Early voting is open now through Nov. 1. Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3. Find a list of early voting locations in Orange County here. Find your Orange County polling place here.
This year’s midterm elections in Orlando feature more than a dozen federal, state and local candidates on the ballot, although some of the races that show up on yours, of course, will depend on where exactly you live in the City Beautiful or a surrounding area.
On tap for everyone in Florida is a vote on Florida’s next governor, the state agricultural commissioner, the state chief financial officer, attorney general (i.e., Florida’s top cop) and a special election for a U.S. Senate seat that is currently occupied by Republican U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody. Moody was appointed — not elected — to the seat last year by outgoing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to fill the vacancy left by now-Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
We know it can be exhausting to research all the candidates down-ballot. And it’s literally our job to look into these people, so we figured we’d give you a hand.
Here’s a quick rundown of candidates on the ballot in Orlando and Orange County:
Federal Elections
U.S. Senate
Ashley Moody (R, incumbent)
Moody, a former state attorney general, was appointed to the U.S. Senate by DeSantis in 2025 to fill a Senate vacancy. Moody has framed herself as tough on crime and fought for the “No tax on tips,” policy, but has faced scrutiny over her refusal to debate her opponents this election cycle, as well as her role in the ongoing Hope Florida scandal involving $10 million in allegedly misappropriated state funds from a state Medicaid settlement.
Angie Nixon (D)
Nixon, a Florida House representative and former union organizer, has campaigned on an economic populist platform as one of the most progressive members of the Florida House. She’s supportive of Medicare for All (transitioning to a universal, free healthcare system), universal free childcare, getting big money out of politics and ending unconditional military aid to Israel. She’s faced scrutiny from the right for her ties to the Democratic Socialists of America after joining the organization as a member earlier this year, but has publicly said she does not identify as a socialist, nor does she agree with DSA’s positions on defunding the police and abolishing prisons.
Neil Gillespie (NPA)
Gillespie, an Ocala man, is a repeat candidate for elected office, although it doesn’t appear he’s ever won an election. Federal campaign finance records indicate his campaign is entirely self-funded. His campaign website/blog indicates he’s a supporter of Donald Trump and believes the Biden/Harris presidency (2020-2024) was “unconstitutional.” His campaign priorities for U.S. Senate are unclear.
neilgillespie.4senate.blogspot.com
U.S. House
District 9
Note: Due to state redistricting, this district has shifted into redder territory, making it more competitive than in cycles past. It now stretches from south Orlando down to Indian River County, and west into parts of Four Corners and Poinciana.
Dan Green (R)
Green, a resident of Vero Beach, is a political newcomer (from what we can tell) and formerly served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense under the first Trump administration. Green, today, continues to support Donald Trump and appears ready to do his bidding, according to his campaign website.
Darren Soto (D, incumbent)
Soto, a longtime politician (and musician who’s jammed out with fellow Congressman Maxwell Frost), has served in the U.S. House since 2017 and served in the Florida Legislature before that. Soto, in his federal seat, has brought back billions of dollars in federal funds for local infrastructure projects, including funds for Brightline, airport upgrades and improvements. Soto has spoken out against the Trump administration’s Medicaid cuts and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) attacks on Social Security.
State Elections
Florida Governor
Byron Donalds (R)
Donalds, a U.S. Congressman from Naples, snagged an early endorsement from Donald Trump and doesn’t appear to be backing away from it, despite the president’s low approval rating as of publication. Donalds has faced scrutiny over his campaign contributions from the data center industry, his allergic reaction to considering a data center moratorium, and his wife Erika’s prominent role in the school privatization movement.
David Jolly (D)
Jolly, a former Republican turned Democrat, is running a Charlie Crist 2.0 campaign that, admittedly, appears to be polling better than Crist did during his embarrassingly unsuccessful 2024 gubernatorial campaign. Jolly has campaigned as a centrist, pledged to enact a temporary data center moratorium, and could be Florida’s first Democratic governor since 1999, if elected.
Attorney General
James Uthmeier (R, incumbent)
Uthmeier, a lawyer by trade, formerly served as DeSantis’ chief of staff before being appointed AG by DeSantis in 2025 to fill a vacancy left by now-Sen. Ashley Moody. As top cop, Uthmeier has waged performative legal wars against big tech, gone after human trafficking and terrorized the transgender community with intimidation tactics. Like Moody, he faces scrutiny over his role in the Hope Florida scandal.
