Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings Enters Race for Governor

Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings is shaking up the race for Florida governor. Florida Politics Publisher Peter Schorsch joins us with an update.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Joining us on the hotline. We have the published share
of Florida Politics, Peter Shore. She can find all of
his work and all of his team's reporting and sign
up for the Sunburned newsletters so you get the latest
in your inbox first thing every morning at Florida politics
dot com and Peter. It's already been a busy week
in Florida politics. Let's talk about the latest candidate to

(00:21):
get into the twenty twenty six race for governor. We
kind of knew this was coming, but it's official now.
Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings is in.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Yes, like, So we started off the week with a
piece about how you know, the next week to ten
days will tell us a lot about what Florida politics
is going to look like in twenty twenty six. We
knew Demings was out there as a prospective candidate. He
had announced last week that he was going to have
a rally. But he pulled the trigger and quietly filed

(00:52):
for governor on Monday. And that's, you know, a technicality.
It's a way of making sure that you know you're
paying for things to right way, et cetera. But he's in,
and you know it. I like the idea of a
competitive Democratic primary with you know, without people named Chris
or Freed in it. I think that'll be interesting to
see what the Democrats stand for nowadays. David Jolly upped

(01:16):
his game immediately in response to to Demings getting in,
bringing up board Tina Polski, a respected state senator, as
his campaign coachair, and then John Pittman, a prominent African
American lobbyist in Tallahassie, as the other co chair. And
so now Demis gets to get out there. I got
to say, I don't like the criticism I'm seeing of

(01:37):
Demings from the Florida GOP. They're calling him woke and wrong,
et cetera. I do think he's got credibility. This is
a three decade law enforcement officer, whether it be you know,
Orlando Police chief or Orange County sheriff. This guy's got
a good record there. You may not agree with his politics,

(01:57):
but calling him woke, calling him wrong on these things,
I think that that's I think that that's wrong. It'll
be interesting to see what he looks like on the
statewide campaign trail. I'll be honest, I don't you know,
he's been more of an Orlando folks, he's kind of
been in the back seat to his you know, his
very prominent wife, val Deman. So he even though he's

(02:17):
been in office for a while, he hasn't been like me.
He's not the star of his family either. It's his wife.
And so it'll be it'll be interesting to see him
out on the campaign trail. Is there a lane with
Jerry Demmings now in the race and David Jolly having
already entered the races, there a lane for one more

(02:39):
on the Democratic side, maybe somebody more on the left. Well,
you know, as you say that, and as you know,
the elections this week in New York et cetera showed
us it. You know where you know, where is the
progressive the where's the AOC Bernie Sanders wing of the

(03:00):
Democratic Party. Now I don't necessarily want that person to
step forward, but you know, the Maxwell Frosts or the
Ana Escamanis who seem to be you know, the heirs
to that. In Florida, we have not seen one of
those candidates step up. Now. Angie Nixon, a state representative
from the from Jacksonville, northeast Florida, has said that she

(03:21):
will run. I think she's I don't know that she's
got enough of a profile to make enough of a difference.
I would like to see, will you know, will we
get one of those? I just don't know. Again, And
this goes back to you know, you've heard this eight
thousand times for me, when you're starting out with a
one point four million voter registered voter gap, I just

(03:44):
don't know how much enthusiasm there is to get in
right now. But I think what's interesting and you bring
it up. You know, with the left, the excitement out
of the Democrats nationally isn't that progressive wing. It is
the people that are standing up the loudest to Trump.
So whereas I might like the Dave Aaron Bergs or

(04:05):
the Jason Pizzows of the Democratic Party, you know that's
that's not where the Democratic base is right now. It
is as far left as you know, as we've seen
since the sixties. I guess, I mean, I just don't remember.
You know, this is the opposite of the Bill Clinton
Democrat Leadership Council that won in ninety two. We're joined
by the publisher of Florida Politics, Peter Shorsh. Again, you

(04:26):
can find all of his work and all of his
teams reporting on this and a whole lot more at
Florida politics dot com. If you are Byron Donald's, you're
the front runner for the GOP nomination here in Florida,
the front runner in the race overall. And look, he
certainly I think would need to completely collapse for this

(04:51):
to become a really, really tight race.

Speaker 1 (04:54):
Now, things could change over the course of the next year.
But you know, as we're sitting here now now, with
the dynamics here in Florida, what we've seen in recent
election cycles, you would think the Republican nominee would have
a pretty big advantage. But that said, is there an
option here Deming's or Jolly who you'd rather not face?

(05:16):
If you're Donald's, I don't think you want to face
Jolly in some you know, and Jolly will almost say this.

Speaker 2 (05:25):
I've had friends of his who have said it to
me about what David has said, which is, you know,
it is sometimes a seven deuce off suit beats pocket ass.
You know, sometimes the five ten percent long shot does win.
And you know, it's like, I don't know, if if
things go south in the foreign policy arena with Trump,

(05:48):
if some you know, catastrophic event happens there if if
the you know, the polling is really bad for Trump
right now, it's and you and I talked about this
a couple of weeks ago, where I'm like, man, it
just feels like a little bit different, you know, this
government shutdown. Man, I really am worried about what do
we look like in Thanksgiving if there's still a government shutdown,

(06:09):
people without snap benefits, et cetera. And then suddenly does
does does twenty twenty six start shaping up as a
reverse version of the Team Party twenty ten election? And
you know that's when people who had no chance of
getting elected Rick Scott, et cetera, they just come into office.
And you know, I'm sure the Ryan Gorman and Peter

(06:31):
Shorsh of two thousand and nine were saying, there's no
way that Bill McCollum is going to lose and they're
not going to lose to this former healthcare executive accused
of fraud, you know, And obviously that was probably a
five percent chance at that point. And obviously history is different.
And so I feel like if lightning was to be
caught in a bottle, I guess Jolly has probably a

(06:55):
better shot at doing that the publisher of Florida Politics,
Peter Shore. You can find all of his work and
all of his.

Speaker 1 (07:01):
Teams reporting on the elections on twenty twenty six all
the breaking news here across the state of Florida at
floridapolitics dot com. Peter always appreciate your time and insight.
We talked to you next week. Hey, Ryan, thanks for
having me on