Florida’s 6th Congressional District Democratic primary debate
The Commitment 2026 primary debate series starts with the Democratic primary race for Florida’s 6th congressional district.
Hi, everyone. I’m Greg Fox with West 2 News and West.com. And this is another in our series of debates, this commitment 2026 midterm election year. We’ve got *** lot of races on tap, and today we’re dealing with the Congress District Six and talking to the Democrats in that race. First, we’re going to give you an idea of exactly where this territory is. for District 6. It starts in Daytona Beach, spreads north and west to Ocala and over to Saint Augustine. It includes North Volusia, Northern Lake, Eastern Marion, all of Flagler and Putnam, and part of Saint John’s Counties. Right now, the district is held by Randy Fine, *** Republican, uh, who was elected last year in. *** special election. Of course one of these men hopes to be the Democratic challenger to whoever comes out of that Republican primary in that race. Let’s tell you who they are. Steve Morgan, Robert Cooper, Ron Murchison Rivera, and Eric Yonts. Gentlemen, thanks very much for being here so that you can share your ideas and voters can get to know you *** whole lot better. First, we’re going to give you each one minute to give an opening statement, and we’re going to start with Mr. Yons. All right. Florida District 6 has been divided, used, and forgotten for far too long. We have people working 2 to 3 jobs just for the basics like gas and groceries. We have seniors and veterans who have worked hard their entire lives that are now being forced to choose between medicine and their mortgages. My priorities are clear. We need the government to be accountable to the people. Gas, groceries, healthcare, and insurance are all too all too unaffordable because this administration and that government has forgotten who they work for. Second is to bring our money back home. Our tax dollars should be going for *** local affordable housing, local job creation, our local school organizations, building our roads and bridges and infrastructure. Third, protect Florida’s future by stopping the reckless AI data center development. Before it overwhelms our water supply, drives up our electricity costs, and just ruins the state of Florida as we know it. We need leaders who put this district first and put people ahead of politics. I am Eric Yonts, the representative that will fight for District 6. All right, thank you very much, Mr. Morgan. One minute. My name is Steve Morgan. I’m running for political office for the first time in my life. Um, I am the Democrat who can and will defeat Randy Fine in the general election. I’m doing this because I got tired of the divisiveness and the partisanship that we’re hearing in our political discourse. I’m running on *** platform of balancing the budget, increasing affordability for the, the voters, and also treating both one another as well as the opposition with respect. *** little bit about myself, um, I have *** bachelor’s degree from Duke University with *** major in political science. I have *** law degree from the University of Tennessee and also an MBA from Anderson School at UCLA. I am *** brewer by profession, so my full-time job, uh, in addition to this full-time job is running Alcatraz Brewing, which is distributed statewide, uh, throughout the state, and I actually live in District 6, as do these gentlemen as well, whereas the incumbent Randy Fine does not. And I welcome the opportunity uh for to to have *** wonderful and vigorous debate today. All right, thank you very much, Mr. Murchinson Rivera. Please tell us about yourself. Thank you. My name is Ronnie Murchison Rivera, as, as Greg said, um, my entire life I’ve served the, the, the public and the community in which I lived in. I started off, uh, at ***, at *** young age serving the community in my church. Uh, as I got older I became an. EMS, I worked there for over 10 to 15 years. Uh, in between then I started *** nonprofit to help out families and, and I also volunteered and got elected to the school boards and, uh, PTA Association. I moved down to Florida in 2010, uh, because I chose Florida to be my home and I continue to serve my community and I got into law enforcement for over almost *** decade. Uh, Public service has been my entire life, and I see *** problem that’s happening in this community with this administration and what’s going on, and I stood up and decided to take this fight on to better our community. *** lot of people are struggling right now. *** lot of things are happening, and we need *** real fighter, and it has been serving the public his entire life with *** track record has been proven that he can get things done, and I believe I’m the best person, Greg. All right, Mr. Cooper, by process of elimination, your one minute statement, please. Yes sir, thank you. I’m Rob Cooper and first of all I shouldn’t be standing right here and the reason why I say I shouldn’t be standing right here is because I had to go through some challenges in my past and one of those challenges was substance use and that that almost took my life but I fought and then too is that when I served in the Marine Corps I fought in um Iraq and that should have had took my life but you know I’m standing here because I wanna fight for the people of Florida’s 6th District. And so, and I did that in so many ways that when I was was struggling with substance use, I started *** nonprofit to go back and get people that are struggling with the same exact thing that I was struggling with and then when I was in Iraq I made sure that I fought in *** different way was make sure that the, the men and women that was on the battlefield that that they had *** fresh hot meal. And then that’s what I want to do right now for the people in Florida’s 6th district is I wanna fight for you. I wanna fight to lower the cost of living. I want to fight for veterans and veterans that that’s struggling with mental health and substance use. I want to fight for our seniors and protect the Social Security and Medicare, and that’s what I would do when I get elected day one is fight for the