Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings, a trailblazer in Central Florida and one of the most prominent Democrats in the state, has filed to run for governor, election records show.
Demings, who had hinted at a possible run amid his recent battles with GOP leaders, immediately becomes one of the frontrunners to be the Democratic nominee next year as candidates line up to succeed Gov. Ron DeSantis, who faces term limits and can’t run again.
The top-line name on the Democratic side has so far been David Jolly, a former Republican congressman who left the party in President Donald Trump’s first term, joined the Democratic party in April and filed to run for governor soon after.
Last week, invitations circulated among Demings’ allies inviting them to an “announcement rally” this Thursday, building anticipation for his candidacy for governor.
Whichever Democrat prevails in the primary next year faces a tough battle, however, in a state with more than 1.4 million more Republicans than Democrats registered to vote.
On the GOP side, Trump-endorsed U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds is among the front-runners, along with former House speaker Paul Renner. Lieutenant Governor Jay Collins has acknowledged he’s heavily considering joining the race, and First Lady Casey DeSantis has been rumored as a possibility as well.
Demings, 66, was the first African American to serve as Orlando’s police chief in 1998 and later served as the first African American Orange County Sheriff from 2008 to 2018. That year, he was elected the first African American Orange County mayor, winning a second term in 2022.
His wife, Val Demings, is also a former Orlando police chief and congresswoman. She ran for U.S. Senate in 2022 and was defeated by Marco Rubio.
As the county’s chief executive, Jerry Demings oversees an $8.3 billion budget with more than 1.5 million residents, and the nation’s most popular tourism destination, welcoming 75 million visitors last year.
Demings had his fair share of clashes with Gov. Ron DeSantis and other state Republicans, including frequent disagreements with DeSantis’ policies on testing for the COVID-19 virus, requiring vaccines for employees, mandating masking and other regulations.
More recently, Demings has bristled at the state requiring him to allow county jail staff to transport federal immigration detainees and at Ingoglia’s DOGE audits.
Demings’ campaign has also faced incoming fire from state CFO Blaise Ingoglia, who has dinged the county mayor for “wasteful spending” and renewed that line of attack Monday on the news of Demings’ run.
“Mayor that wastefully and excessively spends $200m of your hard earned taxpayer dollars (this year alone) wants to control the state budget,” he tweeted.
Demings has maintained the county is responsible with taxpayer money and uses it on local needs.
“We’re not running away from what we pay our staff here in Orange County, I’m going to suggest the state of Florida should pay its employees better,” Demings said in September in response to Ingoglia’s criticisms, which may have spurred his gubernatorial bid.
“I’m not saying I’m not going to run,” Demings said at the time. “Given all these things that have been happening? I might just do that.”
Donalds’ campaign also blasted a statement to reporters calling Demings “weak, woke and wrong for Florida.”
“Jerry Demings is the candidate the radical Florida Democrat party has been dreaming of. As police chief, Demings pushed weak-on-crime policies. As Orange County Mayor, he refused to work with ICE to deport criminal illegals,” said Ryan Smith, Donald’s chief strategist.
Demings wasn’t available for an interview Monday. A spokesperson said he wouldn’t be immediately commenting on entering the contest.