This story is part of a statewide partnership of more than 30 nonpartisan newsrooms and universities working to help Florida voters make informed decisions in the 2026 elections. Learn more about the Florida Elections Reporting Partnership at floridaelections.org.
Daytona Beach, Fla – Florida Senate District 8 candidates from Volusia County all agree on lowering the cost of living, yet all have very different approaches.
In a Central Florida Senate district that has historically voted firmly red according to DATAUSA, Republican Jake Johannson is facing off against Democrat Judy Ngying and Libertarian Gabriel Wozniak for the open District 8 seat. The district covers the entirety of Volusia County, a hybrid of urban progression in Daytona Beach and suburban life to the west towards DeLand.
A main concern within the district is the statewide matter of the cost of living, including prices for housing, utilities and gas, and funding for public schools and first responders.
The Candidates
Candidates Jake Johannson and Gabriel Wozniak spoke directly with The Florida Trib. Judy Ngying agreed to an interview on multiple occasions but didn’t respond at the scheduled times, although she did answer a couple of questions via email.
Jake Johannson represents the Republican Party and has 35 years of service with the Navy, five years as the Port Orange city manager, and is the current Volusia County Councilmember at large, elected in 2022. He’s up against Democrat Judy Ngying, a public-school teacher with 28 years of experience in Volusia and Seminole counties.
Representing the Libertarian Party is Gabriel Wozniak, a 31-year-old Daytona Beach native with a master’s degree in hospitality and tourism from UCF.
All three candidates agree that the cost of living in their district is simply too high, yet all three have different approaches. Johannson said that instead of lowering costs so everyone can live the same, the next generation should pursue higher-paying jobs, provided by new businesses in the county like Aura Arrow, Boeing, and SpaceX at NASA. While not against higher education and college degrees, Johannson plans to promote trade schools and other viable options as a cheaper alternative to higher education.
According to her website, Ngying advocates paying public school teachers more by reanalyzing the 20-plus laws on teacher salary that the state has in place over local school boards. “Stop the tax breaks to corporations and billionaires,” Ngying wrote in an email, “Put education before that.”
She also promotes reducing utility rates and lowering prescription drug prices while opposing Florida’s Amendment 3, arguing it’s a deceptive tax shift that will force local government to hike their own prices.
Wozniak counters both candidates by saying to, “cut the red tape” as a way to encourage small businesses operations and give business an incentive to operate in District 8, a “terribly represented market” as described by Wozniak. Of note in Wozniak’s list of advocacies is his Florida Main Street Freedom Act, a bill he hopes to pass if elected to office. Wozniak said he plans to utilize this bill to level the economic playing field for local small business up against multinational corporations in many of Volusia County’s small towns. Wozniak said this push for small business will economically drive more areas on a community level, while also being in favor of Florida’s Amendment 3. Wozniak clarified that he does not support property taxes, and said he hopes to abolish them. “If you bought the property, it’s yours,” Wozniak said, “You don’t have to rent it from the government until you die.”
Johannson promotes a mix of construction of more affordable housing and building business incentives to provide higher-paying jobs. He said using a mix of higher wages and more affordable housing will encourage each type of development to grow, and not lead to an imbalance of the two. While he does say he’ll fight for the protection of rural spaces, Johannson does plan to combat NIMBY (Not in My Back Yard, as a way to streamline the process of providing more homes for “working-class residents, like teachers and first responders, not unemployed meth-heads.”
Ngying, via her Facebook page, posted for heavier state budget allocations toward rebuilding Florida’s “crumbling infrastructure,” including roads, bridges, and aging public schools. She believes this will create stable union jobs and inject some money directly back into the pockets of local taxpayers. She also advocates for a boost in compensation of public-school employees. She argues that paying teachers and school personnel a livable wage could stabilize some families and communities as a whole. The higher wages would come from a revaluation of existing state education revenues and making state money more exclusive to the public school system, directly to fund salaries.
Wozniak favors the sweeping property tax relief of Amendment 3 to protect residents from being priced out of their homes. Of note for Wozniak too is tackling rising compensation of public officials. “I have a problem when general goods only get more expensive, and the government only gets bigger,” said Wozniak. He also pushes for more universal education programs, like ESAs (Education Savings Accounts). This would allow state funding to follow a student, not the public school system, enabling families of all incomes to access private, charter, or home-schooling without much financial friction.
Despite all three candidates having very different views and approaches to implement in District 8 if elected, they agree that Volusia and Brevard Counties should have less expensive places to live. The District 8 elections will occur on voting day, November 3, with early voting ending October 31.
