I first met Dan Bongino in August 2013. He was running for the U.S. House (from Maryland) at the time and was a guest speaker at the Smart Girl Summit in Indianapolis. Though his congressional bid ultimately was not successful, Bongino has since built a solid career and name for himself as a conservative commentator, podcaster, and radio host.

So much so that following Rush Limbaugh’s untimely passing, Bongino was one of the top contenders to take up his mantle. Bongino signed a deal with Cumulus Media (which already carried his podcast) to step into that coveted 12:00 – 3:00 pm spot.

Two weeks ago, Bongino laid down the gauntlet with Cumulus over their vaccine mandate.  As reported by RadioInk:

Here’s a snippet of what Bongino said on his Monday broadcast: “I’m not really happy with the company I work with right here. I believe these vaccine mandates are unethical. I believe they’re immoral. I believe they don’t take into account the science of natural immunity due to a prior infection. I believe they’re broad-based and don’t take into account an individual circumstances of why they may or may not want to take a vaccine. And they’re antithetical to everything I believe in.”

Cumulus gave employees until early October to get the vaccine or be terminated. Several employees have been let go due to their refusal to comply with the mandate. Bongino threatened to invite hosts who’ve been fired by Cumulus on his show to criticize their former employer.

More from the Monday broadcast: “Cumulus is going to have to make a decision with me if they want to continue this partnership or they don’t. But I’m talking to you on their airwaves. They don’t have to let that happen. You have a choice. I work with you. I do not work for you; I never will. You may have had other people in a corner, but you don’t have me.”

Bongino’s show airs on St. Louis radio station NewsTalkSTL weekdays from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm (Central). (Full disclosure: I am a regular guest on the station — Monday afternoons with Tim Jones & Chris Arps and Friday mornings with Vic Porcelli.)

This morning, Bongino joined the Mike Ferguson in the Morning show to discuss his reasons for taking this stand against the mandate and the latest developments in that fight:

The great Dan Bongino joined Mike Ferguson in the Morning today to discuss his ongoing battle with Cumulus over the draconian vaccine mandates they are pushing on their employees.

Mike, Gabe, and Ken asked him about why this started and where it is heading. Bongino said there was a ‘break through’ in the company where he did win a small battle and ended up making the decision to come back on air yesterday for the first time in almost two weeks. He stressed that this was not his fight. This was a fight for all Americans and their right and freedom to have body sovereignty.

(Be sure to follow the link to catch the audio of Bongino’s interview.)

As Bongino noted in the interview, he is vaccinated due to his own health situation, and so this isn’t about him personally. It’s about the larger principle of not allowing the left to push companies to get people to relinquish sovereignty over their own bodies. Though the policy doesn’t affect him personally, it affects him as a conservative who cares about God-given rights.

As such, Bongino has pledged to start a fund of $250,000 to go towards supporting Cumulus employees who lose their jobs due to the mandates. He’s eschewing GoFundMe as a platform as he notes they frequently discriminate against conservatives, so is in the process of creating his own platform for that, with an eye toward expanding it beyond Cumulus to police, firefighters, nurses, doctors, and other frontline workers and opening it up for others to donate.

In the meantime, pursuant to what he refers to as “a bit of a breakthrough” with Cumulus in their negotiating process, Bongino has agreed to return to airing live shows, in order to make sure more people don’t lose their jobs.