people. Gentlemen, thank you for your opening statements. I want to get. To know you and your priorities *** little bit better. Many people have agendas as they go to DC. They have maybe passionate causes that they like to fight for, especially. I want to find out the first bill you would file and what your biggest priority is going to be if you are the ones sent to Washington. We’re going to start with Mr. Morgan. So the first bill that I would file would be to codify the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution. We’re seeing an enormous amount of corruption and graft in this current administration, and we need to get to *** point where people are not allowed to trade individual stocks if you’re *** federally elected official. We need to have *** situation where there are consequences for people who are abusing the system, awarding contracts to their family members, awarding no-bid contracts, and this is Something that can be done through *** congressional bill, I would be happy to sponsor that and working with someone across the aisle and to get that through committee and get it out on the floor. I think it’s something that’s desperately needed right now. All right, Mr. Cooper, what’s your priority? What would you file first? Thank you, Greg, for the question. And one thing that I have, I have *** people over politics agenda, and that people over politics agenda is, like I said, lower the, lower the cost of living for working families. And then too is that strengthen the opportunities for veterans and our seniors. And then that is put people ahead of policy, uh, partisan politics. I know that there’s *** piece of legislation that’s right now haven’t been signed by the, by the president, and that’s the 21st century Affordable, uh, Housing Act. And I will make sure that whatever is in that piece of legislation that it gets down to the district and make sure that we do put some affordable housing, make sure that we make sure that our residents become first time home buyers because we have people that want that American dream but they can’t see it and I wanna help them see and make and get to that American dream of becoming *** first time home buyer and then too is lowering that cost of living. We need transparency. within corporate is I want corporate to be transparent and have *** dashboard that let the people know when they’re moving up the prices and not hiding it and somebody walk to Walmart and see that their favorite item is $2 or $3 more. We need that transparency for the American people. All right, thank you, Mr. Murchinson Rivera, your priority. Thank you for the question. There’s *** lot of priorities that I have, but my number one priority is always going to be healthcare. I believe uh we can help people lower their gas prices. We can help them uh lower to get *** new home and everything like that, but my passion is EMS. I saw people, uh, not wake up the next day because they decided not to go to the hospital or see their doctor because they can’t afford it. I think, uh, in in order to enjoy those things you have to be around to enjoy those things. I’m very passionate. I think health should be all right. And so one of my first bills is to strengthen that and push forward towards uh Medicare for all kinds of stands, uh, for right now until we get to that point I think we can push some of those credits that we, uh, have been taken away from us back to alleviate some of the struggles, uh, that some of these families are facing to pay for those, uh, healthcare costs. All right, Mr. Jans, your priority. Yes, sir. So there are *** lot of priorities that we need to tackle. I think the biggest thing upfront is the money that’s behind our politics, um, you know, that is Citizens United and tackling that, tackling stock trading, tackling the lobbying loop. Uh, we will never make real substantive change within. Our society until we get the money that is funding and funneling behind our, our politicians right now. OK. Uh, I, I want to pick up, uh, again, and get all of your take on, uh, *** little bit more on what Mr. Murchinson Rivera was talking about. You know, uh, many people we have talked with who had been relying on Obamacare. And now are faced this calendar year with some of the highest premiums they’ve ever seen and some of them going without it, as you know here in Florida they have not opted in for Medicaid. So there are *** lot of health care challenges on that. Mr. Cooper, tell me how you would approach health care in particular to make it more affordable. Thank you for the question, Greg, and really, Health care is something that American people need as the people of the Florida 6th District need and yes, you are correct. I, I, I, I can’t recall when Governor DeSantis sent back all that Medicaid money and then dropped 300,000 people off Medicaid. And so, and then I think about my own house is that when they changed the subsidies, took that out, my wife. You know she was on, she was on Affordable Care Act and her premium went up to $1000 or almost $2000 *** month and so and so when I get to DC that’s one thing that I would work towards is making sure that we can come to some type of agreement so people can have insurance and not argue about it because you don’t understand that. When you need insurance and it’s not really available in my own life is because the Affordable Care Act and because what President Obama has done that allowed me as *** veteran to be able to really use the use the VA system and it saved my life twice so I understand that process and I’m gonna fight hard to make sure that the people in Florida 6th district does have insurance because what I don’t want to hear. Is somebody telling me that I have to avoid going to the emergency room or avoid getting sick because I can’t afford to pay that, that price. All right, thank you, Mr. Yans. Continuing on this conversation, can this fix or more affordability get done unless Democrats take back control of at least the House? We need to take back control of the House. We do need to work towards what that big beautiful bill, um, took back, took away from us. The ACA credits is one of them, um, you