By Fisher
Jerry Demings isn’t running a campaign in order to seriously try to win. He’s running a campaign to raise his own profile and fund raise.
Jerry Demings has long been a barrier to progress in Orlando. His politics are not one of improving the lives of Orange County citizens. His goal is to manage our demise. As our lives get worse and worse, the only thing Demings stands for is that at least he’s not a republican. He consistently stands in opposition to meaningful change in the name of “pragmatism”, then still refuses to follow through on their “pragmatic” policies.
Jerry Demings recently announced his candidacy for Florida governor. It wasn’t the best kept secret. Many organizing in Orlando have known for months. However, we’ve been hoping he wasn’t going to go through with the vain attempt.
ICE Cooperation
Orange County jail’s 287g agreement to cooperate with ICE. As a result of this agreement, the jail is being used as a hub in Central Florida to support ICE’s mass deportation campaign. Earlier this year, local organizers pushed to get the Orange County Board of County Commissioners to decline to sign an updated 287g agreement.
After that meeting, Demings came out and claimed he wouldn’t be bullied on immigration. However, after AG Uthmeier and Governor DeSantis threatened to remove Demings and the board from office, Demings caved and signed the updated agreement within a few days.
After signing the agreement, Demings had to come back and have the rest of the Board of County Commissioners sign on to ratify it. At that meeting, Demings was at his most loathsome. He wasn’t there to hear the concerns of the citizens of Orange County and deliberate after hearing them out. He was there to moralize why what he had to do was necessary and why they just didn’t understand the necessary decisions he had to make as Mayor so that he could “continue the fight”.
Months later, Jerry Demings has not continued the fight. There has been no lawsuit filed, no pushback has occurred. DeSantis commanded and Demings bent the knee. Demings teased his run for governor at the time, saying that there was nothing he could do as mayor but if we wanted change on this issue then we have to “change the people who make the laws”.
However, given that Jerry Demings has refused to stand up to DeSantis, there’s no reason to expect him to stand up to Trump. Demings will claim that he can’t stand up to DeSantis on ICE cooperation as DeSantis would remove him. With no push back on the threat to force DeSantis’ hand, it’s an easy excuse. Will Demings be able to stand up to Trump if he does win?
Since Jerry Demings was planning to run for governor, getting the press from standing up to DeSantis on ICE cooperation could have jumpstarted Demings’ governor campaign. Across the country, we can see that Democratic constituents want politicians that will stand up to Republicans and stand up for something. The question we have to ask then is: does Demings have terrible political instincts to not see this? Or does he simply want to have the Orange County jail cooperate with ICE?
If Jerry Demings was interested in ending the county’s cooperation with ICE then he could have not signed the original agreement, or pushed to end the agreement now. Given that Demings is running for governor, Governor DeSantis would be hesitant to turn Demings into an example. Other municipalities would be able to follow Orange County’s lead and not cooperate with ICE as well. Demings failed to use his position to stand up for his constituents and Floridians.
Of course, Jerry Demings isn’t actually interested in standing up to the police lobby on this issue. His past as a police officer has meant they’ve been a valuable part of his coalition to him as he’s gained political power. If he stands up to them on this issue then he knows he wouldn’t be able to win them over if he runs for governor. It seems to be that Demings isn’t interested in ending the county’s cooperation with ICE because he values his relationship with the police lobby more than the opinions of his constituency.
Click here for a link to Jerry Demings’ speech at a recent Board of County Commissioners meeting where he discusses Orange County’s cooperation with ICE.
Transportation
Demings has stood in the way of progress even when DeSantis isn’t involved. Recently, Demings voted to get rid of Lynx bus routes in the interest of “Micro transit”. It’s becoming far more difficult and expensive for UCF students to get downtown as a result. There was no requirement from DeSantis there, Jerry Demings chose the corporate interests over the people of his own volition.
