Three Democrats and one Republican are vying to replace longtime Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings in Tuesday’s election.
Chris Messina, Tiffany Moore Russell, Stephanie Murphy and Mayra Uribe are seeking the job. The next County Mayor, who oversees a government serving 1.3 million people, will inherit the community’s challenges of affordable housing, homelessness and an underfunded public transportation system.
If no one exceeds 50% support Tuesday, then the top two vote-getters are heading to a November runoff.
Some of the leading voices in Central Florida haven’t publicly weighed in. Demings, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost and state Rep. Anna Eskamani, who is running for Orlando Mayor, have not made public endorsements ahead of Tuesday’s contest. Unite Here, which represents thousands of Disney World workers, also isn’t publicly backing a candidate before next week.
Messina, who is highlighting his conservative Christian values, is an entrepreneur working in medical marketing technology. He previously challenged Demings for County Mayor in 2022 and came in second place, winning nearly 22% of the vote.
Moore Russell made history as the youngest Orlando City Commissioner elected onto the board in 2006. She served until 2014. She next ran to be Orange County Clerk of Courts, a position she’s had ever since. She became the first Black woman in Florida to become a Clerk.
Moore Russell also faced criticisms about her lack of oversight monitoring the guardian program.
“The audit from the office of Orange County Comptroller Phil Diamond started before a statewide scandal erupted in 2019 involving Rebecca Fierle, a prolific Orlando-based court-appointed guardian for hundreds of incapacitated people who resigned and was later arrested on charges of abuse and neglect in the death of a ward,” the Orlando Sentinel reported in 2021.
Murphy was elected to Congress after she defeated Republican U.S. Rep. John Mica in 2016, becoming the first Vietnamese American woman ever elected to Congress. She went on to serve three terms then pivoted to become a business analyst for strategy, risk management and growth. She is a former defense analyst. The Orlando Sentinel reported Murphy has spent $1.5 million in the race so far as she gets support from Walt Disney World, billionaires J. Hyatt Brown and Michael Bloomberg, and Avalon Park developer Beat Kahli.
Uribe has served on the Orange County Commission since 2018. She has been known as an outspoken critic of Visit Orlando and for advocating to help people who are homeless.
Uribe made headlines for refusing to resign from her County Commission seat until December to run for County Mayor. The move angered some Democrats who fear Gov. Ron DeSantis will appoint someone in her place instead of Uribe resigning early enough to automatically trigger a Special Election. Uribe is also under investigation by the Florida Ethics Commission over a 2024 scandal when she passed on hundreds of concerts and sporting event tickets to her husband’s nonprofit. Uribe called the ethical complaint against her a political attack coming from the tourism industry that she has been clashing against.