State executive race · November 3, 2026
Governor
The governor is Florida's chief executive, who signs or vetoes legislation, proposes the state budget and appoints many state officials.
4-year term. Open seat: no incumbent is running. Open seat: Gov. Ron DeSantis is term-limited. Governor and lieutenant governor candidates run together on a joint ticket. Qualified write-in candidates: Kathy Anderson (running mate Daniel Nokovich) and Erik Morris (running mate LeRoy Alaways).
The candidates
Listed alphabetically by last name.
Dean Abrams
Technology and management consultantRunning mate: Joe Van Vactor (Lieutenant Governor)
Dean Abrams of Sarasota is a No Party Affiliation candidate who spent three decades in enterprise technology and management consulting. His self-funded campaign focuses on cost of living, insurance, health care pricing, privacy and data centers. His running mate, Joe Van Vactor, is a retired U.S. Air Force service member.
Charles Burkett
Real estate investor; former mayor of SurfsideRunning mate: Ruben A. Coto (Lieutenant Governor)
Charles Burkett is a real estate investor and former multi-term mayor of Surfside, including during the 2021 Champlain Towers South collapse. He is running as a No Party Affiliation candidate and says his campaign accepts no contributions. His platform centers on property tax relief, insurance competition and slowing new construction.
Running mate: Juan Santana (Lieutenant Governor)
Jeffrey Peter "Dr. Jeff" Datto of Hialeah is a No Party Affiliation candidate for governor, running with Juan Santana. SparkVotes did not find a campaign website or published platform for this candidate.
Moliere "Moe" Dimanche
Author and podcast hostRunning mate: Benjiman Rojas (Lieutenant Governor)
Moliere "Moe" Dimanche is an Orlando-raised author and host of "The Moe Dimanche Show" podcast, running as a No Party Affiliation candidate. His campaign centers on ending public corruption, protecting whistleblowers and what he calls lawfare.
Byron Donalds
U.S. Representative, Florida's 19th Congressional DistrictRunning mate: Bryan Avila (Lieutenant Governor)
Byron Donalds is a U.S. representative from Southwest Florida and a former state legislator who won the August 2026 Republican primary. His campaign focuses on lowering insurance and housing costs, health care price transparency, early literacy and immigration enforcement. His running mate is state Sen. Bryan Avila of Miami-Dade County.
Scott Jewett
Businessman and consultantRunning mate: Nicole Skelly (Lieutenant Governor)
Scott Jewett is a Boca Raton businessman and the Libertarian Party of Florida's nominee for governor. His campaign calls for less government, lower taxes and fixing homeowners insurance costs. His running mate, Nicole Skelly, co-owns a construction business in Milton.
David Jolly
Former U.S. Representative; attorney and political commentatorRunning mate: Gwen Graham (Lieutenant Governor)
David Jolly is a former Republican congressman from Pinellas County who left the GOP, spent several years outside both major parties and registered as a Democrat in 2025 before winning the August 2026 Democratic primary. His campaign centers on property insurance, health care access and public school funding. His running mate is former U.S. Rep. Gwen Graham.
Frank J. Russo
Businessman, insurance executive and developerRunning mate: Rachel Rodriguez (Lieutenant Governor)
Frank J. Russo is a Florida-born businessman, insurance executive and developer running as a No Party Affiliation candidate. His campaign, under the slogan "Humanity Over The Dollar," focuses on affordability, teacher pay and accountability. His running mate, Rachel Rodriguez, is a Florida attorney.
Compare on the issues
Summaries of each candidate's stated positions. See each profile for sources and details.
