With Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings dropping out of the race due to health problems, former Republican U.S. Rep. David Jolly would appear the clear frontrunner in the Democratic primary for governor taking place on Aug. 18.
However, Democratic voters looking for an alternative will have choices: Five other candidates have qualified to run for the nomination. The Phoenix reached out to those three women and two men in the past week to find out more about who they are and why they’re running.
Florida state Rep. Dotie Joseph
Age: “I’d prefer not to say.” (Wikipedia lists it as 45).
Home: North Miami. Was born in Haiti and came to the United States “as a little toddler.” Spent time in Washington, D.C., after graduating from the Georgetown University Law Center.
Current job: Attorney specializing in government and business law and state representative for parts of North Miami-Dade County since 2018.
Reason for running:
“The short answer is for the people,” she said. “I want to give voters an option to vote for someone with a solid record of fighting only for them, not whomever can fill their campaign coffers. Now, that’s not a shot at Jolly, for sure. I’m just saying that, like many Floridians, I am tired of the culture wars here and into being pulled into foreign wars abroad. And when we have so much to focus on here at home, I want to focus on us. Our real need to make Florida affordable for all.”
She adds: “Some folks were really disappointed about Jerry’s exit and some were alarmed about the congressman’s record. So, it was a very short time frame to make a decision, but something needed to be done, so I decided I have quite a bit of fight left in me. I was just hoping to use the firepower elsewhere, but I offer something that no other candidate does, Democrat or Republican, and that is my experience as a legislator. My experience as a civil rights attorney. I know the issues. They’re not something that I have to research or necessarily just have to get educated on. Of course, there’s always more to learn, but I know what I would be dealing with this Republican Legislature.”
Thoughts on David Jolly:
“He seems like a nice guy; unfortunately, with all of the special sessions we’ve had in the Legislature, I have not had the opportunity to personally meet with him. What I can see is his record while he was serving as a Republican congressman, which has been pretty much the opposite on the key issues that are important to me, and what I believe is the opposite to many Floridians. So that’s how I got in the race.”
Top issues: Affordability, healthcare, and the environment.
Take on proposed constitutional amendment on property taxes?
“Well, what do property taxes fund? Well, it funds everything that you need in your local communities. Whether you’re talking about police, fire, libraries, education, all of these things. So, we see how broken Tallahassee is. My question to voters is: Do you want to have your people or you come travel to Tallahassee to beg the lawmakers up here to deal with whatever it is that you need rather than dealing with the person who’s closer and local to you? I don’t want that. I’ve seen Tallahassee function and it’s pretty corrupt. So, if you want all of your services subject to that process, then that’s your answer. If you want to maintain local control so that you can ensure that you have someone who can answer to you about whether your trash gets collected or your roads get fixed or all the things that happen at the local level, then you have a different choice to make.”
She adds: “I do support property tax exemptions, and have filed legislation for people with lower income and/or certain seniors, people with disabilities, and those kinds of things that makes sense. But for those of us who understand our role in contributing to these services that we need, imagine if we didn’t have that anymore. Imagine if you rub some Tallahassee politician the wrong way and you didn’t have the thing that you needed. Is that what we want? That’s what’s at stake on the ballot.”
How will you get your message out?
“This is not going to be a traditional campaign, in that I’m not going to be primarily focused on seeking support of large corporations, but really the people.”
Inspiration?
Jimmy Carter.
“I had the opportunity to intern for former President Jimmy Carter in Atlanta at the Carter Center, and while we were focusing on these issues in other countries, him and his wife really restored my faith in what a public servant could be. Somebody who was out there doing God’s work for the people, and not for self-aggrandizement. Not for the title. He was no longer president. So, he was there just doing it because it was the right thing to do. And he didn’t show up with a white savior complex and dismiss what other people were doing in other places. Instead, he worked with the local communities all around the world to amplify their efforts, support their efforts, to get the kind of results he got, whether we’re talking about improving drinking water, providing safe systems for electoral democratic voting, Habitat for Humanity. Teaching Sunday school. I’m the daughter of a pastor. I taught Sunday school. I was the acting youth director, so there were a lot of ways I could relate to him, where my faith was demonstrated in works. Not just in talk but in my walk, and he and his wife showed me that public service could be a way to serve in that capacity to actually help people.”
