Republican gubernatorial candidate Paul Renner addressed about 20 women at the Northwest Orange Republican Women, Federated (NORWF) luncheon on Thursday, sharing his political background and campaign platform.  

“Growing up as a pastor’s kid, with a mom who was a public school teacher, I had a lot of public service in the DNA, I guess you’d say, in growing up, learning to put service above self,” Renner said. “I’ll call balls and strikes as I see them, stand up for capital ‘T’ truth when it comes to our conservative values, and win.” 

Renner’s background includes experience as a Navy veteran, former assistant state attorney, former speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, and more to his campaign. Initially, though, he was content to refrain from running for governor, saying he was satisfied with his run as speaker from 2022 to 2024. 

“I was very happy not running for office,” Renner said. “But looking at and knowing the candidates who were in or might be in — frankly, I wasn’t going to sit on the couch, or I didn’t want to sit on the couch and see a slow-motion car crash where you have someone who’s more transactional who’s not, in my opinion, qualified or fit to be governor. So I started praying about it with a bias really against it, like ‘You gotta make this really clear to me.’” 

Renner said an encounter with a guest at last year’s Apopka Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast helped him make his final decision. 

“I felt like he was going to speak to me about the governor’s race,” Renner said. “Sure enough, he came to me and said, ‘I was praying Monday and felt I should tell you that you ought to consider running for governor.’” 

In his effort to persuade the audience, Renner especially emphasized his fiscal accomplishments as speaker of the House, including balancing the budget and paying off debt ahead of time. Renner said decreases in property taxes, utility rates, and healthcare costs would be among his top priorities should he win the election. 

“The first order of business has to be, I believe, for the next governor, affordability and bringing down the cost of things as much as we can, and that means going after property taxes and bringing those down,” Renner said. “We have people on a fixed income who are leaving the state after being here for 30-plus years because they can no longer afford to live here. That will be my day one priority.” 

Renner also discussed stricter punishment for sex traffickers and predators in Florida, noting that “200,000 people in Florida are estimated to be trafficked for sex every year, and half of them are minors.” 

“People will spend, on average, over 30 years on death row,” Renner said. “A person who raped and murdered a 6-year-old girl was on death row for [46] years, and I think that’s a slap in the face of every victim’s family to grow old and die before they ever see justice. We’llhave a three-year appeal process, and that’s it.” 

He also praised current Gov. Ron DeSantis for his activist approach to the role of governor and his commitment to going beyond the “job description.” 

“This governor has done a good job of really leaning in and being more aggressive on things that matter than a lot of other Republican governors,” Renner said. “He was really getting after things like amendments three and four, the pot and abortion amendments.” 

Ultimately, Renner said he hopes to maintain Florida’s status as a “beacon” for other states. 

“We have been the model for so many other states, and so that’s why I say you cannot hand off the state of Florida, the third largest state in America,” Renner said. 

The Florida primary election is scheduled for Aug. 18. The general election will take place Nov. 3. Other notable candidates includeOrange County mayor Jerry Demings and former Congressman David Jolly on the Democratic side, and Congressman Byron Donalds on the Republican side.