Republican Rep. Cory Mills (FL-07) lost his primary in August after a brutal stretch of political and legal problems. Now part of his Florida munitions facility is gone too.
Six days before the blast, Mills had posted on X with a photo in front of a wall of fire: "A Phoenix rises from the ashes. Our fight is far from over." The ashes, it turns out, were more literal than he knew.
An explosion ripped through the Pacem Defense facility in Perry, Florida, at about 6:58 PM Wednesday. A security officer and an employee in the main office were on the property. Neither was injured. The Taylor County Sheriff’s Office said one building was destroyed.
"The explosion resulted in significant damage to one building at the facility, which is considered a total loss. First responders secured and maintained the perimeter until the appropriate state and federal agencies arrived on scene.”
Sheriff Wayne Padgett told WCTV the situation was under control. "We contacted the governor's office, which directed us to the Florida National Guard, which is on the scene now," Padgett said. "What we want to let you know right now, there is no public safety issues."
No cause has been announced. The Florida State Fire Marshal’s Office, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE), the Department of Defense, Taylor County Emergency Management, and the Florida Division of Emergency Management responded after the blast.
Mills co-founded Pacem Defense before entering Congress. He told Florida Politics he left the company’s operations in 2021 and referred questions about the explosion to Pacem’s current CEO.
Mills' 2025 disclosure lists an asset valued between $5 million and $25 million in the entity that owns the Providence Road property where the factory sits. He also reported between $100,000 and $1 million in annual rental income from it.
Pacem furloughed employees in November 2025 while waiting for new production orders. The Perry plant has reportedly remained nonoperational ever since.
Mills addressed the company's troubles in May, blaming Pacem’s financial problems on his absence and saying the business had been successful while he ran it.
The House Ethics Committee had already opened an investigation into whether companies connected to Mills benefited from federal defense contracts while he served in Congress. Mills denied wrongdoing. That probe was just one of several reasons Republicans decided he had to go.
The explosion comes less than a month after Mills' political career blew up first.
As RedState reported after the August Republican primary, former Orlando television anchor Ryan Elijah defeated Mills by roughly 13 points. Republican Rep. Mike Haridopolos (FL-08) had recruited Elijah after concluding Republicans risked spending millions defending Florida's 7th Congressional District if Mills remained the nominee. House Republican leaders knew about the effort, while President Donald Trump had privately urged Mills to leave the race. Mills refused.
Haridopolos was blunt about his reasoning, as I wrote in August, telling NOTUS (now The Washington Sun), "I knew it was an absolute loser. We did not want to give away a seat."
After two terms, Mills is done in Congress. The cause of Wednesday's explosion remains under investigation. The phoenix, it appears, is still waiting to rise.