Campaign website: Dotiejoseph.com
Dayna Marie Foster
Age: 32
Home: Fort Lauderdale. Moved to South Florida from New York when she was in the second grade.
Current job: Just concluded her last year of teaching high school algebra in the Broward County public school system. Before that, she worked within the Broward County Public Library system.
Reason for running:
“My motivation for running was to make sure that we have meaningful change at that top seat within our state. And it never crossed my mind to run for local office. I stepped to the call of action because as a constituent I was doing my research last year to see what was going on within Florida politics and because our state is in — for lack of better wording — such a mess.
Why not run for a local office on your first crack at electoral politics?
“There is meaningful work that’s being done at the local level. I will never disregard any of our mayors, commissioners for any of the districts across our state. But I believe that there is something bigger that needs to be addressed. I think there is an opportunity to have a redefining moment within our politics of it all, to put one of our own, meaning a working-class citizen of our state into that top position, where I’m well versed in all things financially related as well as public policy from my educational background.”
Thoughts on David Jolly?
“I entered the race last summer because I did not see a leader that I could stand with and get behind. And so, I became the leader that I was looking for, and every day I’m becoming the leader that a lot of the people, especially within the Democratic base, are looking for. I like to say that I’m the candidate that the people have built. And, along this journey, I’ve listened to people’s stories of whether it’s struggle or triumph, hearing their concerns, seeing tangible what they are seeking out of not just their next governor, but also the state government as a whole. As a Democrat, it is very concerning to have seen someone as a former Republican switch their party — What was it? Two or three months before he actually filed his paperwork to run for governor?”
“There is a time and a place for everything. Right now, we are in the Democratic primaries. He changed his party to become a Democrat. You have to mobilize and inspire our base. And, right now, at least the latest polls that I have seen a few months ago, over 50% of our base is not inspired by anyone, right? For me, my biggest obstacle is the name recognition and exposure. But when people meet myself as a candidate or they are exposed to the campaign, they automatically align and they say, ‘This is what we’ve been looking for,’ and, ‘This is what we’ve been waiting for.’”
Top issues:
Affordability, gun safety, immigrant rights, housing. Everglades restoration.
Take on constitutional amendment on property taxes?
“I don’t support it at all, whatsoever. I’m an educator, so I know first hand how my salary comes from the revenue generated from property taxes; so do the salaries for our police officers, our firefighters, and other essential services, as well across all municipalities. We’re seeing local governments scramble just in case to have to plan for how to mitigate this loss in revenue, and they honestly don’t know what to do. City managers are calling emergency meetings and things of that nature, and so there is obviously a need to have property tax reform, but the elimination of it is not the answer.”
How will you get your message out?
“We are relying a lot on community engagement, we are working with community leaders that are embedded into the advocacy and activism of the betterment of our state. We’re also utilizing the digital platform as well to meet young people where they are, too, because everybody has a phone in their hand.”
Inspirations?
“Shirley Chisholm absolutely has been an inspiration for me because, despite only being a teacher, she was able to get voted into Congress without any political experience [Chisholm did serve four years in the New York Assembly], and then from there she made a presidential bid [in 1972]. It might be a little cliché, but Obama has also been an inspiration as well. I think he is someone who is one in a billion, because he’s able to resonate with so many people across the country. But what it really is, is a sense of genuine care and authenticity, and those are things that cannot be bought and it doesn’t matter how much money you have in your war chest. If you’re not real, the people will absolutely feel it, and they will not gravitate towards you.”
Campaign website: FosterforFlorida.com.
Evelyn Castillo-Bach
Age: 74
Home: Pembroke Pines. Grew up in NYC. Moved from Bosnia to South Florida with her husband in 1998 and has been there ever since.
Current job: Criminal justice reform advocate, executive director of the Balanced Justice Network (an organization created in response to what she says was “the unlawful conviction” of her son).