Jose Javier Rodriguez (D)
Rodriguez, a workers’ rights lawyer from South Florida, is a former state senator who served in the U.S. Department of Labor under the Biden administration. He’s pledged to fight government corruption and wage theft, and investigate price gouging by utilities, landlords and insurers.
Chief Financial Officer
Blaise Ingoglia (R, incumbent)
Ingoglia, a former state senator from Hernando County, is a homebuilder by trade who championed the state’s copycat Department of Government Efficiency efforts, which he dubbed Florida Agency for Fiscal Oversight or FAFO, har har. Ingoglia was appointed, not elected, CFO in 2025 by DeSantis to fill a vacancy. He’s made a show of parading around the state to make vague claims of local government waste.
Annette Taddeo (D)
Taddeo is a former state senator who was recruited for the race for CFO by Ruth’s List, according to community radio station WLRN. The Democrat has been openly critical of Ingoglia’s flashy press conferences announcing alleged government waste (typically without receipts) by local elected officials. According to Taddeo’s campaign, her top priorities if elected would be “lowering insurance costs, strengthening accountability and protecting taxpayer dollars.”
Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services
Joey Mendoza Atkins (D)
Atkins is an attorney running for state agriculture commissioner not only to engage with stakeholders in the agricultural community, to support the state’s regulatory and conservation systems — and “Make Florida More Affordable,” per his campaign website — but to strengthen the office’s efforts in consumer protection. “Floridians should have confidence that the food they purchase is safe, fuel pumps are accurate, businesses are operating honestly, and those who engage in fraud or deceptive practices will be held accountable,” Atkins told the Orlando Sentinel.
Wilton Simpson (R, incumbent)
Simpson is an egg farmer and former Florida Senate president with a massive war chest of contributions worth six figures each from Big Sugar and other corporate agricultural and political interests to help him defend his position as Florida’s state agriculture commissioner. Simpson is backed by Trump, all 67 sheriffs in Florida, and outgoing Gov. DeSantis. Simpson, on his campaign website, touts his land preservation efforts and (no joke) the fact that Florida in 2024 became the first state in the U.S. to ban lab-cultured (rather than live-slaughtered) meat.
State Senate
District 10
Jason Brodeur (R, incumbent)
Brodeur, a two-term senator and founder of a healthcare consulting business, has voted with his fellow Republicans against DEI, abortion rights and protecting rural boundaries, and in favor of rollbacks to vaccine requirements and child labor law. He supports state legislation designed to undermine labor unions and local governments’ ability to require workplace heat safety protections.
John Lowndes (D)
Lowndes, an attorney by trade, currently serves as mayor of Maitland. This is his first time running for state office. Lowndes has campaigned on protecting Seminole County’s rural boundary, lowering costs for working-class families, restoring local home rule and more effectively addressing Florida’s costly property insurance crisis.
State House
District 39
Doug Bankson (R, incumbent)
Bankson, a pastor and former Apopka city commissioner, was first elected to the Florida House in 2022. He’s voted in step with his fellow Republicans against government support of DEI and in favor of union-busting and anti-immigrant legislation, as well as expanding the state’s school voucher program at the expense of public schools. He is the founder of a private K-12 school himself. According to an Orlando Sentinel investigation, his school has already cashed in, receiving more than $926,000 in scholarships for the 2023-24 school year.
Jarod Fox (D)
Dr. Fox, a physician from Winter Garden, wants to prioritize fixing Florida’s unaffordable healthcare issues. In contrast with Bankson, he’s also stood with immigration rights advocates. His other top priorities, besides healthcare, include investments in sustainable infrastructure and expanding affordable housing.
District 40
Tuan Le (R)
Le is a repeat candidate for elected office, having most recently run for this seat during a special election in 2025 and for Congress, challenging Maxwell Frost, in 2024. Le, an engineer and businessman by trade who immigrated to the U.S. from Vietnam with his family, has never held political office. His platform includes support for expanding technical schools, deregulation and lowering taxes for small businesses.
