Trey Radel had no misconceptions about what he was getting into. When he came to Washington as a freshman congressman from Floridas 19th District in 2013, he expected the work would be one long grind of committee meetings and fundraising calls.

He knew any change hed be able to make as a fiscal conservative would likely be incremental. His love for Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) was fierce. (He compared meeting him to a basketball fanatic sitting down with Michael Jordan.)

On this episode of the Candidate Confessional podcast, Radel recalls those early days when Boehner came down to his district to fundraise, when his career seemed about to take off, when Washington still, for him, seemed like a place of opportunity.

And, of course, youll hear how it all came crashing down among cocaine and hubris.