Reason for running?
“I have been a registered independent voter for most of my adult life. I am running as a Democrat to bring that independence to work for the people of this state. I believe every Floridian deserves to live without fear of losing their home, fear of not being able to feed their children, fear of going bankrupt because they got sick.”
Why governor and not another elected office when you’ve never run for any elected office?
“It’s about leadership. It’s about being in the position where one can most directly have an impact on the lives of ordinary people, without hopefully having to sort of climb the political machine. I’m not a political person. I’m not a political machine person. I’m an independent voter most of my adult life and I never imagined running for office. But given that there are these forces that want to convert Florida into the spear of something very negative, I felt compelled to step and do something.
Thoughts on David Jolly?
“I am sure that David Jolly is a nice man. He has a nice family, beautiful children, God Bless, but you know I listen to him and I go, ‘What?‘ It’s precisely because of people like him that I am running.
“He has [raised] some money, but what are you doing with it? What do you represent? What is your message? I don’t see or hear you addressing the concerns of ordinary people. I hear nibbling around the edges of stuff, but ordinary people don’t — we need a leader who has true solutions, innovative solutions, some new ideas, as opposed to your standard, stereotypical robotic politician perspective.”
Top issues:
Affordability, healthcare, protecting the Everglades.
Take on proposed constitutional amendment on property taxes?
“The devil is in the details, okay?… Why the emphasis on taxes rather than home insurance? From my perspective, you’re not going to touch property insurance because now you’re going to be dealing with corporate interests and special interests, right? So, let’s make believe we’re going to do something for ordinary people, which sounds appealing, and cut their taxes, okay? Yeah, but what do property taxes support? They support the services that we as ordinary people count on. So, on the one hand say you’re going to eliminate the property tax but now on the other hand we have to pay for these services somehow. And we still have the issue of extravagant home insurance. The real issue is property insurance.”
“It hurts ordinary people and the thing is I’m for helping ordinary people, not for hurting ordinary people. We should do things to control the issue of property taxes but the real problem is property insurance. It’s crazy.”
How will you get your message out?
“Talking to people and getting the word out, people to people. I’m running a shoestring budget here. By conventional standards, it’s laughable, but you know what? People vote, and I believe by meeting people in your communities, small numbers, whenever they invite me, and by the way, the invitations have gone way up now that I’m officially on the ballot.”
Inspiration to run?
“If I had to pick somebody, it would have to be [James] Talarico [the Democratic candidate for Senate in Texas]. He’s real, he’s authentic, he speaks truth to power. And he’s centered in values, in goodness without trying to convert people. And I respect the man for that.”
Campaign website: Evelynforgovernor.org.
Thomas Fernandez
Age: 49
Home: Homestead. Was born in Cuba and came to the United States via the Mariel boatlift in 1980. Raised in the Bronx before moving to Florida in 1997.
Current job: Retired Air Force medical technician. Now a community advocate.
Reason for running?
He calls his campaign “NOVA” — Navigating Our Vision Ahead. He says he wants to protect families from the everyday “what ifs” — rising costs, sudden healthcare needs, and gaps in childcare and education.
“The more I engage with the communities, you know, I’m looking around and I’m seeing people who raised their own family utilizing Section 8 programs and never once realizing that Section 8 offers a path for homeownership. And like this information and these opportunities are there for someone who is working. Providing for their family. Contributing to the community and contributing to the economy, rather than letting them know that they have this opportunity to better themselves to further progress and to thrive. It’s better to just keep them there under the status quo and that to me is like, “Huh?’ A little bit of information can go a long way, and sometimes when people are in crisis, they don’t realize but there’s resources, we can help out. We’re here to help one another.”
Why governor and not another elected office when you haven’t run for anything previously?
“Because governor is a position that would offer the most effective change.”
How will you get your message out?
“It’s a people-driven campaign. I was lucky enough to come home and get stationed at Eglin Air Force Base near Fort Walton Beach. So, I have friends and family throughout Florida. Literally across the state, I’m planning on driving across the state, meeting them where they’re at.”
