Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings files to run for Florida governor

Confirming rumors of a potential run, Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings officially filed paperwork to enter Florida’s highly anticipated gubernatorial race next year, with current Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis term-limited from running for reelection.

Demings, a former Orlando Police Chief and Orange County Sheriff, is running for governor as a Democrat in a state that’s trended increasingly red in recent years. He’s the second high-profile Democrat to launch a bid for the seat, challenging former Rep. David Jolly (a former Republican turned Democrat) for the Democratic nomination. 

Demings, the husband of former U.S. Rep. Val Demings, is reportedly expecting to share a formal announcement of his campaign for governor at the Rosen Centre later this week. Records publicly available through the state Division of Elections website show Demings officially filed his candidate paperwork on Friday, allowing him to begin raising money for his campaign. 

A couple of high-profile Republican candidates have already filed to run for governor as well, setting up what is likely to be a competitive election to succeed the right wing’s anti-woke champion DeSantis. 

Former Florida House speaker Paul Renner — who’s shown he’s willing to do the business lobby’s bidding even if working people suffer — filed to run for governor in September, while U.S. Rep Byron Donalds (a “strong proponent of directing public dollars toward private schools,” per the Miami Herald) filed to run in February and has already received a highly sought-after endorsement from President Donald Trump. Although, what that endorsement will really mean moving forward with Trump’s record-low approval rating at the time of publication is unclear.

First Lady Casey DeSantis, Ron’s Republican wife caught up in a scandal involving alleged theft of government funds earlier this year, is also reportedly mulling over a run for governor, while Lt. Gov. Jay Collins — a former state senator — has also teased a run but hasn’t yet filed paperwork.

Demings is the mayor of one of the last Democratic-leaning counties in Florida, and one of the largest. Orange County, located in Central Florida, is also one of the Sunshine State’s tourism capitals, home to Disney World, Universal Orlando Studios, SeaWorld and other major tourist attractions that collectively draw in more than 75 million visitors annually.

Recent polling published last week found that Republican Byron Donalds and Casey DeSantis currently share nearly identical leads in voter sentiment on the candidates running for governor. A survey from the University of North Florida’s Public Opinion Lab found Democrat Jolly trailing Donalds by 11 percentage points, 45 percent to 34 percent, while Jolly trails DeSantis by 13 points. Survey respondents were also asked about Demings, then just a rumored candidate. Results show he also trailed Donalds and DeSantis by similar margins.

“We’re still a year away from the midterm election, and there are quite a few undecided voters,” said Dr. Michael Binder, a political science professor and faculty director for the Public Opinion Lab. “At this point, it looks like both Republicans are more than 10 points ahead of whoever emerges on the Democratic side.”

Demings hasn’t been afraid to challenge Florida’s current governor, and his allies, as it is. After facing scrutiny from Florida’s Department of Government Efficiency (“DOGE”) task force, Demings defended the county’s spending habits, arguing that while the county’s budget has increased in recent years, so has the county’s population and “the myriad challenges that we face” — with rising homelessness being one of them.

Demings also called on DeSantis last week to dip into the state’s emergency funding to fund federal food assistance, known as SNAP, for Florida’s nearly 3 million recipients. As a result of the federal government shutdown that began Oct. 1, the Trump administration has declined to utilize its contingency funding to fund SNAP, a program that serves more than 41 million low-income Americans, including many seniors, children and people with disabilities.

“In Orange County, more than 175,000 residents depend on SNAP benefits and will lose access to funds needed to purchase groceries for their families starting November 1st if immediate action is not taken,” Demings wrote in an Oct. 29 letter addressed to Gov. DeSantis. The federal and state governments, he added, “have a responsibility to ensure residents have access to nutritious food,” noting that the Orange County government alone has dedicated $5.3 million in funding to the region’s largest hunger relief organization this year, Second Harvest Food Bank.

“This is a fundamental right, and we must not allow our most vulnerable populations to be deprived,” Demings wrote.

DeSantis has rejected Democrats’ pleas for him to declare a state of emergency over the SNAP freeze (despite several other governors deciding to do so). Facing growing pressure, DeSantis finally conceded Monday that the state’s agriculture department would “be doing more” to help SNAP recipients, the Tampa Bay Times reported, without offering any specifics on how they will do so or what that will look like.

Although a federal judge last week ordered the Trump administration to use contingency funds to cover SNAP benefits for November — even with the ongoing government shutdown — it’s unclear when that will trickle down to Floridians through the state’s administrator. Plus, as NBC News reports, the contingency funds agreed to by the administration on Monday are only likely to cover “50% of eligible households’ current allotments.”

Demings was elected as Orange County’s first Black mayor in 2018, and won reelection in 2022 with about 60 percent of the vote in a four-way race. Florida’s gubernatorial race (still likely to see the entrance of additional candidates) is set for November 2026. The Democratic primary will take place next August.

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