know, we need to bring those back to at least provide some cost, um, reduction for, for everyone, but then it’s also working together and working on what *** new healthcare system looks like. Is that Medicare for all? There’s also some other opportunities and other examples across the world that we can look at. Um, we’re gonna be up for *** battle, and it’s gonna be *** long process of working through the insurance, um, corporations that have basically taken control of our healthcare, you know, the number one reason for bankruptcy in the United States is because of medical debt, and we should not have people going into debt just because they can’t afford something as ***. Skin cancer operation or whatever it may be, we need to have access for health care for everyone. Mr. Murchinson Rivera, can it be done unless Democrats take back at least the House? Well, it can be done right now. We don’t have to wait back to the House. You just got to get people who really cares about actual people and not themselves. We need to work towards, I believe. Single payer Medicare offices uh Medicare for all system because it gives people *** layer of protection if you know they get unemployed anything like that. I, I’ve seen and I worked in it for many years of people struggling just to get to the hospital like I just told you before so anything can actually be done, but we just gotta get the people in Washington that actually cares for the people that that has *** thrive and the will to make it get done. Mr. Morgan, what’s the fix? Well, it can’t. The short answer to your question is that it cannot be done without the House taking back, without the Democrats taking back the House. There’s simply no doubt about that. In addition to that, we’re going to need enough Democratic senators and enough like-minded Republican senators to overcome *** potential filibuster. But I think to allude to *** couple of the previous answers, you know, we We do need to get back to where we were with the Affordable Care Act, which means that we need to repeal the vidaciously bad bill that Trump passed. We looked at $1.1 trillion in cuts, so we saw SNAP benefits, which are food stamps, reduced, Medicare reduced, Medicaid reduced. We do need *** single payer system, but we’re not going to be able to do that without getting back the House, and this race has become so much more important because of the Supreme Court decision. In the Alabama case, and so now what’s happening is there’s *** lot of gerrymandering in the South, and it’s going to be races like ours that are going to make the difference as to whether we can take the House back or not. All right, let’s turn to the economy right now. In Congress District 6, the median household income is $63,000 *** year. That’s $14,000 *** year below the Florida average, and it’s. $20,000 *** year below the national average. People are looking for *** turnaround when you’re struggling to buy eggs and bread, you know that there’s something wrong. Mr. Murchinson Rivera, why don’t you start this conversation? What, what exactly is the fix? Everybody likes to use the word affordability. I don’t hear *** lot of solutions. No, the number one solution is giving people affordable wage to live. I think that’s the number one thing. People are working 2 to 3 jobs just to make ends meet. Uh, it shouldn’t be like that. It should be able to work one job and be able to afford the basic needs that your family, uh, that the basic needs that your family wants, um, working 2 to 3 jobs and on top of childcare, on top of all that stuff, while, while also making only $13 an hour in some places. People can’t live off of that and that’s why they’re struggling right now and that’s why we in the economy that we’re in right now because people are not giving back to the economy because they got nothing to give. People are losing their 401ks, their savings. We have gas prices going up. All of this is all trickling down on top of people working 5 to 6 jobs. So that’s, that’s one of the solutions we need to work towards, Mr. Morgan. So, Greg, your, your question is *** good one and I’ve read the same numbers and it is fascinating. I mean, we’re literally $20,000 per household below what was is needed for *** reasonable standard of living. One of the things that we need to be looking at is the tax code. And I know that seems like maybe not the first place most people would go with this answer. But the fact of the matter is that over the last 20 or 30 years we’ve reduced the payments for the wealthiest people in the United States from *** maximum of 70% down to 37%. At the same time, the average billionaire and corporation is paying 7.2% of their income in federal taxation. The average middle income household in the United States is paying 14.7%, twice as much. If we can just change the tax code where it redistributes the wealth in *** progressive way that it was originally intended to do, we could have *** dramatic increase on affordability and affordability of healthcare by just simply cutting the federal tax burden. People who are paying at the lowest level are also paying payroll taxes, which are like doubled in the last 20 or 30 years. So those benefits would dramatically change the situation for people that are not making as much. Mr. Yons, is it the tax code or something else or *** combination of things? Tax code is *** part of it. Wages are *** part of it. Um, but let’s look and see what, what our communities are facing right now. The tariffs that have been put in place, um, those are having *** huge impact in our communities, um, impact on prices at the grocery store, impact that our farmers are paying. We have *** very rural commu, *** very rural district, *** lot of farmers, and the fact that they are paying extra for fertilizer, for, for fuel, um, we need to take back our power in Congress, um, and, and really fight against. And bring back who controls the purse and who controls who or where we’re applying tariffs, that’s gonna be the first thing to really affect the cost that we’re seeing. All right, Mr. Cooper. Yes, sir. And, and Greg, and thank you for that question. There’s *** lot of candidates