Florida's two gubernatorial nominees are headed to the same room in Fort Lauderdale later this month, but they won't be sharing a stage. Democratic nominee David Jolly and Republican nominee Byron Donalds will each sit for separate moderated conversations about their economic priorities on September 23 at the Downtown Event Center, as part of WLRN's inaugural Sunshine Economy Summit.
The format is notable given the tension that's already surfaced between the two campaigns. As reported by WLRN, the event is built around individual interviews rather than a head-to-head debate. That structure comes just weeks after the Tampa Tiger Bay Club said Donalds had declined a planned joint appearance with Jolly in early September, a claim the Donalds campaign disputed, arguing no such joint event had actually been confirmed, according to Hoodline's earlier report on the scheduling dispute.
WLRN CEO and special correspondent Tom Hudson, who will host the summit, framed the stakes in plain terms. “The economy is not abstract. It is the cost of a home, the future of a business and whether people can build a life here,” Hudson said, per the outlet's report. The summit marks the relaunch of Hudson's long-running program The Sunshine Economy, which aired for a decade starting in 2013 before going dark in 2023 and is now returning to public radio and podcasting with this event as its formal kickoff.
A Governor's Race Still Very Much Up for Grabs
The candidates arrive at the summit with a genuinely competitive race behind them. Donalds, who has represented Florida's 19th Congressional District since 2021 after four years in the state House, won the Republican nomination on August 18 with 47.8% of the vote in a crowded ten-candidate field, according to NPR. Jolly, a former Republican congressman who represented the Tampa Bay area's 13th District from 2014 to 2017, left the GOP in 2018 and registered as a Democrat in April 2025 ahead of launching his campaign, per his Wikipedia profile.
A Change Research poll fielded September 7-9 among 1,107 likely Florida voters found Jolly narrowly ahead of Donalds, 47% to 44%, in a survey sponsored by Freedom Project USA. That closeness sets up the summit's separate interviews as one of the more closely watched public appearances for either candidate before the general election, with panel moderators expected to press each nominee on insurance costs, local tax structures and economic growth.
Insurance Costs Cooling, But Housing Still Squeezes Buyers
The summit's economic backdrop has shifted in ways likely to shape the candidate interviews. Florida's Office of Insurance Regulation reported property insurance rate decreases in 51 of the state's 67 counties this year, a turnaround tied to 2022 and 2023 tort reform laws that cut Florida's share of national homeowners litigation from 79% in 2020 to 41% in 2025, according to a report from Momentum Realty. Citizens Property Insurance, the state's insurer of last resort, won regulatory approval for an average 8.7% statewide rate reduction this year — its first decrease since 2015 — as its active policy count fell from a peak of 1.4 million in October 2023 to fewer than 400,000, per Insurify.
Housing affordability tells a starker story. A May study by ConsumerAffairs found Miami-area homebuyers need roughly $169,168 in annual household income to afford a median-priced home under standard 28% income-to-housing-cost guidelines, ranking the metro among the nation's most cost-prohibitive markets alongside Naples. On the rental side, nearly half of Florida renter households — 49.4% — are cost-burdened, spending more than 30% of gross income on rent, according to a housing analysis cited by the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency that points to post-pandemic population inflows outpacing service-sector wage growth.
Developers and Aviation Executives Round Out the Lineup
Beyond the political headliners, the summit's agenda leans heavily on real estate and industry voices grappling with those same pressures. Related Group president and CEO Jon Paul Pérez, along with Merrimac Ventures managing partners Dev Motwani and Nitin Motwani, are slated to discuss the cost of capital amid rising interest rates and Canadian tariffs affecting home and condo construction, while all three will separately examine pressures facing buyers and renters. HEICO executive Victor H. Mendelson and Willis Lease Finance Corp. CEO Austin C. Willis will address aviation investment and higher-paying jobs, a topic given real-world weight by Coconut Creek-based Willis Lease's August agreement to acquire a $118 million, 375,000-square-foot corporate campus in Broward County for its headquarters, maintenance and engine storage operations.
Local officials will also weigh in on the forces shaping the region's tax base and workforce. Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean J. Trantalis, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, Doral Mayor Christi Fraga and Lake Worth Beach Mayor Betty Resch are set to explore connections between local government property tax revenues, economic development and immigration's effects on the workforce and business community. Florida Panthers president of business operations Michael White will examine the economic impact of sports, major events and tourism, while philanthropist Jorge M. Pérez and Community Foundation of Broward president and CEO Jennifer O'Flannery Anderson will discuss the role of charitable investment in closing economic gaps.
Where and How to Attend
The Sunshine Economy Summit is presented by the Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance, whose president and CEO, Bob Swindell, said the organization is proud to present WLRN's inaugural event because “today's conversations are vital to the local economy.” Panels will be moderated by WLRN Palm Beach County reporter Wilkine Brutus and Florida Roundup host Carlton Gillespie.
The summit runs September 23 at the Downtown Event Center, located at 416 NE 1st Street in Fort Lauderdale, with lunch included for registered guests. Sponsors include gold sponsor Kaufman Rossin, silver sponsors Baptist Health, Coastal Construction and FPL, and bronze sponsors JM Family Enterprises, McGrath & Gayle CPA LLC and UBS, along with a slate of table sponsors including Broward County's Office of Economic and Small Business Development and Florida International University's Jorge M. Pérez Metropolitan Center. Registration, ticket and table information is available through WLRN, and media seeking credentials are directed to contact Giselle Reid at [email protected].
