Trey Radel

Henry Jude "Trey" Radel III (born April 20, 1976) is American radio personality, political commentator, author, actor, and former member of the United States House of Representatives. Radel’s show airs on the Florida-based station WFSX-FM, a FOX News Radio affiliate.

Trey Radel
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Florida's 19th district
In office
January 3, 2013 – January 27, 2014
Preceded byConnie Mack IV (Redistricting)
Succeeded byCurt Clawson
Personal details
Born
Henry Jude Radel III[1]

(1976-04-20) April 20, 1976
Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Political partyRepublican
Spouse(s)Amy Wegmann Radel
ChildrenHenry Jude Radel IV
ResidenceFort Myers, Florida
OccupationRadio and television journalist, politician

Early life and education

Trey Radel was born in 1976 in Cincinnati, Ohio, 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. Radel is also fluent in Spanish.[2]

Media career

Radel began his career as a journalist, working as both an anchor and a reporter.[3] He interned for CNN at its headquarters in Atlanta. He then worked for CBS affiliates KHOU in Houston, WBBM in Chicago, and WINK-TV in Fort Myers, Florida.

In 2005, Radel bought the Naples Journal, a community newspaper that he later sold to the E.W. Scripps Company, the owner of Naples Daily News. In 2007, after selling the Journal, Radel returned to WINK, leaving in 2009 to host a live, 4-hour long morning radio show on WFSX-FM.

Radel would return to the station in September 2016 to host mornings. A year later, he moved to afternoon drive time, the time slot [4] he hosts today.

Writing

On March 28, 2017, Blue Rider Press, an imprint of the Random House company, released Radel’s book, Democrazy,[5] a True Story of Weird Politics, Money, Madness, and Finger Food. The book was reviewed[6] by HuffPost as "a brutally honest, outrageous memoir" which exposes "how the Washington sausage really gets made.”

Along with former New York Governor George Pataki, Radel co-authored Beyond the Great Divide[7]: How a Nation Became a Neighborhood. The book was published by Post Hill Press and described[7] as, “An unprecedented, insider view into 9/11 and the inner workings of the political climate that emerged after the attacks.”

Acting

Radel was trained as an actor and a comedian and performed improvisational work at Second City in Chicago.[2]

In 2016, Radel started what would become a recurring role as a TV news anchor on the show StartUp on the Sony-owned app Crackle. He also played the lead, starring as a detective, in the series Truth is Stranger than Florida on the Investigation Discovery network.

Radel’s most recent role was on the Disney+ series, The Right Stuff, produced by Leonardo DiCaprio. He played the part of a reporter.[8]

U.S. House of Representatives

Radel represented Florida's 19th congressional district from January 3, 2013 through January 27, 2014, sworn into the 113th United States Congress. The district is located in Southwest Florida and includes Fort Myers, Naples and Cape Coral.

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.[9] When this was revealed, 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.[9]

Radel's political philosophy is conservative, but he nevertheless has said he supports the principles of the DREAM Act.[10] Radel was endorsed by the incumbent Connie Mack IV, former U.S. Senator Connie Mack III, and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.[11] Chauncey Goss (who finished second to Radel in the primary)[12] was endorsed by U.S. Congressman Paul Ryan.[13] Radel won the primary with 30% of the vote, primarily on the strength of his showing in his native Lee County.[14] His primary campaign featured a "Tea Party-tinged" message.[15]

In the general election Radel faced Democrat Jim Roach of Cape Coral, a retired GM research engineer and Vietnam veteran. Radel was heavily favored to win because 19th has long been reckoned as one of the most Republican districts in Florida. Radel won the 2012 election with 63% of the vote.[16]

Committee assignments

Conviction and 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.[17][18] 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.[19]

Following his conviction for cocaine possession, Radel went on a self-imposed leave of absence to undergo addiction rehabilitation, announcing that he would be donating his salary to charity during his absence. Radel stopped short of resigning.[18][20] The Republican Party of Florida and Governor Rick Scott called for his resignation.[17] On January 27, 2014, Radel announced he would resign from Congress.[17][21][22] He had not voted in Congress after November 15, 2013 in the wake of the conviction.[23] 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 he successfully petitioned the court to expunge his criminal record.[24][25]

Nonprofit work

Radel, along with his wife, founded a nonprofit organization called the U.S. Forces Fund,[26] which focuses on helping injured soldiers returning home from abroad.

