Mount Dora geophysicist John McCloy, 53, was underwhelmed by the candidates on offer for the Aug. 20 Republican primary in Congressional District 11: MAGA firebrand Anthony Sabatini and Daniel Webster, the long-serving incumbent Congressman.

McCloy had backed Webster in the past. But he’d grown concerned about Webster’s record for missing congressional votes; his tendency to vote along the party lines and his unavailability to constituents. Still, he abhorred Sabatini’s racist, anti-immigrant rhetoric. So, the decorated veteran, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, decided he would run and give voters another option.

The district, which includes West Orange County, the southern half of Lake County, a portion of north Polk County and Sumter County, home to The Villages retirement community, has been consistently Republican since 2012.

McCloy, who’ lived in Florida since 2017 but whose Polk County family ties date to the late 1800s, positioned himself as a younger, more moderate alternative. He wrote Webster and his wife letters explaining his reasons for running. They went unanswered.

“[Webster] just doesn't have the energy,” he said. “So I want to carry on his good work, but with energy and renewed focus.”

In June, Sabatini dropped out of the race after Republican presidential nominee and convicted felon Donald Trump endorsed Webster. Now it’s a two-person race. The primary winner will face Democratic nominee Barbie Harden Hall in the general election Nov. 5.

McCloy said he shares an interest in legislation for disabilities and diseases with Hall and even talked to Democrats about her rare-disease initiatives at an event. He said Republican support for these initiatives (including from Webster) lags behind Democrats, something he hopes to change.

Economy and energy industry

Previously employed at Chevron as a geophysicist, McCloy said he left the energy industry in 2020 because the election of President Joe Biden led to cuts on new drilling projects. He cites the Biden administration halting construction of the widely-criticized Keystone XL Pipeline and blocking drilling in Alaska as proof of Biden’s “war on the fossil fuel industry,” which McCloy seeks to end.

Under Biden, the U.S. has become the largest crude oil producer in the world. The administration has also kept pace with the prior administration in issuing permits for oil and gas drilling on public lands through 2023. Biden also approved the Willow Project, a large drilling project in Alaska that drew criticism from environmentalists.

McCloy does advocate for more investment in greener technologies as part of his platform — he installed solar panels on his house — and wants to reduce permitting delays and speed up approval processes for renewable energy projects, particularly nuclear energy. In other words, McCloy supports approving new energy production in all forms, fossil fuels and renewable energy.

Here’s where McCloy’s views on climate policy get a bit contradictory. McCloy is a fiscal conservative and said he doesn’t believe renewable energy should rely on government subsidies. He believes the free market will naturally shift toward efficient green energy as climate change concerns rise, but he is simultaneously in favor of more drilling projects for fossil fuels. He doesn’t support net-zero government initiatives, such as Biden’s current plan to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

He supports tax cuts for citizens, he said. He wants to reduce inflation and said easing restrictions on petroleum will lower gas prices, which would lead to reduced business costs and ultimately lower prices across industries.

Inflation has also increased building costs for houses, including materials costs and labor. That in turn, he said, increases housing prices. McCloy wants to work with state and local governments to change zoning regulations to allow for smaller housing options and implement up-and-coming affordable building technologies, like 3D concrete printing and modular homes made in factories (that also comply with an area’s safety regulations).

He said incorporating energy-efficient materials in homes can reduce household energy bills, and McCloy points to the federal Energy Star program as a “success story” in helping citizens and businesses adopt energy efficient practices while reducing costs.

Second Amendment rights

McCloy opposes restrictions on gun ownership and favors open carry and permitless carry (Florida allows concealed carry without a permit). He objects to Florida’s law raising the minimum age for private gun ownership from 18 to 21, saying that it “insults every young soldier” in the military who cannot buy their own gun but can use one on the field.  Yet, he does not support mandatory gun usage training as a prerequisite for gun ownership.

He supports current bans on personal ownership of military-grade weapons like machine guns and bazookas (banned under the Gun Control Act), and he supports background checks to prevent convicted felons from owning firearms as well as those who’ve been committed under the Florida Mental Health Act (or Baker Act). He does not support federal bans on weapons that are not banned nation-wide, such as assault weapons.

“When you hear about some gun tragedy, like a school shooting,” he said, “you’ve got to think, is the gun the problem, or is it the mental health?”

[Ed. Note: The U.S. has 67 million more firearms than citizens and the highest overall rate of death from firearms — nearly five times that of France, which has the second highest death rate. A U.S. Surgeon General advisory labeled firearm violence a public health crisis and cited firearms as the leading cause of death in children and adolescents. Only three percent of gun violence stems from people with serious mental illnesses.]