It’s also worth mentioning that Visit Orlando, a private nonprofit to promote tourism, has received over $100 million dollars from Orange County in 2024 under Demings. Visit Orlando has faced much criticism for its misuse of funds. It spends a large portion of that money on advertising tourism to Orlando. This effectively acts as a subsidy to Disney, Universal and the Hotels. This taxpayer money could instead be spent on public transportation to expand the SunRail to provide easy travel between the airport, downtown Orlando, the theme parks and all across Orlando. The benefits of this would benefit tourists as well as the everyday people of Orlando who would have an easier ability to travel or go to work as a result.
Under Demings’ leadership though, Visit Orlando has continued to get hundreds of millions of dollars which is effectively becoming corporate subsidies rather than benefiting the workers of Orlando. Orange County has the ability to terminate the agreement, stopping the funding going to Visit Orlando, to instead use the money from the tourism development tax to actually develop Orlando’s infrastructure for tourism.
Housing & Affordability
If you look at his campaign so far, Jerry Demings has decided to focus on rising costs. He brings up his record on housing as a demonstration of his competence in this area. However, his main contribution there is giving handouts to real estate companies for building “affordable housing”. Back in 2022 though, Orange County voted on a rent stabilization ordinance which had 59% support in Orange County.
While Jerry Demings did end up supporting this rent stabilization ballot measure, it was after voting against it multiple times and having to be actively campaigned into support. At the time, Demings fought for exclusions for landlords, for less rental units to be affected and watered down the eventual rent stabilization measure that made the ballot. Seemingly, his support of affordable housing appears primarily related to how much government money goes to real estate developers.
Healthcare
I do feel obligated to give some credit where it’s due. Demings’ support of medicaid expansion is worth noting. It’s simply a waste to leave money on the table from the federal government as Florida is doing now by not expanding medicaid eligibility. The fact that Republicans aren’t supporting such an item demonstrates their contempt for working class Floridians. Support of medicaid expansion should be the bare minimum ask to make for Democrat politicians.
Analysis & Argument
Florida voters have repeatedly shown their willingness to support politics that benefits the working class. The Democratic party however has repeatedly refused to support such a vision. They have repeatedly failed and lost ground in Florida running politicians like Jerry Demings whose primary political message is that they’re not a Republican, but they’re happy to work across the aisle with Republicans.
It’s hard for voters to square this campaigning with their other messaging. On one hand, Democrats will talk about Republicans being a threat to democracy. They’ll say that Republicans are responsible for the horrendous ICE raids, the loss of healthcare and SNAP benefits. On the other hand, Jerry Demings will campaign on how he is a bipartisan politician, happy to reach across the aisle to work with Republicans. Voters can see there’s no reason to trust Demings when he talks about the importance of changing who is in control of cooperating with ICE, when Demings himself is happy to work with those same politicians.
Currently the other top Democratic Party candidate for governor is David Jolly, who only became a Democrat in April 2025 after switching parties. This leaves the top two options in the Democratic party as a Republican and one who is happy to work alongside Republicans. This is while the Republican party wages war on the working class by coming after immigrants, healthcare, housing and more.
A trend in Florida is that recent progressive ballot measures have far outperformed moderate Democrats statewide. In 2024, the ballot measures for Marijuana and Abortion rights outperformed Kamala Harris by more than 10% each. In 2020, the $15 minimum wage increase outran Joe Biden by 12% of the vote. All of these progressive ballot measures pulled at least 55% of the vote in a state where no Democrat hit 50% in a statewide vote.
It’s hard to imagine Jerry Demings winning in Florida. What vision does he offer that distinguishes him from Charlie Crist, Joe Biden or Kamala Harris? Jerry Demings isn’t running a campaign in order to seriously try to win. He’s running a campaign to raise his own profile and fund raise. Jerry Demings may win the primary. After that though, I predict his campaign will lose by at least ten points to the Republican candidate. He refuses to listen to and represent his base and will lead an uninspiring campaign as a result.
The Florida Democratic party refuses to split from its corporate donors. By refusing to embrace its working class base, it is conceding elections to Republicans. At least the Democratic party will be able to fundraise off the terrible things Republicans accomplish over the next few years. Bad for us, good for them.