The race to replace term-limited Gov. Ron DeSantis is getting more crowded.
Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings, a Democrat, filed to run for governor on Oct. 31. The move means he will challenge former U.S. Rep. David Jolly for the Democratic nomination for governor.
Demings, 66, is scheduled to hold a rally officially announcing his candidacy on Nov. 6. Demings’ campaign had no immediate comment.
A longtime fixture of Orange County politics, Demings has served as its mayor since 2018, and won reelection in 2022.
Before that he served as Orange County Sheriff from 2009-2018, and was Orlando’s police chief from 1998-2002.
His wife Val Demings served as a U.S. representative from 2017 to 2023. She ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate in 2022 against incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio.
Jolly has received many endorsements from Democrats but faced some resistance as a former Republican.
When Jolly served in Congress from 2014 to 2017, it was as a Republican. He left the GOP in protest, however, against the rise of President Donald Trump.
The Republican Governors Association welcomed Demings to the race by slamming him and Jolly.
“Florida Democrats are clearly unimpressed with David Jolly’s Charlie Crist impersonation and find themselves flailing to find a candidate for governor who has been a Democrat for more than five minutes,” RGA spokeswoman Courtney Alexander said.
“So, into this talentless chasm of despair steps the one man who wants to run for literally anything that isn’t his current job: Jerry Demings.”
On the Republican side, U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds is the frontrunner, leading most polls ahead of former Florida House Speaker Paul Renner.
And DeSantis’ lieutenant governor, Jay Collins, has said he’s still deliberating whether to get in the race.
Jolly’s campaign didn’t comment on Demings’ entry into the race, but instead announced an “expanded leadership team,” including co-chairs Sean Pittman, a Tallahassee-based lawyer and lobbyist, and state Sen. Tina Polsky, D-Boca Raton.
Among other new faces, Gayle Andrews will be Senior Campaign Advisor and the Rev. R.B. Holmes, pastor of Bethel Missionary Baptist Church, will chair the campaign’s Faith Leadership coalition.
And Laurence Humphries, son of the late Florida A&M University president Frederick Humphries, and Suzanne Lewis, former University of West Florida Board of Trustees chair, will help “shape the campaign’s Higher Education and State University System agenda.”
Gray Rohrer is a reporter with the USA TODAY Network-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at grohrer@gannett.com. Follow him on X: @GrayRohrer.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings enters governor race
Reporting by Gray Rohrer, USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida / Tallahassee Democrat
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