Ra’Shon Young (D, incumbent)
Young was elected to the District 40 seat last year during a special election held to fill a vacancy left by Young’s former boss, LaVon Bracy Davis. Young served as a legislative aide to Davis and received her endorsement. Young’s platform includes finding ways to better support small businesses, create pathways to good-paying jobs and strengthening Florida’s public education system.
District 42 (open seat)
Bonnie Jackson (R)
Jackson is a lawyer and MAGA Republican who previously ran for the District 42 seat — against term-limited Democrat Anna Eskamani — and lost. She’s supportive of the federal government’s immigration crackdown under Trump (unlike her opponent), regulating artificial intelligence to restrict personal data collection, and cutting property taxes (agreeing with the CFO’s assessment of government “waste” in local municipalities’ budgets).
Felipe Sousa Lazaballet (D)
Sousa Lazaballet is executive director of the Hope Community Center, an immigrant advocacy group in Apopka. He’s been endorsed by Eskamani to succeed her. Sousa Lazaballet immigrated to the U.S. with his family from Brazil as a teenager. His platform includes support for fair tax policies, sustainable public transit, standing up for marginalized communities, investing in arts and culture, and establishing a statewide bill of renters’ rights.
District 43 (open seat)
Jorge Malavet (R)
Malavet, a Navy veteran and former manager with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, is a pro-Trump political newcomer with a platform that includes “cutting red tape for small businesses,” parental rights in education, insurance reform and “merit-based” immigration reform.
Samuel Vilchez Santiago (D)
Vilchez Santiago is a former chair of the Orange County Democrats and Venezuelan immigrant who came to the U.S. with his family as a child. He has organized as a community activist for voting rights protections, immigration reform and ending gun violence. He’s been endorsed by sitting representative Johanna Lopez — his former school teacher — to succeed her.
District 45
Erin Huntley (R)
Huntley, a Trump supporter who serves as chair of the Orange County GOP, is taking her own swing at office this time after supporting other Republicans for political office. Huntley is supportive of school choice, reducing property taxes, and describes herself as “pro-life” and “pro-common sense.” In 2025, DeSantis appointed Huntley to the Florida Virtual School board of trustees.
Leonard Spencer (D, incumbent)
Spencer is a centrist Democrat and business executive first elected to the District 45 seat in 2024 after narrowly defeating GOP incumbent Rep. Carolina Amesty. He sponsored legislation in 2025 to study the impact of automation on Florida’s workforce — later vetoed by DeSantis — and lists priorities that include investments in mental health, infrastructure upgrades, and voting against “taxpayer handouts to insurance companies” that jack up rates for working-class families.
Local Elections
Note: Most local elections on the ballot this year are officially nonpartisan, with limited exceptions.
Orange County Mayor
Chris Messina
Messina is a Republican businessman who’s never served in elected office before, but sees his relationships with the business community as an asset compared to “recycled politicians.” He previously told the Weekly he wants to establish a partially subsidized trade-school program, revamp public transit to favor microtransit and get rid of big Lynx buses, and cited undocumented immigrants as a contributor to rising housing costs when asked about the looming issue of affordability.
Tiffany Moore Russell
Moore Russell, a Democrat, currently serves as County Clerk of Courts and formerly served as a county commissioner — the youngest ever elected to that role at the time. Moore Russell describes herself as “pragmatic,” an effective budget-balancer, and says she wants to provide equitable investment in the county’s older, legacy neighborhoods that have been left behind. She supports expanding SunRail to nights and weekends and wants to streamline the permitting process to attract affordable housing development. She’s been endorsed by outgoing Mayor Jerry Demings to succeed him.
Orange County Clerk of Courts
Roberta Walton Johnson (D)
Johnson is a lawyer by trade who has experience working in the Clerk of Courts office as general counsel. She’s also earned endorsements from much of the elected local Democratic establishment, including nods from Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer and outgoing Clerk of Courts Tiffany Moore Russell, who’s running for mayor. Johnson’s platform includes expanding easy access to the courts, improving the office’s efficiency through better technology, and expanding civil engagement and civil literacy efforts.
