Fundraising and barnstorming ahead as Jerry Demings begins Florida governor campaign – Orlando Sentinel

With his splashy campaign launch behind him, the real work begins for Jerry Demings in his quest to be Florida’s next governor.

The Orange County mayor, who kicked off his bid before friends and supporters at an Orlando hotel earlier this month, will spend the next year convincing donors big and small he is the Democrats’ best candidate, building a campaign operation from the ground up, and heading out on the road to meet voters in every pocket of the state.

It will be a steep learning curve for Demings, who has been successful in multiple local races for sheriff and mayor over the last few decades but has never faced a statewide campaign.

“You’ve got to spend a lot of time dialing for dollars, but you also have to do the retail politics of it,” said Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, a Demings ally who ran unsuccessfully for Florida Attorney General in 2002. “It’s nice, though, to be centrally located because you can get up in the morning and go to any part of the state and still make it back to Orlando if you want.”

Demings has never had trouble raising money for campaigns – but he’s only run in Orange County, where he is an institution and the sums needed to be competitive are far smaller.

In 2022, he raised $356,000, about seven times more than his next best-funded competitor. That same year, he helped raise $1.5 million for a campaign to raise the sales tax to pay for transportation upgrades, though it was was ultimately defeated.

During his first mayoral bid in 2018, facing stiffer competition and without the advantage of incumbency, he raised more than $800,000.

Demings will have have a major assist when it comes to statewide and national fundraising — his wife, former U.S. Rep. Val Demings, who gained a national profile after helping leading the first impeachment trial against President Trump in 2019 and making President Biden’s shortlist for a running mate the following year.

He campaigned with her across Florida three years ago when she was on the ballot for U.S. Senate, and will count on her advice as he crisscrosses Florida in the lead up to the Democratic primary next year.

“My wife is experienced. She’s run statewide before,” he said. “She’s well-known all over this country and she’s well-known all over the state of Florida. I count that as a blessing.”

Val Demings raised $79 million for her unsuccessful bid against then-U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, far more than Charlie Crist, the party’s nominee for governor that year.

Jasmine Burney-Clark, who served as the Florida Campaign Director for President Joe Biden in 2024, went as far as to call Val Demings her husband’s “competitive advantage.”

“I think that she stands to help his race significantly bring in the funds and the notoriety,” said Clark, who founded Equal Ground, an Orlando-based group focused on Black voter turnout.

If so, Demings may be able to quickly erase the fundraising gap between himself and his main party rival — though he has a long way to go to match the GOP.

Last month, Florida Politics reported that David Jolly, the other major Democratic candidate in the race so far, had raised about $2 million. That total generated concerns among Democrats about his lack of fundraising prowess.

On the Republican side, Trump-endorsed U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds has raised at least $31 million and former House Speaker Paul Renner has raised more than $3.5 million.

Matthew Isbell, a Democratic elections analyst, noted Jolly had been consolidating support from Democrats across the state prior to Demings entering the field. For example, earlier this month more than two dozen faith leaders from Black congregations announced a coalition to back Jolly.

But Isbell added that Demings has one thing Jolly does not: a decades-long track record as a Democrat. Jolly is a former Republican congressman from St. Petersburg who switched parties before launching his bid for the governor’s mansion.

Demings’ profile may also have risen statewide as he’s squabbled in recent months with Gov. Ron DeSantis, Attorney General James Uthmeier and Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia over issues ranging from immigration enforcement to “DOGE” audits.

“Demings has a very real shot in that primary,” Isbell said.

When he launched his bid last week, Demings said he intended to serve out the remaining year of his mayoral term as he campaigns. His early months on the stump are expected to include a listening tour around the state, he said.

His campaign didn’t respond to questions this week about any scheduled campaign events or how much money was raised at the kickoff rally.