By Mitch Perry, The Florida Phoenix<\/p>\n
Orange County Mayor and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Demings announced Friday he is suspending his 2026 campaign after being diagnosed with a treatable form of prostate cancer.<\/p>\n
In a prepared release, Demings said that \u201ccontinuing to run for governor would have likely led to injurious effects on my prognosis. I am a fighter through and through, and now is the time to fight cancer and be there for my loved ones.\u201d<\/p>\n
He will finish out his mayoral term, which expires in November.<\/p>\n
The mayor broke the news while speaking to reporters after completing his final \u201cState of the County\u201d\u00a0address at the Orange County Convention Center. He said he intends to serve the remainder of his term in office.<\/p>\n
\u201cRunning for governor has been one of the biggest honors of my life. Up until my diagnosis, our campaign was continuing to add staff and grow our reach throughout the state. Our polling showed a strong chance of victory, and I had been looking forward to articulating my vision for our state on the (campaign)trail through the primary and into November,\u201d the statement reads.<\/p>\n
Demings, 66, had a lengthy career in law enforcement before being elected Orange County Mayor in 2018. He had joined the Orlando Police Department in 1981. In 1998, he became Orlando police chief and was elected Orange County sheriff in 2008, serving until 2018. In all three positions, he became the first Black person to win the.<\/p>\n
He entered the race for governor in November and has been competing for the Democratic nomination with former Republican U.S. Rep. David Jolly, who became a Democrat only\u00a0a year ago.<\/p>\n
Polls have shown the race to be competitive, with a majority of Democratic voters in some of those surveys\u00a0saying\u00a0they were undecided.<\/p>\n
Jolly quickly issued a release wishing Demings well.<\/p>\n
\u201cJerry has dedicated his life to public service, fighting with passion, mettle, and faith,\u201d Jolly said in a statement. \u201cI know he\u2019ll bring that same spirit to this new chapter. Laura and I wish him a full recovery as we personally pray for Jerry and his family.\u201d<\/p>\n
Republican gubernatorial candidates such as\u00a0Byron Donalds\u00a0and\u00a0James Fishback\u00a0also released statements wishing Demings well.<\/p>\n
Demings\u2019 candidacy for governor came four years after his wife, former U.S. Rep. Val Demings, was the Florida Democratic Party\u2019s nominee for U.S. Senate. She failed to oust Marco Rubio. The couple are the parents of three sons and have five grandchildren.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Mitch Perry, The Florida Phoenix Orange County Mayor and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Demings announced Friday he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299988,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[232,234,233],"class_list":["post-299987","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\/299987","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=299987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299987\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}