Terrell Thomas (NPA)
Thomas also has experience working within the Clerk of Courts office. He told the Sentinel his priorities include strengthening the internal culture of the clerk’s office, expanding access to clerk services and modernizing the office’s technology. He’s spent the last few years working in the private sector, but told the Apopka Voice he’s ready to return to the clerk’s office — this time as its elected head honcho.
Orange County Commission (nonpartisan)
Note: Districts 7 and 8 are two new districts in Orange County, created and approved by Orange County voters in 2024.
District 2
Kamia Brown
Brown, a Democrat, is a former Florida House representative, single mom and lifelong Central Floridian with more experience in public office than her opponent. Brown’s platform includes support for protecting natural resources, expanding transportation options to make the county more walkable and bikeable, and reducing barriers to “responsible” development. Other bread-and-butter affordability issues, like housing, are also top of mind. She’s been endorsed by outgoing Mayor Demings.
Michael Crabb (incumbent)
Crabb, a Republican appointed to the District 2 seat this past July to fill a vacancy, is a former Orange County Sheriff’s Office lieutenant (so it’s a bit surprising he didn’t get an endorsement from former Sheriff and outgoing Mayor Demings). Crabb is also owner of The Shirt Shop USA in Ocoee. His campaign priorities include reducing wasteful spending, investing in public safety, reducing taxes (even if this come at the expense of public services, evidently) and reducing traffic congestion.
District 6
Lawanna Gelzer
Gelzer is a longtime community activist and co-owner of the Peabo Childcare Center in Parramore. She’s spent more than four decades organizing around neighborhood issues, environmental justice and public health. Her campaign calls for greater government accountability, including a neighborhood advisory council and public transparency dashboard for residents to track county decisions and report infrastructure problems. Gelzer also supports expanding mass transit, addressing housing affordability and homelessness, and making tourism development tax funds more flexible to address local needs. She wants more county resources directed toward historically underserved neighborhoods.
Michael “Mike” Scott (incumbent)
Scott is an Orlando native and Air Force veteran first elected to the Orange County Commission in 2022. A former county employee and longtime youth mentor, Scott has emphasized investments in affordable housing, small businesses and community organizations during his first term. His reelection platform includes continued funding for the county’s affordable housing trust fund, expanding housing options beyond traditional single-family homes and apartments, attracting more employers, and strengthening youth and senior services. Scott received approximately 49 percent of the vote in August’s five-way race, narrowly missing the majority needed to avoid a runoff.
District 7
Patricia Rumph
Rumph is a retired Florida Department of Corrections employee who has spent more than three decades in state service, working in probation, human resources and budgeting. She’s also a former president of the Pine Hills Community Council and has served on multiple county boards. Her campaign, backed by high-profile Democrats in Orlando like U.S. Congressman Maxwell Frost and Rep. Anna Eskamani, emphasizes expanding affordable and workforce housing, improving roads and public transportation, and investing in youth violence prevention programs. Rumph opposes the proposed property tax amendment on November’s ballot (Amendment 3) and warns that reducing county revenue could jeopardize funding for public safety, infrastructure and other essential services.
Vicki Vargo
Vargo is a real estate attorney and former Orlando city commissioner who served from 2000 to 2006 and now is making another run at local government. Her campaign prioritizes public safety, particularly addressing youth violent crime, with affordable housing and transportation improvements. She supports expanding food assistance access for working families, encouraging construction of more affordable townhomes and condominiums, and opposing increased development impact fees. On public transit, Vargo wants Lynx to prioritize routes serving workers and explore driverless vehicles to reduce operating costs. She’s also raised concerns about industrial pollution and limited tree cover in Pine Hills.
District 8
Jeannette Quinones Hernandez
Quiñones Hernández, a former small-business owner and outreach specialist for then-U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, is campaigning on fiscal responsibility, transportation improvements and managing growth in southern Orange County. Her priorities include widening Narcoossee Road, improving Lake Nona Boulevard and easing connections to major highways as development continues across the district. She also supports protecting wetlands and improving stormwater management to address neighborhood flooding. On affordability, Quiñones Hernández favors lowering development impact fees, reducing government regulations and streamlining permitting to encourage more workforce housing.
Victor “Vic” Torres Jr.