Personal life
Trey Radel at a book signing event, early 2020.

Radel is married to FOX-4 anchor Amy Wegmann.[27] They have one child, and live in Fort Myers.[28]

References
  1. Radel, Henry J. III, FEC filing for office
  2. January 30, Florida Weekly Staff | on; 2013 (January 30, 2013). "CATCHING UP WITH CONGRESSMAN TREY RADEL". Fort Myers Florida Weekly. Retrieved November 23, 2019.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  3. "Correspondent", Wikipedia, November 15, 2019, retrieved November 23, 2019
  4. Batten, Brent. "Change made to Trey Radel's radio show". Naples Daily News. Retrieved November 23, 2019.
  5. www.amazon.com https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0735210721/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0. Retrieved November 23, 2019. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  6. "Democrazy by Trey Radel". Penguin Random House Canada. Retrieved November 23, 2019.
  7. www.amazon.com https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Great-Divide-Nation-Neighborhood/dp/1642932310. Retrieved November 23, 2019. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  8. "Trey Radel". IMDb. Retrieved December 18, 2020.
  9. Ward, Kenric. "Trey Radel Shuts "Domain Gate" – Will Give Up Websites". Sunshine State News. Retrieved November 8, 2012.
  10. "» Trey Radel Just Can't Seem To Avoid Controversy". FloridaPoliticalPress.com. July 29, 2012. Retrieved November 7, 2012.
  11. "Endorsements « Trey Radel". Treyradel.com. Archived from the original on November 4, 2012. Retrieved November 7, 2012.
  12. "Florida Division of Elections". Archived from the original on November 5, 2014.
  13. Buzzacco, Jenna (August 14, 2012). "Radel declares victory in Southwest Florida race for Congress". Naples Daily News. Retrieved November 7, 2012.
  14. "FL District 19 – R Primary Race – Aug 14, 2012". Our Campaigns. Retrieved November 7, 2012.
  15. Cocaine and the Congressman: The Trey Radel you didn't know, Naples Daily News (November 23, 2013).
  16. "Redistricting Florida U.S. House Districts | Tampabay.com – St. Petersburg Times". Tampabay.com. Archived from the original on June 21, 2012. Retrieved November 7, 2012.
  17. "Trey Radel: Florida Republicans urge cocaine congressman to quit". BBC News. November 25, 2013. Retrieved November 26, 2013.
  18. Luscombe, Richard (January 27, 2014). "Florida congressman Trey Radel to resign after cocaine conviction". The Guardian. Retrieved January 27, 2014.
  19. Sherman, Jake (November 20, 2013). "Trey Radel pleads guilty to cocaine possession". Politico. Retrieved November 20, 2013.
  20. Sherman, Jake. "Trey Radel taking leave of absence from Congress". Politico. Retrieved November 20, 2013.
  21. Sherman, Jake; Isenstadt, Alex (January 27, 2014). "Radel resigns from House seat". Politico. Retrieved January 27, 2014.
  22. Henderson, Jeff (November 28, 2013). "Republicans Gear Up to Replace Trey Radel in Congress". Sunshine State News. Retrieved November 29, 2013.
  23. Thorp, Frank (January 2, 2014). "Out of rehab, Radel to return to House next week". NBC News.
  24. Camia, Catalina. "Trey Radel's criminal record cleared of cocaine charge". USA Today Politics. Retrieved November 12, 2014.
  25. King, Ledyard (October 30, 2014). "Ex-congressman Trey Radel's record expunged". The News-Press.
  26. "Detail by Entity Name". search.sunbiz.org. Retrieved November 23, 2019.
  27. "Broadcaster Trey Radel running for Connie Mack's congressional seat". Naples Daily News. January 6, 2012. Archived from the original on January 29, 2013. Retrieved November 7, 2012.
  28. "Florida House District 19 race: Republican primary candidates". Naples Daily News. August 5, 2012. Retrieved November 7, 2012.
U.S. House of Representatives
Preceded by
Ted Deutch		 Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Florida's 19th congressional district
January 3, 2013 – January 27, 2014		 Succeeded by
Curt Clawson
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