A proponent of small government, McCloy said it’s not the federal government’s job to regulate gun ownership and storage, like preventing minors and those with mental health issues from accessing guns. However, he said that parents whose children commit crimes using guns should be held accountable under the law as accessories for negligence.

Foreign wars

McCloy said he supports military aid to Ukraine against its war with Russia, despite opposition from far-right Republicans. He said the U.S. is giving Ukraine older weapons and replacing stores with newer weapons and boosting employment in weapons factories. He supports giving ammunition to Ukraine versus financial aid so that aid is used solely for the war effort.

He also supports giving aid to Israel as it fights Hamas in Gaza. He said the U.S. should support Israel, its longtime ally and a crucial partner in counterterrorism efforts, even if it crossed a “red line,” established by the Biden Administration. He also supports providing food and medical care to Gazans.

Abortion

McCloy said he’s personally “very pro-life.” He supports a bipartisan compromise to prevent states from banning in vitro fertilization. And he believes abortion should be decided by the states. He said the federal government should provide services, such as medical care, income replacement and better foster care and orphanages, for pregnant women and mothers to “choose life.”

He’s in favor of exceptions to save women’s lives and for rape and incest to prevent “back alley abortions.” However, he worries that allowing for those exceptions will lead to “unintended consequences” like “increased accusations of rape” as women use that excuse to have an abortion.

“The U.S. would have better luck if they addressed the issue from that perspective rather than just making [abortion] against the law. If you make something against the law, kind of like smoking or pot, it'll just go behind the back.”

Education and LGBTQ+ rights

Regarding education, school boards should have control over curricula, said McCloy. He believes school libraries should be sectioned and monitored by age level, but does not support book bans in public libraries.

For sex education and LGBTQ topics, McCloy contended schools should follow the advice of sex and health education experts on when to discuss such topics. And yet, he also maintained that schools should focus on academic subjects and defer most of the responsibility of discussing controversial topics to parents. It is unclear where he draws the line on what should be taught at schools, but said schools should “focus on having that subject matter expert [teachers] in math, history, science.”

In the same vein, McCloy does not support Bible education in public schools or compulsory school prayer, saying religious education is a parent or church’s job. And yet when asked if he supports displaying the Ten Commandments in classrooms, McCloy said he would support their display if the Commandments were being taught in a historical context.

On school choice, McCloy said having an autistic son has given him a different perspective. He paid out of pocket to send his son to a private school with special-education services, and vouchers could help lower-income families that have children with disabilities in the same way. He’s also in favor of providing more opportunities for children to go to private schools, which he said would spur competition among private and public schools and lead to better programs overall.

McCloy said he believes in maintaining current federal anti-discrimination laws that are “all encompassing.” However, he said legislation governing gender-affirming care and surgery should be left to the states. He believes that gender identity issues are mental health issues, and both minors and adults should not receive gender reassignment surgery unless they’ve had persistent mental distress.

Immigration

To secure the border, McCloy wants more physical barriers and camera systems behind walls, focusing on areas where there are increased crossings and apprehensions. But McCloy said there should be a better, faster system to adjudicate asylum claims more efficiently, including staffing enough immigration officials and judges to process cases.

He favors Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy for asylum seekers if possible until claims are adjudicated, but is not against letting asylum seekers into the U.S.

Democracy and Trump

McCloy characterized the 2020 election as fair, but described the Jan. 6 insurrection in which Trump supporters tried to stop the certification of election results as a “wacky protest.” But while he acknowledged that the event was a “protest that turned into a riot,” he said “the whole event was not an insurrection” and believes Jan. 6 insurrectionists who committed violence or forced doors open should be charged, but not those who just walked into the Capitol.

“You have your bad actors, which should be prosecuted,” he said. “But Mr. Jones, Number 900 walking through the door, I don't think he should be charged with trespassing.” 

[Ed. Note: It is illegal to enter restricted federal buildings without authorization, and 1,186 people were charged with entering or remaining in the Capitol. One hundred and sixteen of them were carrying weapons.]

The attack on the Capitol resulted in five deaths, including one police officer who died from a head injury after engaging with rioters. Damage from the attack cost approximately $2.9 million, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

McCloy believes Trump's trials are politically motivated. Although the guilty verdict was unanimous on all 34 felony counts in the recent hush money-election influence trial, McCloy, who has no legal background, believes Trump should only have been charged with misdemeanors, saying that using the $130,000 to influence an election was “stretching the truth.”

A poll from the Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research at the University of Chicago shows that 83 percent of Republicans believe the conviction was politically motivated compared to 22 percent of Democrats.