What are the top issues in the 2026 Florida elections?

TAMPA, Fla. — About one year from today, on Aug. 18, 2026, Florida candidates for elected office will face voters for the first time.

The field is far from set, and much remains uncertain. For example, U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds is early favorite in the Republican gubernatorial primary. But major potential candidates like First Lady Casey DeSantis are still weighing a run.

Still, up and down the ballot, candidates who’ve officially entered the field are already coalescing around a few key issues they think will resonate with voters. Here’s a breakdown.

Affordability

No matter what they’re running for, essentially every candidate agrees that Florida has gotten too expensive.

Some Democrats have said the state is slipping out of reach for the working class because Republican leaders have chosen well heeled business interests over everyday Floridians. In an interview Thursday in Tampa, Democratic attorney general hopeful José Javier Rodriguez, a former state senator, said he would go after big businesses like property insurers and utilities if they are found to be bilking consumers.

“That’s the attorney general’s job, to protect the people and protect the state when they’re getting scammed and screwed,” said Rodriguez, a Miami attorney.

Rodriguez lost his state Senate race in 2020 by 32 votes. In that campaign, Republican operatives paid a candidate with his same last name to run in an attempt to confuse voters.

Other Democrats have criticized their Republican opponents for contributing to policies they say will make life less affordable for everyday Floridians.

Darren McAuley is challenging Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Laurel Lee for a congressional seat that spans parts of Hillsborough, Pasco and Polk. In an interview last month, McAuley said Lee should be pushing back on President Donald Trump’s trade tariffs.

Republicans have defended their record. Lee’s campaign said the tariffs are correcting an international trade system that has for too long put American workers at a disadvantage.

Congressional Republican hopefuls are also running on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a sweeping law signed by Trump which cut taxes and slashed clean energy tax credits, among many other provisions.

Republicans have attributed Florida’s affordability issues to former president Joe Biden. During the Biden administration, the country saw a post-pandemic spike in prices.

In Florida, the inflation crisis was particularly acute. Republicans up and down the ballot are pledging to get the economy moving in the right direction again. For them, Trump’s tax cuts are the start.

Insurance

A major driver of Florida’s affordability crisis is its property insurance market. A series of hurricanes and the 2021 condominium collapse in Surfside left homeowners around the state with massive extra monthly charges on top of their mortgages.

Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration says the insurance market is headed in the right direction, with more companies headed into the state. But candidates from both parties say there’s much more to be done. A July survey of nearly 800 voters by the University of North Florida’s Public Opinion Research Lab found that property insurance is the top issue for Republican primary voters.

In the governor’s race, the Donalds campaign has said the Biden-era inflation is to blame for the current rates. In a statement, Donalds’ chief campaign strategist Ryan Smith said Donalds will release a detailed insurance proposal in the coming months “that brings more capital and competition to Florida’s market, prevents frivolous litigation, rewards home hardening, and also ensures that consumers’ claims are promptly paid.”

Former U.S. Rep. David Jolly, the leading Democratic candidate for governor, says the reason property insurance is so expensive is that homeowners must be insured against hurricanes. He wants to create a massive statewide catastrophe fund that would cover homeowners’ losses from hurricanes — essentially separating the hurricane insurance market from the rest of the property insurance market.

A similar fund already exists on a smaller scale. Private insurers pay into a catastrophe fund, and get paid out when they incur heavy losses after a storm. Jolly wants to greatly expand the fund over the course of several years to the point where it can pay out claims to individual consumers.

“Republicans have already set up the hurricane catastrophe fund,” Jolly said. “I just want to make it work.”

Guns

The 2026 governor’s race has barely begun, but Jolly and Donalds have already sparred over firearms. In a July MSNBC appearance, Jolly said “the ability of anybody to buy a gun is absolutely foolish.” (His campaign noted he was talking about how the Second Amendment should have room for reasonable regulations.)

Donalds’ campaign blasted the clip far and wide, underscoring the candidates’ differing views.

Far from being critical of easy access to guns, Donalds is running on his vote in 2018 against the gun control bill that passed in Florida in the wake of the Parkland school shooting. That bill raised the minimum age to buy firearms to 21, among other provisions.

Michael Binder, the faculty director of UNF’s Public Opinion Research Lab, said culture war issues like guns will likely only get candidates so far — particularly for Republicans.

“It’s hard to gin up your base about that sort of thing when you’re in power,” Binder said.

Immigration

In the University of North Florida poll from July, immigration ranked just behind housing and property insurance for Republicans. It’s sure to be a focal point of the attorney general race in particular. Rodriguez, the Democrat, is calling for a system of deliberate due process while removing people who are in the country illegally.

His Republican opponent, incumbent James Uthmeier, who was appointed by DeSantis, has been credited with coming up with the name for the splashy, hastily constructed and expensive Alligator Alcatraz detention facility.

Immigration is also certain to factor in congressional races. Republican incumbents in Florida voted to boost immigration spending by tens of billions of dollars via the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Democrats have opposed the state’s immigration measures, saying they go too far, and are not actually geared toward public safety. (Despite a massive increase in illegal immigration under Biden, the FBI reported this week that the reported rates of murder, rape, aggravated assault and robbery all fell last year compared to the year prior.)

Redistricting

On Thursday, Florida’s Republican House Speaker, Daniel Perez said he was forming a Select Committee on Congressional Redistricting. It’s not necessarily a campaign issue, but redistricting is sure to shape the 2026 election season if it happens.

It’s unclear whether Florida’s Republican lawmakers will try to redraw the state’s Congressional maps — or if they do, to what extent they will try to give their party an advantage in 2026. (There’s some question about how much better Republicans can do in Florida; the party already holds 71% of Congressional seats in a state Trump won with 56% of the vote.)

But redistricting could become a major theme in 2026 — particularly if it jeopardizes the future of U.S. Representatives who thought they served in safe seats.

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