John Lowndes, mayor of the city of Maitland, announced a bid for the Florida Senate in 2026. Credit: Courtesy of John Lowdnes campaign

With election season kicking up to high gear, Maitland Mayor John Lowndes has filed paperwork to run for Florida Senate District 10, a seat that is currently held by GOP Sen. Jason Brodeur. Lowndes, a Central Florida native and son of the late philanthropist of the same name, is running for the seat representing parts of north Orange County and all of Seminole County as a Democrat.

“Working families and seniors are struggling with rising insurance premiums, housing costs, grocery bills, healthcare expenses, and utility rates while politicians in Tallahassee pick partisan political fights instead of finding practical solutions,” Lowndes said in a press release announcing his campaign. “I’m running to bring a more balanced, thoughtful approach on behalf of our community focused on solving problems and lowering costs for the people of Central Florida.”

An attorney by trade, with experience in local government and public policy, Lowndes held a seat on Maitland City Council for six years and was elected mayor of the small city north of Orlando in 2021. He’s described his campaign for Florida Senate as “people-centered,” focused on lowering costs for families and seniors. 

Born in Winter Park, Lowndes is a graduate of Edgewater High School who later went on to earn degrees from Florida State University, the University of Florida and American University’s Washington College of Law, according to his campaign announcement.

“People elect leaders to get stuff done, period,” Lowndes said. “And the way to get it done is to listen, then organize, then act. I’ve been doing that in Maitland for 15 years. Government has to work for the people.” 

Hopefully his campaign website will soon work for the people as well — as of writing, the website for Lowndes’ campaign (included in his email announcement) was password-protected and therefore publicly inaccessible, including to the press. 

Brodeur, the Republican senator who currently holds the seat, has served in the Florida Senate since 2020, and spent eight years in the Florida House before that. Born in Daytona Beach, Brodeur is an established member of Seminole County’s business community.

After working for Procter & Gamble, Brodeur launched his own healthcare consulting firm, Anchor Consulting, in 2010 and served as president and CEO of the Seminole County Chamber of Commerce — a local chapter of a powerful business lobbying force — from 2013 to 2022, according to his LinkedIn page.

Brodeur, like many of his Republican colleagues, has been criticized by progressives for his votes to make it harder for Floridians to place citizen-led initiatives on the statewide ballot, roll back child labor regulations, ban local regulation of Airbnbs (a bill later vetoed by Gov. Ron DeSantis) and all but criminalize homelessness by banning people from sleeping on public property, such as sidewalks.

Still, Florida Republicans currently enjoy a supermajority in the Florida Legislature — bolstered by a shift rightward in Florida in recent years — outnumbering Democrats more than two to one.

Brodeur was last elected to his Senate seat in 2022 with 54.4 percent of the vote against Democrat Joy Goff-Marcil. He’s filed paperwork for re-election to retain his seat this fall.

The only other candidate to file for Brodeur’s seat so far is Democrat H. Alexander Duncan, according to state records. Despite his party affiliation, Duncan describes himself on his Florida Senate campaign website as a “faith-rooted and solution-oriented” candidate with “conservative values.” Duncan previously ran for Brodeur’s seat in 2020 (District 9, before redistricting in 2022 changed his seat to District 10), uplifting Second Amendment rights and touting “conservative fiscal beliefs,” according to Florida Politics.

The deadline for any additional candidates to file for the Florida Senate seat is June 12, according to qualifying dates posted by the state Division of Elections Office. The primary election this year — to decide Democratic and Republican nominees — will take place on Aug. 18. The general election will be held Nov. 3.

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General news reporter for Orlando Weekly, with a focus on state and local government and workers' rights. You can find her bylines in Creative Loafing Tampa Bay, In These Times, and Facing South.