the primary) was endorsed by U.S. Congressman Paul Ryan. Radel won the primary with 30% of the vote, primarily on the strength of his showing in his native Lee County.

In the general election Radel faced Democrat Jim Roach of Cape Coral, a retired GM research engineer and Vietnam veteran. However, Radel was heavily favored to win. The 19th has long been reckoned as one of the most Republican districts in Florida, and as such the Republican primary was considered the real contest for the election. In 2008, Republican presidential nominee John McCain won the district with 57% of the vote. In 2010, Rick Scott won the district with 61% of the vote. Radel did indeed win the 2012 election, with 63% of the vote. The Naples Daily News reported that the financial disclosure reports Radel submitted during his campaign were inaccurate and that once he was elected he amended these reports. According to Radel's attorney he underreported his assets by failing to note his trust funds.

Following his conviction for cocaine possession, Radel went on a self-imposed leave of absence, prompting the Republican Party of Florida and Governor of Florida Rick Scott to call for his resignation. On January 27, 2014, Radel announced he would resign from Congress. He had not voted in Congress after November 15, 2013 in the wake of the conviction.

Committee assignments

Resignation

On October 29, 2013, Radel was arrested in the District of Columbia after attempting to buy 3.5 grams of cocaine from an undercover federal officer. Less than a month later, Radel pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of possession of cocaine and was sentenced to one year of supervised probation.

In November 2013, Radel announced that he would be taking a leave of absence from Congress to undergo addiction rehabilitation and that he would be donating his salary to charity during his absence, but stopped short of resigning. Following his announcement, the Republican Party of Florida and Governor of Florida Rick Scott called on Radel to "resign immediately" and "focus his attention on rehabilitation and his family". In late January 2014, Radel officially tendered his resignation in a letter to Speaker of the House John Boehner. Republican businessman Curt Clawson won the special general election held on June 24, 2014 to replace him.

Radel completed all conditions of his probation in October 2014, and his criminal record was wiped clean as a result. Spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office, William Miller said, "The court granted that request and the records are now expunged."

Personal life

Radel is married to FOX-4 anchor Amy Wegmann. They have one child, and live in Fort Myers.