The Honorable Michael Waltz

Congressman Mike Waltz represents Florida’s 6th congressional district, which includes Flagler and Volusia counties as well as portions of Lake and St. Johns counties. Waltz is a proud Florida native, a colonel in the National Guard, a combat-decorated Green Beret, former White House and Pentagon policy advisor, small business owner, and a proud father.

He was born in Boynton Beach, FL and grew up in Jacksonville, Florida. He was raised by a hard-working single mother and is the son and grandson of Navy Chiefs.  Waltz has served his country his entire life. He graduated from the Virginia Military Institute, has served over 24 years in the U.S. Army, and is presently serving in the National Guard. After being commissioned as an Army lieutenant, Waltz graduated Ranger School and was then selected for the elite Green Berets, serving worldwide as a decorated Special Forces officer with multiple combat tours in Afghanistan, the Middle East and Africa. For his actions in combat, he was awarded four Bronze Stars and two with valor. He is the first Green Beret to be elected to Congress.

During his time in Afghanistan, Waltz led the teams searching for deserter Pvt. Bowe Berghdal. He was one of the first to call into question then-President Obama’s labeling of Berghdal as a hero and has continued to lead call for justice on behalf of all the service-members Berghdal’s desertion put in harm's way.

His servant leadership continued in the Pentagon as a defense policy director for Secretaries of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates. He then went on to serve in the White House as Vice President Dick Cheney's counterterrorism advisor, where he saw the difficult decisions the president and his cabinet must make to protect our national security firsthand. His position in the White House was unique, as he advised the Bush administration on policy he actually carried out in the military.

In 2020, Waltz was promoted to the rank of colonel in a ceremony overseen by Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy, a fellow graduate of the Virginia Military Institute.  His experiences as a soldier and a policy advisor inspired him to write his own book, Warrior Diplomat: A Green Beret’s Battles from Washington to Afghanistan, the proceeds of which continue to benefit the Green Beret Foundation.

Following his time in the White House, Waltz then co-founded a small business which grew to over 400 employees and was listed on the Inc. 500, a ranking index of the fastest-growing private companies in the America.  A former Fox News Channel contributor, Waltz has excelled as a media commentator, providing expert commentary on foreign policy and defense issues to viewers around the world.

He is the father of a teenage girl, Anderson, and is engaged to Dr. Julia Nesheiwat, a combat veteran who served in the Trump administration as Homeland Security advisor to the president. He lives in St. Johns County.