Rep. Cory Mills goes missing after primary loss, reportedly at beach with model

Embattled Rep. Cory Mills Goes "Missing" After Primary Loss

Scandal-plagued Republican Representative Cory Mills has apparently gone "missing" from work after losing the GOP primary to TV reporter Ryan Elijah earlier this month.

According to the Daily Mail, citing anonymous sources, the 46-year-old Florida congressman has decided to spend time "blowing off steam" at a $2 million beach house on New Smyrna Beach with 27-year-old aspiring model Catherine Chils. The tabloid reports that Chils and Mills have been spending time together for the last three years.

A neighbor told the Daily Mail that the day after the primary, August 19, Mills and his companion spent the entire day sitting in chairs on the beach. "He had just sat outside and had kind of taken the day for himself," the neighbor said. Mills was reportedly there through the weekend, although Chils denied to the publication that she was at the house and said she and the congressman are just friends.

Mills's staff is concerned because he has stayed out of communication since his defeat. Even before the election, Mills missed scheduled TV appearances on Fox News and on a local TV station.

This is not the first time Mills has disappeared. "The fact that he went missing and the staff can't find him or hear from him is pretty bad but not surprising. He does this all the time," another source told the tabloid. Mills reportedly has his own campaign bus that he sometimes sleeps in, making his whereabouts harder to ascertain.

The New Republic has emailed Mills's press staff for comment and will update this story if they reply.

Ongoing Investigations and Allegations

Mills is facing investigations from the House Ethics Committee and the Department of Justice over alleged wire fraud and other financial misconduct. He also faces allegations that he assaulted an ex-girlfriend, Republican state committeewoman and former Miss United States Lindsey Langston, at his apartment last year. Langston also alleges that Mills threatened to release revenge porn of her and violently attack men she dated after they broke up.

More recently, Mills has refused to deny that he dated a 19-year-old while serving in Congress. President Trump pretended he did not endorse the congressman and claimed he knew Mills was going to lose all along. It appears Mills is now trying to run out the days until he leaves office in January.

Texas County Votes on Plan to Close Nearly 100 Polling Stations

Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico is sounding the alarm over potential voter suppression as Texas moves to shutter dozens of polling stations.

The Tarrant County Commissioners Court will vote Tuesday on a plan to reduce the county's voting stations ahead of the midterm elections, the Associated Press reported. If approved, the key battleground county will scrap 92 polling stations just weeks before the midterm elections.

Talarico, who is running against Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, voiced his concerns about the plan at a news conference Sunday. "The most powerful people in this county, the most powerful people in this country, don't want us to be able to vote easily," Talarico said.

Tarrant County Elections Administrator Clint Ludwig insisted that the reductions would focus on low-turnout polling sites. Voters would still have more than 200 locations where they can cast their votes.

"We're clearly not trying to suppress the vote," said State Representative Matt Shaheen, the Republican chairman of the House Elections Committee. "That's a silly accusation."

The NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the American Civil Liberties Union joined other voting rights groups to strongly condemn the proposal.