that, that, that talk about affordability, you know, but I’m not running to pass Democratic bills, Republican bills. I’m running to pass *** bill that will lower the cost of living and lower your bills back in the Florida 6th district. You know, and I understand that struggle and I had to get on food stamps so I understand that, but I worked my way I fought my way up and that’s what I wanna do and how we’re gonna get there is by working with Republicans, independents, whoever to make sure that we can lower this cost and like I said we gotta have some transparency as *** congressman. Is, is, you know, I cannot go to Walmart and say lower your prices, but I can make sure that there’s some transparency to the people of Florida’s 6th district. And then too is you are correct about jobs. There need to be more jobs. The $15 minimum wage should have been $15.20 years ago. Right now we’re seeing that everything went up and wages stay the same and right. Now we need to get those wages up where people can have that chance to make that, to, to lower their own cost of living and, and, and, and, and have that chance to, uh, live out there. All right, we’ll get back to wages in *** second, but, uh, uh, several of you mentioned, uh, housing costs and, uh, right now the average cost of *** home, uh, across District 6 is $324,000. Um, the homeownership rate is 75%, which is considered very strong. OK, uh, but 25%, roughly 200,000 people in the district are struggling with rent approaching $2000 *** month. Uh, you talk to the developers, they say, take away all those rules and we’ll build like crazy, and then the rates will come down. And then you talk to people who are obviously concerned about the environment. And they’ll tell you that, uh, if you do that, uh, instead of going in urban, which we can’t really do in *** spread out state, that would be *** better solution. So it doesn’t sound like there’s *** lot of agreement there. Uh, so I guess I would want to know, uh, Mr. Cooper, we’ll, we’ll continue on with you. Uh, what, what exactly do we do to lower housing prices other than say, we need to lower housing prices and we need to lower rent? Um, great question, and we have ***, *** very demand for housing. And that’s why I was so happy to see that there was bipartisan legislation that passed on this this issue where Republicans and Democrats came together to say hey we need to try to tackle this this uh problem. And I have seen it day to day. I have worked with people and I have have sit down with them and try to find housing for them, and sometimes that their income was not enough, sometimes that they didn’t have all the money at the front end to get inside to to get into the housing. So how do we fix that is really is we have to get with these builders and we have to say you’re, you’re building all this, you’re building all these houses around here. What are. You’re gonna do for affordable housing and I have been doing that every time I see *** housing company or big builder, I ask them what is your process of making people become first time home buyers and there are some builders out there that do have programs and then one thing too, Greg, we have to do is that there are some great organizations out there, nonprofits, and there’s some, some, some organizations out there that will teach people financial literacy and will help them. Get into, uh, housing and so we need to send money and strengthen those programs because sometimes people don’t have the credit and then we’re fighting against, gets the interest rates. We need to get those back down to have people become first-time home buyer. All right, Mr. Morgan, you go ahead and, uh, continuing on Mr. Cooper was saying, *** lot of people, you know, when you start talking about things like potentially subsidizing to create housing opportunity. Some people consider that *** slippery slope, in particular conservatives who would argue that’s not the way to go. What do you think? That is not the way to go. Subsidies are not the answer. The first thing that we need to address, the gorilla in the room, is the inflation. Inflation is causing mortgage rates to go up. Mortgage rates are causing the affordability, the ability for people to buy homes to go down. So Congress has to do its job, and that’s one of the things that I would do if elected to be our congressperson for this district. Congress needs to take back the tariff authority, which the president does not have the authority to do, and Congress needs to also. Get back into the war situation. You cannot continue *** war and you cannot continue spending hundreds and billions of dollars when you don’t actually have the authority to declare war. That’s that’s upon Congress. The other piece of this that I think is very important is that we’ve got rampant overdevelopment in Florida and we don’t have enough affordable housing and we don’t build the infrastructure before we put the housing developments in. And so there needs to be *** more codified measured response that affordable housing goes in before new housing developments go in and the infrastructure goes in before the new housing development goes in. All right, Mr. Murchinson Rivera, your take on this? I totally disagree. I think subsidies do work. I’m *** product of that subsidy growing up in public housing most of my life. Um, but we also need to hold these developers accountable, and not only the developers, but the state. Uh, we’ve given them all this money and, and they promises all, all these things, and then they’ll, they’ll, they’ll renege once the building is, uh, is done. I think we need *** more affordable housing for working class people. We need to make sure that *** certain percentage of the building that’s going on now. Is directed towards people who are just trying to come up from the bottom and, and, and, and live that American dream, but I also think we need to let the local municipalities and cities gain control back on the decisions they make that’s happening inside of their uh their areas because right now most of that control is with the state and they’re trying to take *** lot of that away. And then we just need to keep