By Joe Murphy
Elections have consequences. As the challenges we face as a state grow, the act of voting transcends simply being a civic duty and becomes an act of survival – the survival of other species, of wild places, of cultural traditions and of places we have loved and known for generations. 2026 is a year that will demand from us full and true participation in decisions that will resonate for generations.
We must ask our candidates for public office for real solutions to daunting problems. How do we adapt to sea-level rise and climate change impacts? How do we protect human and natural communities from flooding and storm surge? How do we prepare for more intense hurricanes?
Candidates need thoughtful, strategic and realistic answers to those questions. If they do not, they do not deserve our votes or our contributions. And candidates who won’t acknowledge that climate change impacts are real and are positioned like a dagger to the heart of our economy, environment and public safety? They should not even run.
The days of the ostrich, of the denial of reality, of the repudiation of science and fact, are over. Candidates who can’t lead us into the future should fade into the past.
There are plenty of smart, talented, passionate and effective people at the local, state and federal level in public office who seek policies that will benefit Florida. But there are not enough of them. We need to add more voices to the choir.
We influence who runs for public office. We decide who we support with our dollars and our votes. We decide what we want in candidates and what answers and positions support Florida, and which ones do not. The time to start asking the tough questions, and calling for true leadership, is now.
It seems early in the year for this discussion. In fact, it is long overdue.
We have tolerated elected officials who support and facilitate growth for the sake of growth too long. We have elected candidates who magically believe that if we simply strike the words “climate change” from state policy, all will be cured. We have accepted too little from leaders who have failed to lead. We cannot do that again.
Regardless of party or ideology, regardless of social or cultural issues, we must find common ground on issues that speak to and influence our collective survival. Science is not about politics or ideology. It is science. And we ignore it at our collective peril.
I live in a rural, conservative part of Florida. I now hear regularly from my friends and neighbors, from fellow congregants and co-workers, a growing chorus of voices who wonder why Florida is changing so fast, and not for the better.
Rampant growth has not brought prosperity to most of us. It benefits developers and the elected officials who support their agenda. We end up with polluted springs, degraded fisheries, increased traffic, crowded schools, loss of green space and endless and soulless cookie-cutter subdivisions instead of communities. The profound sense of loss and betrayal is felt across the political spectrum.
We must elect candidates who understand and use the word “no” more regularly. Will this development hurt our springs? The answer to the developer’s request is “no.” Will this development fragment open space or destroy wild Florida? If so, “no” to the project.
“No” is a powerful word that simply speaks to the inherent human instinct to protect things as they are and to value the people and species who already live in a community. The Ponzi scheme of endless growth does not do that, nor does it pay for itself.
If laws thwart effective growth management and prevent climate responses grounded in adaptation and resiliency, we need to elect people willing to change the laws and seek better solutions. The system will work or fail based on our efforts to influence it.
I have lived in Florida all my life, and understand that growth will happen and that hurricanes will come. I understand change of some sort is inevitable. But surely, we can do better.
Surely, we can successfully share this amazing peninsula with all the species that creation placed here, and conserve wild places. Surely, we can find folks to run for office, and win, who seek to serve Floridians and not simply the highest bidder. Those issues hang in the balance as we move toward elections in November 2026.
If we wait for a broken system to produce another crop of candidates who will not act for all of us, we will be lost. We need to start now, ask tough questions, seek change and make democracy vibrant. Maybe, just maybe, we will create the Florida all of us deserve.
Joe Murphy is a native and lifelong Floridian who lives in the southern Nature Coast. Banner photo: A voting booth at a polling place (iStock image).
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