| Issue | Dean Abrams No Party Affiliation | Charles Burkett No Party Affiliation | Jeffrey "Dr. Jeff" Datto No Party Affiliation | Moliere "Moe" Dimanche No Party Affiliation | Byron Donalds Republican | Scott Jewett Libertarian | David Jolly Democratic | Frank J. Russo No Party Affiliation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Housing | Supports insurance transparency and profit caps, ending investment-fund purchases of single-family homes and grants for first-time home buyers. | Supports rewriting insurance laws to bring more competition to property and auto insurance and favoring renovation over new construction. | No public position found yet | No public position found yet | Says regulatory reform could cut property insurance costs a further 20% to 25%; proposes an insurer scorecard, keeping Citizens Insurance small and better-targeted storm-hardening grants. | Supports increasing competition among insurers and keeping Citizens Property Insurance as a backstop rather than a primary insurer. | Supports a state catastrophe fund for natural disaster risk and a no-interest, state-backed loan program for condominium repairs. | No public position found yet |
| Energy & Environment | Supports a statewide moratorium on AI data centers and barring them from the aquifer and public water sources. | No public position found yet | No public position found yet | No public position found yet | Opposes bans or moratoriums on data centers; supports safeguards such as closed-loop water cooling and protecting household utility customers from data center costs. | Supports making Florida a leader in small modular nuclear reactors, including thorium-powered reactors. | Supports an immediate moratorium on hyperscale data center construction until environmental impacts are studied, and greater use of clean energy by utilities. | No public position found yet |
| Health Care | Supports up-front pricing, income-based tiered payments and profit caps in health care. | No public position found yet | No public position found yet | No public position found yet | Proposes requiring hospitals and doctors to post guaranteed cash prices for the 50 most common procedures and requiring insurers to approve common treatments within three days. | No public position found yet | Supports expanding Medicaid in Florida. | Proposes a "Florida Medical Freedom Initiative" to protect informed consent and individual medical choice. |
| Taxes | Supports eliminating property taxes on homesteaded homes. | Proposes gradually increasing the homestead exemption by 10 percentage points a year after a 10-year residency period until it reaches 100%. | No public position found yet | No public position found yet | Supports Amendment 3, the November 2026 property tax measure, as a first step, and says Florida should keep its personal income tax at zero. | Supports fully abolishing property taxes on homesteaded properties and requiring governments to cut spending. | No public position found yet | No public position found yet |
| Education | No public position found yet | No public position found yet | No public position found yet | No public position found yet | Supports letting education funding follow the student to the school parents choose and keeping "partisan political theories" out of classrooms. | No public position found yet | Supports raising public school funding and teacher pay, and requiring private schools that accept vouchers to meet public school standards, with means-testing for the voucher program. | Proposes raising Florida's average teacher salary to at least $75,000 and expanding skilled trades, apprenticeships and career pathways. |
| Public Safety | Supports ending warrantless license plate reader networks and registering and penalizing data brokers. | Supports competitive pay for first responders and public workers and offering new public employees defined contribution retirement plans. | No public position found yet | No public position found yet | No public position found yet | Opposes the use of Flock license plate cameras. | No public position found yet | No public position found yet |
| Abortion | No public position found yet | No public position found yet | No public position found yet | No public position found yet | Says abortion remains an issue despite Florida's six-week abortion law, that opponents of abortion now need to win people over "with empathy — not just politics," and that as governor he would invest in pregnancy resource centers. | No public position found yet | Supports codifying the abortion-rights framework of Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey in Florida law. | No public position found yet |
| Economy & Jobs | No public position found yet | Proposes a state bullion depository, modeled on Texas, where residents could store gold, silver or platinum savings. | No public position found yet | No public position found yet | No public position found yet | No public position found yet | No public position found yet | Says Florida should attract new technology investment and prepare workers for an economy changed by AI. |
| Elections & Democracy | No public position found yet | No public position found yet | No public position found yet | Says public corruption is the greatest danger to democracy and that it would take priority in his administration. | No public position found yet | No public position found yet | Supports making it easier for citizens to place constitutional amendments on the ballot and respecting local home rule. | No public position found yet |
| Guns | No public position found yet | No public position found yet | No public position found yet | No public position found yet | Describes himself as an advocate for the Second Amendment. | No public position found yet | Supports banning the sale of assault weapons, universal background checks, exploring licensing, and preserving and expanding Florida's red flag laws. | No public position found yet |
| Immigration | No public position found yet | No public position found yet | No public position found yet | No public position found yet | Proposes requiring every Florida business to use E-Verify, cutting state benefits that he says encourage illegal immigration, and coordinating with federal authorities to deport noncitizens who commit crimes. | No public position found yet | No public position found yet | Supports public safety partnerships targeting violent criminals, traffickers and gangs, cracking down on worker exploitation and supporting legal immigration. |
| Courts & Justice | No public position found yet | No public position found yet | No public position found yet | Says he would abolish what he describes as lawfare. | No public position found yet | No public position found yet | No public position found yet | No public position found yet |