working and giving people the chance just to buy affordable housing. I’m getting rid of one of the big things I want to do when I get to Congress is get rid of the credit for, uh, uh, uh, buying *** home. I think that the credit should determine, get rid of it, get rid of it, because people are struggling. Medical debt is one of the highest things right now that affects your credit. That doesn’t mean you don’t have the, the job or the money to afford *** home. All right, Mr. Jans, uh, what’s the solution here? It’s gonna be tough. We have an overdevelopment issue within the state. Uh, we have *** home rule issue within the state. Um, and we also have the fact that people just can’t afford, you know, the, the average wage, like you said, at $63,000 you break that down to just *** normal everyday cost, you can’t afford *** $2000 rent. Um, the housing bill that is sitting there stalled right now. would be *** step. It’s not the full thing, but it would at least be *** step to promote because that that bill does have deregulation for redevelopment of our, our downtown corridors. Um, it does have provisions to at least do some of this infill development in *** positive way, um, to help in blighted areas and help kind of promote some type of housing, um, where we need to rise up instead of the sprawl that we’re seeing across our communities right now. Um, now that needs to go further. Now we should have some type of rent control measures. We have families right now, veterans and seniors that can’t even afford their trailer park rate, their trailer park rent rates, because they’re being priced out and they’re on *** fixed income. So we need some type of control measures so that way this stuff’s not happening. All right, I said that I was going to get back to wages, so I’m going to make this *** 32nd answer. I just want to get through it and move on. Obviously, right now, uh, Florida has been in *** five-year escalation for *** minimum wage that will attain, uh, $15 an hour, uh, this September. Uh, obviously, the, the, the federal minimum wage trails way behind that. OK, and we know that. Uh, I’m just going to go from right to left. Mr. Yates, uh, 30 seconds to explain why would you vote for, uh, or against ***, uh, *** minimum wage federally of at least $15 an hour. We need to require the corporations that are running this country to pay their employees more. Um, $15 an hour is just maybe we’ll squeak by, but it’s something. It’s *** start. It’s *** baseline, um, and that’s where we need to go, Mr. Murchinson Rivera. Oh, I will 100% agree to that because no matter what state you go in, the cost of living is going up, and so the federal minimum wage will make sure that these states will abide by at least *** minimum. Uh, uh, wage that they have to abide by and then they can go higher than that, but I want it to be more than at least $20 an hour right now in all states. OK, so more than $15 you’d go to $20 Mr. Mr. Cooper. Yes, I, I will support, uh, *** $15 and I don’t know that there’s some legislation right now in DC right now, right now, Capitol that is being stalled that there’s some congressmen and women that want $25 federal minimum wage, but the thing is that I think about our small businesses, we have to make sure that our small businesses can gradually get to. Uh, *** federal, *** federal minimum wage increase and not just do it off the front because you don’t want to punish the small businesses that don’t have the budget like the corporations. All right, uh, sorry, Mr. Morgan, you know, your previous question had asked, we talked about the disparity between the $63,000 the household’s making and the $83,000 they need. $15 is not going to get them there. $20 is not going to get them there. We need to look at *** stair step program where we get to $30 by 2032, 2033. It needs to be *** stair step program that gradually goes up. The minimum wage was originally intended to be *** minimum living wage. It has now become *** minimum, like third household income. You know, source of job, 3rd, 3rd job, 3rd job. That’s where we are right now. And so we’ve got to get, we’ve got to get way beyond that. So I’m going to give Mr. Morgan another 20 seconds here. You’re *** business owner. Yep. Do you like when government tells you you have to pay *** certain amount to your employees? I like when, when the people that are employed are able to live off of the money that they’re paid. And I, to my knowledge, I don’t believe I’ve ever employed someone where they were only making $14 an hour, nor do I have any intention to employ somebody who’s only making $14 an hour. All right, very good. You know, *** lot of the things all four of you gentlemen talk about, you kind of agree on. You have different takes on how we approach certain problems. This is the question where I want to find out where you’re really different. We’re going to start with Mr. Jans. I want you to tell me how you differ in what is. Typical Democratic thinking. Any view, any plank in the platform for the Democratic Party. I want you to tell me how you are *** different kind of Democrat. Go ahead. Hmm. Well, I grew up here. I’ve spent my entire life in this district in *** very red district, um, to say where I differ as *** Democrat, um. You know, I, I think it’s right now the fact that we don’t wanna go to the other side of the aisle to have conversations, um, we see the other side as being. Just completely different that we do not align and therefore we’re not going to have conversations and that I do not agree with. I think we need to step across the aisle. I think we need to have long, deep conversations about where we have gone wrong and divided as *** country. I think that is the first like main thing we need to start doing. I mean I wish the party would grasp that more. All right, Mr. Murchinson Rivera, how are you different from most Democrats? Well, most Democrats Um, we’ll, we’ll try to stick to the status quo. I’m kind of different because I see the priorities that the people need and I stick to my guns. Yes, we need transparency. Yes, we need some kind of chorusing, but the truth is sometimes it’s not gonna get there and things