“That's cowardly, and that is not the way conservative values should work,” he said.

Strada did attend a Republican forum July 3 in Wildwood, hosted by the Sumter County Republican Party, ahead of the Primary Election, where he appeared unable to name a favorite founding father when asked. His response to how he would keep Social Security solvent was “Don’t worry about it.”

Since then, Strada has largely declined invitations from WESH, Spectrum News 13, Orlando Sentinel, News Collaborative of Central Florida and VoxPopuli for forums and interviews.

During the primaries, his opponent Republican Tim Wilkins began taunting him as No Show Joe.

One place Strada did show up recently was California — at a lobbying event for House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, where the menu featured King salmon, the guest list included representatives from Google, and at least one of the topics, according to a person familiar with the event, was data centers. Strada was listed on the agenda among the "Members Attending," along with other members of the House of Representatives.

Lake County Commissioner Anthony Sabatini, who supports a ban on data centers, told VoxPopuli via text, "I think it's terrible that any Republican would sit down with these companies while they're pushing horrible policies that will hurt our country in serious ways."

VoxPopuli reached out to both Strada and his campaign to ask about his California trip and if Lake County’s recent vote to put  restrictions on data centers would impact his plans. We’ve not yet received a response to that or to Carr’s comments. We’ll update the story if we do.

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Pericola said during the show that Strada should not simply be able to buy retired U.S. Rep. Daniel Webster’s seat for $5 million and not answer questions from voters about his platform or the eight lawsuits against him and his company, which allege he did not pay his employees the overtime they worked. A ninth lawsuit was filed in July, which alleges his company knowingly installed subpar, not code-approved, wiring in 35,000 new Florida homes rather than wait on pandemic-era supply shortages.

“You’ve talked to his team? Tried to work something out?” Carr asked Pericola during the wide-ranging interview.  

Pericola affirmed that he’d attempted to coax Strada to the debate stage “a hundred different ways.”

He said he called him. He posted videos online. He offered an Apollo Creed-style Anywhere, any place, any time invitation.

Crickets.

Carr was blunt in his assessment. “ If you are in a general election and one person wants to debate the other, and that person will not debate that person, you cannot have my vote. Hard stop. …  If somebody is not willing to step in front of cameras and tell you how they feel about something at the risk of sounding bad or being clipped, that's not leadership to me. That's poor leadership.”

Carr doesn’t live in Congressional District 11, but he gave his blessing to Pericola for those of his 267,000 YouTube channel followers who may be District 11 voters.

“Despite the fact that you and I may not agree on everything, you’re reasonable,” Carr said, adding that he didn’t consider Pericola a leftist. “If I was out there in District 11 and I see that one guy who won’t actually have a conversation and you will, I’d vote for you.”