Your thoughts on David Jolly?
“Yes, he’s a fellow Democrat. He has views on moving Florida forward and everything. I was lucky enough to hear him speak recently.”
Top issues:
Housing affordability/cost of living.
“A lot of people come here to retire, and the cost of living keeps on going up. But your income? If you’re living on a fixed income, your income doesn’t go up, but your cost of living goes up. Your bills go up. When I look around and I’m looking at young kids going to school and working two jobs and going to school.’
Take on proposed constitutional amendment on property taxes?
“It’s easy to vote for it and it’s easy to say, ‘Yes, I can see how this benefits me.’ That’s what we’re advertising, but you know what, there’s a Catch-22. We need to look at the other side and that comes with educating and advertising something that, when we cherry pick what message we want to send out, we’re going to go for the ones that support our agenda and our views.
Stephann Norman
Age: 31
Lives: In Tampa.
Current job: Volunteering in the Tampa Bay area community.
Reason for running?
“I’m running for governor to change the game. I was actually thinking about how to best to impact my state and the people around me.”
“I wake up every day, and I talk to people all the time, and I see that a lot of people are really hurting in the state, when it comes down to healthcare and education and just living overall in the state of Florida. So, I was doing that while I was praying about it and looking for someone else to do it for me, the Lord spoke to me and said, ‘Why not you?”
How will get your message out?
“The answer is the media. The media will put me on television.”
“The second part of the question to answer is going out and being with the people. Knocking on doors. Mailing out my fliers and letting people know that I’m here and letting people know that they have a better option than the option that’s presented before them.”
Your thoughts on David Jolly?
“He was a Republican for over 10 years, and then he became an independent and then he became a Democrat, just in time to run for governor of Florida. What that means is that, number one, you don’t really any real identity. I think that the most important thing that I’m running on is authenticity. I think that in order for you to get people to buy into what you’re selling when it comes to running for office, you have to believe it yourself in order for it to actually be real for people to actually buy into it so it can become tangible for them.”
“As we have seen with Democrats like John Fetterman, people who are moderate tend to lean Republican, and I think that it’s sad that as a person who is running a Democratic ticket how we are now looking for leadership from Republicans. So, it’s like we get rid of one Republican as governor to try to replace him with another. That doesn’t make sense.”
Your inspiration to run for office?
My mom, God, and Barack Obama.
Obama’s election “lets me know that anything is possible, and that the offices of the president and the representatives of the government cannot just be one way or one color or one creed.”
Top issues:
Reducing the rent in Florida; healthcare and education.
“Rent in Florida has skyrocketed over the last five years, for sure. And it’s one of those things to where it’s very important for people to understand that having a good quality place to live that’s affordable is possible in this state because it was possible before. Under DeSantis, that’s when things started to really skyrocket. So, I want people to understand that we can bring the prices down, because a lot of people are leaving Florida because they can no longer afford to live here. And that’s money that we’re just allowing to fly out the window. And the other thing is seniors are leaving in droves, as well. It makes a huge difference.”
On healthcare: He’s pushing for Medicaid expansion.
Education: “I feel like with what’s going on right now, children are being taught how to think, and they’re not being taught that they should be able to think for themselves, critically. And that’s very important. And teacher pay as well does need to come up….We also have a teacher shortage, as well, but to also make sure that everybody is covered around the board when it comes down to the understanding that providing a quality education should also be a livable career in Florida. “
Take on proposed constitutional amendment on property taxes?
“I think it’s a ‘no’ for me.”
“One thing that I understand is that if it’s going to take away money from all of our services, providing for electric services as well as water and sanitation and our police and our firemen and people — social services, really. The issue is [DeSantis] has not put out a plan in order to actually get that money back, and so what that means is that I think everybody now has a understanding is that he wants to make it seem like it’s a good idea, but everybody thinks it’s a good idea, until God forbid you have an emergency and you call 9-1-1 and you get a busy signal, or God forbid you have a fire somewhere but nobody comes out to put it out. Those people make a huge difference.
Campaign website: sn4flgovernor.org.