like health care and affordability, some of the things that I can’t negotiate with, um, we can, we can come to *** bipartisan agreement, but as we see on the other side is not gonna come to that sometimes and so I’m *** different kind of Democrat because I, I, I keep fighting what I believe in and I won’t give up on that. No matter where we’re at, no matter who, no matter what, I’m going to stick to my guns and make sure we get people the things that they need in this country. All right, Mr. Cooper, how are you different than traditional democratic thinking? Any area? I will work with anybody. I will talk to anybody and And that’s what makes me the difference is because I know that the people in Florida 6 district are dependent on me to make sure that I make their life *** little bit better and so I think that makes me different from any Democrat because I have done it now in my nonprofit world is being *** CEO of *** nonprofit. I had to go to Tallahassee and work with Republicans to make sure we get stuff down for people in recovery, and I’m willing to do that when I get to DC and that makes me different. I don’t do the. Uh, *** dividing the, the, the fighting because that’s not gonna make any, that’s not gonna help the people in Florida 6th District to have that division politics. So I think just me working with people from the other side and coming to *** to an agreement to really bring back and to help the people in Florida 6th district, I think that’s my difference. All right, Mr. Morgan, so, um, *** couple of things. I’m an entrepreneur and *** brewer. There’s not *** lot of brewers running in this country that I’m aware of. And then I think more importantly, I’m *** fiscal conservative, and that is not, you know, I’m not *** democratic socialist. I will not describe myself as *** democratic socialist, and I believe that there’s *** bit of an overreach going on right now in that side of the party. So I believe in balanced budgets. I believe in reducing the federal deficit. And I believe that we have to live within our means. I think that’s what we need to do. That’s what I’ve had to do in running businesses over the years. We have to live them. Oh, I’m sorry. I, we have to live within our means. All right, very good. Uh, I want to turn to the coastal parts of the district, um. An awful lot of money has been invested in recent years for coastal renourishment. This year in Florida, Senate Bill 320 was passed and signed into law, and it’s going to invest money in what are called living shorelines to use more natural vegetation to protect our beaches instead of spending millions of dollars every year to just dump more sand onto the beaches next to people’s homes. This living shorelines approach, is this the right approach for District 6, and Mr. Cooper, is that something that you would even file *** bill on to provide more money for Florida’s coastal areas? Well, that’s, that’s, that’s near dear to my heart because I had an opportunity when *** lot of these hurricanes came and flood. Flooded out the areas and destroyed. I was the one sitting in the disaster centers looking at these people come in and asking for help for FEMA. So it’s personal for me and I will first thing I do, Greg, is, is, is get with the state and then talk to the county commissioners of the coastal area and see what they need. And then to hear from them because I hate when top down you need to go bottom up and see what the, what the community needs and that if that’s something that the county commission or the city council won, then I will make it happen up in DC. But first of all, we need to hear from the local leaders and see what, what they want for that piece of legislation. All right, Mr. Morgan, I believe *** couple of years ago, Saint Augustine was talking about how high they had to make seawalls to. To handle, you know, rising waters and stuff like that, but obviously the beaches are the larger part of Florida’s coastline. the living shorelines, dumping more sand, some other kind of thing. How do we protect our communities along the coast? So this is *** particularly apropos question for me because I live on *** barrier island on the beach. So I live on Hammock Island off of Palm Coast. And so this is an issue that we deal with on an ongoing basis. The living shoreline is *** very good approach. It needs to be done in conjunction with buried seawalls. That’s the government project that’s going on right now in the Flagler Beach area. But at the same time there’s other things that we’re not doing. We need to rapidly expand sewage treatment plants in areas near the water because right now what happens is with all that septic and with all the wild animals, the number one contaminant on most of our barrier islands is feces, and we’ve got to get that out of the environment. So we’re going to, and we also have to bring the sand in from directly off the coast so that the sand. We’re putting in is the same type of sand as what’s being used on the beach originally. Yes, this is something that New Smymyrna Beach has been doing in phases along the South Valutian. I can look out sometimes and see the ship out there pulling the sand up that they’re going to bring in. Yeah, it’s important. All right, Mr. Jans. Are we on the right course with our, uh, living coastlines, uh, or should we just go back to dumping sand and piping it in from *** mile offshore, uh, or something else in your view? The problem is we started this now. So once we start, uh, building the seawall, which we have across Flagler and Volusia Counties, um, you’re now stuck. You’re now in *** position where, Like we’re fighting Mother Nature and it’s going to be *** constant battle of renourishment, renourishment because that water is just beating up against that seawall over time. Um, so this will be something, and if you look at the long term money or the expense for these projects, it goes up from maybe 40 million at the beginning up to 100+ million after 10 years because there is this constant need for, for adding either vegetation or sand. The problem is we’re already in this. We’re already kind of stuck to this and the areas that we do not protect