Torres, a former Democratic state senator and representative, served in the Florida Legislature from 2021 to 2024. Before entering politics, the Marine veteran worked as a New York City transit police detective and later as a school bus and Lynx driver. His campaign focuses on affordable housing, public transportation and infrastructure improvements. Torres supports expanding Lynx and SunRail service, developing more workforce housing and protecting existing neighborhoods from displacement. He also wants developers to contribute more toward infrastructure costs and improve stormwater systems to address flooding associated with rapid development.
Judicial elections
Retain Florida Supreme Court Justice Carlos G. Muñiz?
Muñiz, a Gov. DeSantis appointee, is up for another six-year term on the Florida Supreme Court. While this may seem like an easy space on your ballot to skip over, if you’re someone who’s angry about the state’s attacks on abortion rights, you may want to rethink that undervote. Muñiz, after all, was part of the majority of justices who, in 2024, upheld Florida’s six-week abortion ban, despite a clause in the state constitution that guarantees every person’s right “to be let alone and free from governmental intrusion” into their personal life. For decades, that clause had been interpreted to include a person’s right to get an abortion. The decision to sweep it away in 2024 upended decades of precedent. Not all of DeSantis’ conservative Supreme Court appointments are on the ballot this November, but Muñiz is. Make of that what you will.
9th Circuit Judge Group 1
Temika Hampton-Johnson
Hampton-Johnson is an attorney and community advocate with extensive legal experience, formerly serving as an assistant public defender, probation and parole officer, family attorney, and labor attorney protecting the rights of working people. She states, on her campaign website, that she’s running “to ensure that every person who enters the courtroom is treated with dignity and receives equal justice under the law.”
Charles Hart
Hart, a private practice attorney, is a member of the conservative Federalist Society and a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association, according to West Orange County news site Vox Populi. He formerly served as chair of the Orange County Republican Executive Committee and previously ran for a Florida House seat in 2022, but lost the Republican primary to Rep. Doug Bankson. On his campaign website, Hart states that he is committed to “listening first, leading with fairness, and upholding the integrity of the judiciary with professionalism and humility.
BALLOT AMENDMENTS
Note: Ballot measures must receive at least 60 percent of the vote to pass.
Amendment 1: Budget Stabilization Fund
Amendment 1, backed by GOP Florida House speaker Daniel Perez, would increase the percentage of funds from the budget that can be kept in the state’s “rainy day” fund — aka the budget stabilization fund — each year. The idea is to reduce state spending, even as Floridians continue to struggle with issues ranging from affordable housing to wage theft and a crumbling public education system. Under the proposal, rainy day funds could only be withdrawn if there’s an emergency, a revenue shortfall or a non-recurring critical state need, according to the League of Women Voters Florida, which opposes Amendment 1.
Recommendation: Vote no.
Amendment 2: Exemption of tangible personal property on agricultural land from taxation
Amendment 2, backed by the Florida Farm Bureau and Big Sugar, is a tax cut for agricultural companies. Specifically, it would eliminate annual taxes on farmers’ “tangible personal property” — for instance, farm equipment, tractors and irrigation equipment. It could disproportionately benefit Florida’s marijuana industry, according to an analysis by the newsletter Seeking Rents. It’s being pitched by supporters as tax relief for farmers and ranchers, while opponents see it simply as another tax break for special interests that would result in a loss of an estimated $31 million in property tax revenue annually for cities and counties’ use.
Recommendation: Vote no.
Amendment 3: Increased homestead exemption
Amendment 3 is the compromise Florida legislators reached this year on Gov. DeSantis’ pitch to eliminate property taxes in Florida entirely. This wouldn’t do that, necessarily, but it will significantly reduce the property tax revenue collected annually by local governments — to the tune of $5 billion in the first year alone — if passed. It would accomplish this by expanding the state’s homestead property tax exemption to $150,000 in 2027 and then $250,000 in 2028. This could result in modest property tax savings for Florida homeowners, but critics warn it will drain funding for essential municipal services (public safety, libraries, parks, roads), and potentially shift those costs onto renters. Actual home prices would also likely go up, according to real estate experts. That’s probably why Florida’s real estate lobby — which serves to benefit from higher sales commissions — has poured roughly $20 million into an ad campaign to ensure it passes.
Recommendation: Vote no.
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This article appears in Oct. 21-27, 2026.
