{"id":40675,"date":"2025-11-10T10:33:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T10:33:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/40675\/"},"modified":"2025-11-10T10:33:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T10:33:14","slug":"3-questions-for-jerry-demings-as-he-runs-for-florida-governor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/40675\/","title":{"rendered":"3 questions for Jerry Demings as he runs for Florida governor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings has taken on former U.S. Rep. David Jolly in the Democratic primary fight to be the party\u2019s nominee for governor next year.<\/p>\n

Demings filed papers to raise money for a campaign\u00a0Oct. 31, and\u00a0made a formal announcement Nov. 6. Jolly in the meantime has been campaigning since June.<\/p>\n

The son of a Gadsden County sharecropper and Alabama taxi driver, Demings said he would focus on the need to make Florida more affordable.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur state has become more expensive and less fair for everyone, all\u00a0while power is being stripped away from local communities that know their residents best,\u201d Demings said.<\/p>\n

\"Orange<\/p>\n

Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings discusses impacts of the Florida Legislature’s action on the Reedy Creek Improvement District during a news conference Thursday, following the annual Orange County Regional Economic Summit in Orlando.<\/p>\n

The Orlando native said his politics was forged\u00a0as a Florida State University business student\u00a0in the 1970s\u00a0when he\u00a0attended church at Bethel Missionary Baptist Church in Tallahassee, where\u00a0legendary civil rights leader C.K. Steele was pastor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI met a lot of people on that campus.\u00a0Muhammed Ali, Angela Davis, Andy Young, H. Rap Brown.\u00a0The university was wonderful in bringing in speakers of\u00a0the day … and I went to C.K. Steele’s church. He was one of Dr. King\u2019s field generals\u00a0and he would bring in people like the Rev. Jesse Jackson,\u201d Demings said.<\/p>\n

Jolly welcomed Demings to what he hopes will be a \u201cspirited\u201d discussion\u00a0about how\u00a0to create affordable housing and health care, and secure the future of public education,\u00a0among other things.<\/p>\n

Whoever\u00a0emerges\u00a0as the winner of the Democratic primary will face long odds against the eventual Republican nominee, who\u00a0will\u00a0enjoy\u00a0a large advantage in voter registration numbers and campaign contributions.<\/p>\n

\"David<\/p>\n

David Jolly a Democratic candidate for governor speaks to the Capital Tiger Bay Club, September 18, 2025<\/p>\n

U.S. Rep.\u00a0Byron Donalds, R-Naples,\u00a0and former Florida House Speaker Paul Renner of Palm Coast are seeking the\u00a0GOP\u00a0nomination.\u00a0First Lady Casey DeSantis and Lt. Gov. Jay Collins have been mentioned as possible candidates.<\/p>\n

Donalds is endorsed by President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

If Demings and Donalds\u00a0emerge\u00a0as their party\u2019s\u00a0nominees,\u00a0it will mark a unique moment in Florida history \u2013 two Black candidates vying to be governor after eight years\u00a0of\u00a0Gov. Ron DeSantis\u2019 policies deemphasizing\u00a0diversity,\u00a0equity\u00a0and inclusion efforts.<\/p>\n

\"WASHINGTON,<\/p>\n

WASHINGTON, DC – JANUARY 20: Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) speaks following the inauguration of U.S. President Donald Trump during an event at Capital One Arena on January 20, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Justin Sullivan\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

While acknowledging that\u00a0a Black Democratic and Republican nominee for governor has never happened anywhere in the\u00a0U.S.,\u00a0Jasmine Burney-Clark of the voter education group Equal Ground, <\/a>also said the two candidates come from\u00a0different backgrounds\u00a0and see\u00a0the\u00a0people and the constituents they serve differently.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese two Black men are not monolithic. They come to this race with different\u00a0experiences.\u00a0Demings may prioritize working class individuals, while Donalds may prioritize the special interests of the business community,\u201d Burney-Clark said in an interview.<\/p>\n

Three questions for Jerry Demings as he runs for governor<\/p>\n

(Questions and responses edited for clarity and brevity.)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Q: At a\u00a0rally,\u00a0you said you would tackle the rising costs of living, specifically mentioning housing.\u00a0How does one do that?<\/p>\n

Demings:\u00a0I will do what\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0been doing here in Orange County. One, stabilize the cost of housing and incentivize developers to build workforce housing at a lower cost.\u00a0Two,\u00a0build affordable housing closer to where people are going to work, especially low wage earners. They save money because they no longer\u00a0have to\u00a0drive long\u00a0distances or\u00a0may not need to own an automobile.<\/p>\n

And\u00a0I will insist that we use the Sadowski Housing Trust Fund for what its intended purpose was instead of reallocating billions of dollars for purposes that\u00a0has\u00a0nothing to do with affordable housing.<\/p>\n

Q: Another plank\u00a0in\u00a0your platform is to strengthen local government authority\u00a0in light of recent moves by the Legislature to\u00a0preempt\u00a0city\u00a0and county\u00a0regulations and policies to the state. What do you\u00a0have in\u00a0mind?<\/p>\n

Demings:\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0going back to\u00a0the days when we let local governments make decisions. They set their budgets and\u00a0are required to\u00a0manage them.\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0not trying to get into local\u00a0governments\u2019\u00a0ability to manage their budgets other than to say that should be their discretionary authority.<\/p>\n

Local governments are seeing tremendous (population)\u00a0growth\u00a0and the state has preempted local governments from controlling many of their land use issues.\u00a0Let\u2019s\u00a0have the state work with local governments\u00a0to empower them to make decisions for themselves.<\/p>\n

Q: Media reports describe you as a political centrist. Do you agree?<\/p>\n

Demings:\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0a moderate Democrat. I\u00a0tend to work across political lines to bring constituents\u00a0with mutual interests\u00a0together\u00a0to make\u00a0mutual decisions.\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0as\u00a0big\u00a0a bipartisan person as anyone.\u00a0I’m in the center where the majority of people are in terms of their beliefs and their policy positions.<\/p>\n

Follow up Q: A moderate who supports Medicaid expansion?<\/p>\n

Demings: We have been leaving money on the table from the federal government by\u00a0not expanding\u00a0Medicaid eligibility.<\/p>\n

James Call is a member of the USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jcall@tallahassee.com. Follow on him Twitter: @CallTallahassee.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: 3 questions for Jerry Demings as he runs for Florida governor<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings has taken on former U.S. Rep. David Jolly in the Democratic primary fight…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40676,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1571,13582,13076,1813,27129,28,30,29,1422,8134,27130,1335,27128],"class_list":["post-40675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-affordable-housing","tag-bethel-missionary-baptist-church","tag-campaign-contributions","tag-david-jolly","tag-democratic-primary","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-florida-state-university","tag-jerry-demings","tag-jesse-jackson","tag-orange-county","tag-republican-nominee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40675","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=40675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}