are now going to be eroded even faster, and we’re seeing that. In Saint John’s County in Summer Haven to where this area is just now bombarded with erosion every year because we have seawalls all around it, um, I would like to see money then invested in some of our interior communities like Midtown Daytona that floods after every storm, right? That’s where some money and prioritization needs to start going. All right, Mr. Murchinson Rivera, your take. Absolutely, I, I agree. I lived in New York City in Rockaway Beach *** majority of my life, and I was directly impacted by Hurricane Sandy. I think the seawall is *** great thing, but the erosion should have been taken care of *** long time ago. It’s like trying to fix something that’s been broken *** long time that’s now rusted. But once we get that. And adding of sand is not gonna do nothing for us. I think we need to get rid of, uh, like the flooding, make sure we get that, uh, taken care of first because what happened where I live at Rockaway Beach, the flooding pushed the seawall back down into the sea. Uh, so we need to take care of that. We need to strengthen our dunes. We need to strengthen the, the water supplies around it and make sure that we’re taking care of Mother Nature for her, for she can take care of us. And, but we need to constantly. Do it not once every 10 years. We need to constantly monitor these things and get it repaired as it’s getting broken, not waiting until another major hurricane comes and saying let’s fix it now. All right, I want to talk about transportation right now. Florida is *** donor state. We get about 93% on the dollar back, sometimes 95% on the dollar for the gas tax money that we send to Washington. Uh, we obviously have I-95, we have US 1, we have major, uh, US thoroughfares that are the state of Florida’s job to maintain, uh, but there’s not an endless supply of money there. Uh, tell me, uh, we’ll start with Mr. Yonts. What, what exactly would you file *** bill to mandate that, uh, every state gets back every penny that it sends to Washington? Yes, we need to get our tax money back home, um, and yes, with the, with the gas tax, we should be getting every penny that we spend. Um, when I look at the projects that are happening right now and I look at A1A that’s going across in, in Volusia County where I live, that project has been redone now 2 to 3 times, and, and that is *** state funded project from the gas tax, but yet they pave *** section. And then they realize, oh, *** mistake was made, and now we need to repave it, redo *** design. It’s flooding now. OK, we need to, we need to add more drainage. We need to be more efficient with our money that’s being spent as well. That’s *** huge concern. Yes, bring tax money back home, but also make sure we’re spending it in *** wise way and not having to do work multiple times. All right, Mr. Cooper, yes sir, I, I do believe that all that tax money need to come back to, to the state because if it’s You know, like my agenda is how it’s gonna benefit the people is, and, you know, the, the, the most frustrating thing, Greg, that, that I see is I do *** lot of traveling and I can start seeing the gas prices go down when I leave Florida, where they go down when I leave Florida, and then when I come back, the gas prices, as far as I get south, I see them going up. And so I think about the mayor I think about the people of Florida’s 6th district is how can we, how can we as *** congressman. It relieve some pressure and that may be one way we could get the money come back to the state that can that can give the people 4 to 6 dishes some. Some relief. And so yes, I agree with that. All right, Mr. Merchantson Rivera, do you think we should get dollar for dollar back? Well, I don’t think the whole thing, what people fail to realize is that we have federal highways that’s in the state of Florida that also needs to be taken care of that also get torn up by constant everyday driving. Do I think we need to bring More back home, absolutely, uh, but we got to also realize that *** lot of these programs that Florida, uh, uh, get money for is from the federal government and I think everybody should pay their fair share, especially if you want something in return. What my job is, is when I get to Washington is make sure we get more of that money home, but I don’t think we should completely stop. You know, funding, uh, giving money to the federal government because we want to bring every single dollar back home, especially where there’s federal highways that we also drive along in Florida. And to clarify, I’m not suggesting that we stop sending money that way. The question is, should we be getting 100% of what we send to them back for our state and not sending it to other states? Oh absolutely. I mean, but we also have to take care of these other states that don’t got *** lot of funding like us. I mean, we are the United States of America, not the United States of Florida, so we can help everybody, uh, and just be happy and just make sure everybody has *** good cost of living. All right, Mr. Morgan, clean this up. Here you go. Last one. So I, I appreciate the question, but I think the answer lies in *** different area. Um, you know, there’s *** gentleman named Rick Scott who’s currently one of the senators from our state, used to be the governor. And when he was governor, there was an opportunity for us to take money for high speed rail, and he turned that money down. And within 45 days after leaving office, he invested in Bright Line. That is an ethical, that’s *** very big red herring for me, but I think it, it’s, it’s, it, it shows that what we really need to do is to get all these people out of all these cars, and we need to do something about public transportation. And we need to make it, and we’ve all talked about this in some of our previous forums, we’re, we’re very much lacking in public transportation in this state, and I think that we would find that we’d be way more efficient at addressing the issue that you’re bringing up with better public transportation than we would whether we get exactly 100% back on the vehicles that people are driving around in, with