Zach Dembo is a Blue Dog endorsed for Congress in Kentucky’s 6th District.

His path to the race has taken him from an eighth-grade classroom in the Mississippi Delta to the Navy JAG Corps, federal civil-rights work, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

On this episode of Blue Dog Radio, Dembo talks about his ninth-generation Kentucky roots, a student he still thinks about years later, what military and legal service taught him about responsibility, why he left the Justice Department, and how he thinks about trust in government and representation.

At the heart of the conversation is an idea Dembo returns to again and again: public service means being responsible for somebody else. In Congress, he says, that would mean answering to “770,000 bosses.”

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, has spent decades adapting to change.

Bethlehem Steel once occupied a quarter of the city and drew generations of working families from around the world. The Steel faded, the city grew in new directions, and the work of keeping Bethlehem going changed with it.

For this episode of Blue Dog Radio, we start with Lou Jimenez, a lifelong Bethlehem resident, military veteran, firefighter, and president of Bethlehem Firefighters Local 735. Lou talks about his parents immigrating from Italy and Puerto Rico, the changing demands placed on the city’s fire department, his own experience with fire-service-related PTSD, rising housing costs, and what working people need from their leaders.

Then we meet Bob Brooks.

Brooks spent 20 years as a Bethlehem firefighter before becoming a union leader and eventually president of the Pennsylvania Professional Fire Fighters Association. He is also a Blue Dog endorsed candidate for congress in PA-07.

His connection to the job started even earlier: as a high school senior, Brooks stood outside and watched his family home burn to the ground. Years later, he became one of the firefighters answering those same calls.

Together, their stories raise a larger question about working-class communities across America: as our cities and economies change, who understands the people being asked to carry that change?

This is a conversation about Bethlehem, the firehouse, representation, and the people who keep showing up.

Florida’s 7th Congressional District is the kind of race that will take roots, credibility, service, and a candidate who actually fits the place.

On this episode of Blue Dog Radio, we talk with Bale Dalton, the Blue Dog-endorsed Democrat running in FL-07.

Bale is a Central Florida native, Naval Academy graduate, helicopter pilot, veteran, former NASA chief of staff, and someone whose life has been shaped by missions bigger than himself.

He talks about growing up in Central Florida, hunting with his dogs, fishing for redfish in the Indian River Lagoon, the Bible verse his mother tied to his birthday, the Navy service that brought his family to Sanford, the power of helicopter crews, picking people off rooftops after Hurricane Katrina, and what NASA taught him about what government can still do when the mission is clear and the work is serious.

The conversation also gets into the cost-of-living crisis in Seminole and Volusia Counties, the voters who feel ignored by both parties, the difference between public service and political performance, and why FL-07 is exactly the kind of hard but hopeful race that matters in November.

This is a conversation about place, responsibility, local leadership, and the Blue Dog bet: run candidates who belong where they’re running and good things will happen.