{"id":230616,"date":"2026-04-14T02:34:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T02:34:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/230616\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T02:34:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T02:34:07","slug":"paul-renner-talks-affordability-criticizes-donalds-at-crawfordville-campaign-stop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/230616\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Renner talks affordability, criticizes Donalds at Crawfordville campaign stop"},"content":{"rendered":"

Florida Republican Gubernatorial candidate Paul Renner\u00a0stopped\u00a0in Crawfordville as part of\u00a0his\u00a0campaign tour Monday.<\/p>\n

Among\u00a0Renner\u2019s\u00a0talking points: property taxes, AI data centers,\u00a0and a swipe at the GOP gubernatorial front-runner.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

During the event at the Wakulla County Chamber of Commerce, Renner said\u00a0he wants to focus on reducing\u00a0property taxes\u00a0for\u00a0full-time\u00a0Florida\u00a0residents first. He also said AI data centers, like the ones popping up all over the country,\u00a0could put Florida water at risk.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’ve got to make sure that\u00a0we’re\u00a0not letting outside national interests that covet Florida take our beloved state. And so,\u00a0I’m\u00a0going to\u00a0protect\u00a0that.\u00a0I’m\u00a0going to put Florida\u00a0First,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Renner is the most recent former Florida House Speaker. According to recent polling<\/a>,\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0far behind in the\u00a0governor’s\u00a0race, averaging around 2 to 3 percent support. \u00a0
He told reporters when asked about those polls that they aren\u2019t everything.
\u201cI’m\u00a0not, as you know, a fan of early polls, because\u00a0they’ve\u00a0been wrong. The front runner never wins in Florida,\u201d\u00a0he said.<\/p>\n

The current GOP frontrunner is Congressman Byron Donalds, who has Trump\u2019s endorsement, a fundraising lead and is polling above 40%.<\/p>\n

At the event, Renner said a\u00a0vote for\u00a0Donalds\u00a0is a vote for David Jolly, the\u00a0Democratic\u00a0frontrunner.\u00a0Renner accused\u00a0Donalds\u00a0of being self-promoting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of baggage, missed votes, you name it. Just not a, not a great, stellar record.\u00a0He’s\u00a0been all about himself against a guy\u00a0who’s\u00a0going to come in as a moderate Democrat, who, to my knowledge,\u00a0doesn’t\u00a0have any skeletons in his closet. And I think\u00a0he’s\u00a0your next\u00a0governor, if\u00a0Byron\u00a0Donalds\u00a0is a nominee,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Whoever Florida\u2019s next governor is will have a first two years of tough calls.<\/p>\n

State economists have projected<\/a> Florida is heading toward billions in budget cuts over the next two years if spending is not altered. Florida\u2019s budget is projected to be in the red by over a billion dollars next year and 6 billion in two years if spending or revenues don\u2019t change.<\/p>\n

When asked about that outlook, Renner said he wouldn\u2019t close that deficit by raising taxes or cutting teacher pay. Instead, he wants to cut what he called wasteful and fraudulent spending in the government.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s a very well-run state government. But can we squeeze any more out of that? You bet we can. Can we find some waste, fraud and abuse in the system, absolutely, which would more than offset any kind of budget shortfalls in the outlying years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Those future projections have been a sticking point in current, drawn-out budget negotiations in Florida\u2019s legislature. Lawmakers return to Tallahassee to continue their budget work next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida Republican Gubernatorial candidate Paul Renner\u00a0stopped\u00a0in Crawfordville as part of\u00a0his\u00a0campaign tour Monday. Among\u00a0Renner\u2019s\u00a0talking points: property taxes, AI data…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230617,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[232,234,233],"class_list":["post-230616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}