The four candidates all said they want to attract more tech-based companies in defense, modeling and simulation and other similar fields.<\/p>\n
Messina, an entrepreneur and the lone Republican in the race, said Orange County should capitalize on its proximity to Kennedy Space Center and strive to be the nation\u2019s space tech capital. The centerpiece of his plan is to try to create a military service academy for the United States Space Force, which he believes would bring at least $1 billion in economic activity.<\/p>\n
He and Murphy also had similar ideas to subsidize trade school for young people.<\/p>\n
Messina calls his idea \u201cOrange County Works,\u201d where anybody aged 16 years old through midlife can receive a taxpayer funded certification for careers such as plumbing, electrician, HVAC and other trades. Once a person begins working, a clock starts for the graduate to pay back half of the cost of education.<\/p>\n
![\"Orange](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1786365854_758_tos-l-orange-mayor-tiger-bay-3.jpg\")
Orange County mayoral candidates, from left, Chris Messina, Stephanie Murphy, Tiffany Moore Russell and Mayra Uribe participate in a debate hosted by the Tiger Bay Club of Central Florida on Friday, July 31, 2026, at the Orlando Regional Realtor Association headquarters in Orlando. (Rich Pope\/Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n
\u201cSo you have skin in the game, but not at a level where it\u2019s super onerous,\u201d he said, adding the county could fund the idea with $10 million annually.<\/p>\n
Murphy, a former Democratic member of Congress, is calling her proposal \u201cOrange County Promise,\u201d a $27 million annual county investment to pay for every high school graduate to receive an associates degree or a certification from trade or technical school.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an investment that we can\u2019t afford not to make,\u201d she said. \u201cIt creates a reason for businesses to come here, and we have an incredible education ecosystem and we currently have a workforce shortage in some of the trades and technical areas.\u201d<\/p>\n
Murphy, who prior to her Congressional tenure worked at the Department of Defense as a national security specialist and is a board member of the RAND Corporation think tank,\u00a0believes Orange County is positioned to be a leader in space-based missile defense.<\/p>\n
She said the county needs to continue to support tourism, but must be ready to create high-wage jobs attractive to young people or risk \u201chaving a county where our young people can\u2019t build their future and start their families.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moore Russell said that not only does the county need to lure higher-wage jobs, but it also needs to retain companies who are already here. The county mayor, she said, should be intimately involved in recruitment.<\/p>\n
She said the county should increase its investments in workforce development, as well as create internship and apprenticeship opportunities.<\/p>\n
As the incumbent Clerk of Courts, Moore Russell raised the minimum salary in her office from $12 per hour to $17 an hour. She said she\u2019d conduct a review of the county\u2019s customer service and field employees to ensure they make fair wages.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s also said she\u2019ll support incentives for companies who agree to hire locally.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I think is happening economically, is that a segment of our community is behind on prosperity,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re not paying people enough to live and not have 2-3 jobs in this county.\u201d<\/p>\n
Uribe, an incumbent county commissioner, said she\u2019d be more proactive in pursuing economic development by creating a new department focused on recruiting technology, manufacturing and other industries that typically pay salaries of more than $80,000.<\/p>\n
She has also repeatedly said that county zoning, permitting and development review processes are broken and she\u2019d seek to fix them within her first 100 days.<\/p>\n
She intends to create a position called the \u201cDirector of Mayor\u2019s Initiatives\u201d to ensure applications that would help businesses grow are swiftly moved through the process.<\/p>\n
Uribe added that businesses with revenues between $2 million and $25 million don\u2019t get enough county support.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat middle business is the one that\u2019s going to hire people, the one that\u2019s going to grow and normally is locally headquartered here,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to prioritize them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For decades, candidates for Orange County mayor have described plans to lure high-wage jobs to the region and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":367412,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[2811,28,114,266,115,1335,139,141,140,99,109],"class_list":["post-367411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-election","tag-florida","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-politics","tag-social"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367411","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=367411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}