usually 1.2% per car. If I understand, you’re saying if we got 100% back, *** percentage of that would be invested in public transportation, as opposed to roads, correct? All right, very good. We’ve come to the end of our time, gentlemen, so I’m going to give you each *** minute for *** closing statement. Mr. Murchinson Rivera, why don’t you lead us off there? Of course, thank you, Greg. Thank you for the time and thank you for having me here. Listen, we’ve got *** very important decision to make this coming up election, and I believe I’m the best person to represent. Guys in Washington, uh, we need somebody in Washington that’s gonna be strong and stand up for this community. *** lot is going on right now, uh, between affordability, health care, and, uh, just somebody that’s gonna stand up and fight for this community and I believe I’m the best person there to do that. So if you guys wanna help us out and join up, you can look me up on, uh, uh, all the social media and, and, and joining our team and let’s get this done. All right, Mr. Jans, one minute please. Yes, thank you for this. Thank you. I’ve spent nearly my entire life in this district. I know the people here. I know how hard they work. I know how much they care for their families. I know how much they want government to simply just work for them again, you know, every day I’m knocking on doors and I’m meeting people and some think differently than I do and that’s OK. That, that is fine because that’s what makes our country strong. The key is that we need to agree on on how people are treated and that we are working towards *** common goal, you know, no one should ever have to go between paying rent. And having actual rights. You know, the future I’m fighting for is *** district that we can all afford to live in, you know, where seniors can retire with dignity, where our veterans have more than just an empty promise, and where our children have *** bright future. We can get there, but only if we put people ahead of politics. I am Eric Yonts, and I will give us the representation that we all deserve. Thank you very much, Mr. Cooper. One minute, please. Thank you. Um, my life has prepared me for this moment. As *** Marine, I learned service through recovery. I learned resilience. As *** nonprofit leader, I learned how to solve problems and bring people together. If you want *** congressman who is ready on day one. And we’ll put people over politics. I’ll be honored to earn your vote in this August 18th primary. Thank you. All right, and Mr. Morgan. So it seems like we’re in *** strange time right now, zombie movies, apocalyptic movies, you see survivalist themes and television shows, and part of that is *** product of this divisiveness and this disconnect that we have in our society right now. And one of the reasons that I got into this race in the first place is because I felt like that there’s something that we can do before we get to the edge. That we can step back from the edge and we can do something that can give us courage and can give us solace moving forward and I think *** debate like this and the discussion that that that we are having as *** group is *** good way to move in that direction. And the other thing while I’ve got *** little bit of time left, we haven’t talked about Randy Fy enough today. Randy Fine is the congressman without constituents, and what I mean by that is constituents mean part of the same whole. He lives in District 8, we’re running in District 6, we live in District 6. We are not his constituents. Randy Fine, when he gets his ballot, his. His name is not on it. So just think about that for *** minute. He can’t vote for himself. That’s where we are with Randy Fine as our incumbent politician for this district. All right, gentlemen, thank you very much. These are our Democratic candidates in Congress, District 6. It covers *** huge area. Uh, I really appreciate you sharing your thoughts and ideas and what your priorities are, uh, if you are elected. And certainly, good luck to all of you. That primary is August 18th, and, uh, we appreciate you watching, uh, West News and West.com and our ongoing series of commitment 2026 debates.
Florida’s 6th Congressional District Democratic primary debate
The Commitment 2026 primary debate series starts with the Democratic primary race for Florida’s 6th congressional district.
Updated: 5:13 PM EDT Jul 7, 2026
The Commitment 2026 primary debate series starts with the Democratic primary race for Florida’s 6th congressional district. >>Watch the debate above This district covers Flagler County, parts of Volusia, Lake, Marion, Putnam and St. Johns County. The Democratic candidates are Robert Cooper II, Stephen Morgan, Ron Murchinson-Rivera and Eric Yonce. Candidates were asked about views on affordability, including rising costs on housing, healthcare and everyday living expenses. They shared their thoughts on the bill on nature-based coastal reconstruction. Moderated by political reporter Greg Fox, this debate is part of an ongoing series of debates that will focus on the general races across the nine districts that WESH 2 covers. The debates will appear in their entirety at WESH.com with portions airing in WESH 2 newscasts and social media posts ahead of the Nov. 3 election.
ORLANDO, Fla. —
The Commitment 2026 primary debate series starts with the Democratic primary race for Florida’s 6th congressional district.
>>Watch the debate above
This district covers Flagler County, parts of Volusia, Lake, Marion, Putnam and St. Johns County. The Democratic candidates are Robert Cooper II, Stephen Morgan, Ron Murchinson-Rivera and Eric Yonce.
Candidates were asked about views on affordability, including rising costs on housing, healthcare and everyday living expenses. They shared their thoughts on the bill on nature-based coastal reconstruction.
Moderated by political reporter Greg Fox, this debate is part of an ongoing series of debates that will focus on the general races across the nine districts that WESH 2 covers. The debates will appear in their entirety at WESH.com with portions airing in WESH 2 newscasts and social media posts ahead of the Nov. 3 election.