Orlando attorney John Morgan won't say he's running for governor. But he is starting a new party
But the high-profile Florida lawyer, who is known nationally for his billboards and TV ads with his 'For the People' slogan and for getting medical marijuana and a $15 minimum wage approved in Florida, is not running, he told members of the Capital Tiger Bay Club Wednesday.
Not yet, anyway.
But he is starting his own political party.
'If there are certain people running and have a chance of being governor, it may be too much for me to bear,' Morgan said.
'There are moments when I think I could do it, but when I am in my house in Hawaii with a marijuana cigarette and a glass of rosé…' he added, letting the thought trail off.
Instead, he said, he's going to take a wait-and-see approach before deciding if he wants to enter the fray.
'I'm into horse racing,' said Morgan, who was born in Kentucky and spent most of his childhood there until his family moved to Winter Park when he was 14. 'When you go to the horse races, the horses come out, they come down the back, they come around. And when they start coming down the stretch that's when you have a good idea how that race is going to finish.'
That way it's more of a sprint than a marathon, Morgan told a gaggle of reporters after an hour-long speech peppered with anecdotes and the names of national political people he knows. 'I'd rather have a three month window than an 18-month window.'
So far, U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, a Republican from Naples, is the only major candidate to file to run for governor in 2026, when Gov. Ron DeSantis is required to step down because of term limits.
Donalds, who has been endorsed by President Donald Trump, could wind up running against First Lady Casey DeSantis should she decide to run, as has long been rumored.
Former Senate Democratic Leader Jason Pizzo of Miami, who abruptly quit the Democratic Party during the last days of the regular legislative session, has also said he would run for governor as an independent and committed to spend $25 million of his own money. In his speech announcing he would leave the party, Pizzo said the Democrats were 'dead' in Florida but also felt the GOP offered nothing.
Morgan agreed that both parties have failed Floridians, and he blamed former Tallahassee Commissioner Andrew Gillum, the unsuccessful Democratic candidate for governor in 2018, for 'smashing' the state apparatus that year. Morgan donated heavily to Gillum's campaign and got angry when he learned that Gillum left at least $2 million unspent and lost by 'a smidge' to DeSantis.
He said he didn't know Pizzo but didn't think he had the necessary name recognition to win. And besides, he said, he couldn't think of the last time an independent candidate won a statewide election in Florida.
'I don't think there's a future for just running as an independent,' Morgan said. People tend to identify with teams, he said, and there needs to be a team for those who are alienated by both Republicans and Democrats.
To that end, Morgan proposed starting a third party. But first it needs a name, so he plans to send out a notice after Memorial Day asking people to come up with a moniker for the party and award a cash prize to the winner.
Morgan ran a similar contest four years ago when he asked people to come up with a jingle for his law firm, and got bombarded with submissions. The winner worked at a bar in Altamonte Springs and got $100,000.
Morgan has the political savvy to start a statewide party. He's successfully run two statewide campaigns — investing millions of his own money into ballot initiatives to legalize medical marijuana and raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour.
'There has to be a team for all of us stuck in the middle,' Morgan said. 'There's a whole bunch of us. Maybe more of us than them to the left and the right that are stuck in the middle. Reminds me of that song, clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right.'
He's already spent the money on a consultant to help file the paperwork to start a new party, and now needs to recruit enough candidates to make it viable, he said.
'And then I want to say, 'Who wants to join?'' Morgan said. 'And look, I may turn around with a trombone and turn around and find nobody is marching behind me down Main Street. And that's OK.'
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