Shea Cruel

Shea Cruel

Republican Party

Candidate, Governor of Florida

Elections and appointments

Next election

August 18, 2026

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Shea Cruel (Republican Party) is running for election for Governor of Florida. He declared candidacy for the Republican primary scheduled on August 18, 2026.

Cruel completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2026. Click here to read the survey answers.

Elections

2026

See also: Florida gubernatorial and lieutenant gubernatorial election, 2026

General election

The primary will occur on August 18, 2026. The general election will occur on November 3, 2026. Additional general election candidates will be added here following the primary.

General election for Governor of Florida

The following candidates are running in the general election for Governor of Florida on November 3, 2026.

		Candidate
		Brandon L. McIntyre (Constitution Party)
		Scott Jewett (L)
	Submit photo	Surindar Bedi (No Party Affiliation)
	Submit photo	James Brown (No Party Affiliation)
	Submit photo	Jeffrey Peter Datto (No Party Affiliation)
		Moliere Dimanche (No Party Affiliation)
	Submit photo	Insley Evans (No Party Affiliation)
		Kyle Gibson (No Party Affiliation)
		Neil Gillespie (No Party Affiliation)
	Submit photo	Mourice Hylton (No Party Affiliation)
	Submit photo	Holly Klask (No Party Affiliation)
		Andrea Lynn Klink (No Party Affiliation)
		Jason Pizzo (No Party Affiliation)
	Submit photo	Frank J. Russo (No Party Affiliation)
	Submit photo	David Wexler (No Party Affiliation)
	Submit photo	Reginald Strachan (Independent)
		Rodney Glover (No Party Affiliation) (Write-in)

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	There are no incumbents in this race.
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Governor of Florida

The following candidates are running in the Democratic primary for Governor of Florida on August 18, 2026.

		Candidate
	Submit photo	Faith E. Antonio
		Evelyn Castillo-Bach
		Richard Dembinsky
		Jerry Demings
		Thomas E. Fernandez
		Dayna Foster
	Submit photo	Indony Jean Baptiste
		David Jolly
		Charles Lewis I
	Submit photo	Donald Peterson
	Submit photo	Christopher Powell
	Submit photo	Jessica Vernekar

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	There are no incumbents in this race.
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Republican primary election

Republican primary for Governor of Florida

The following candidates are running in the Republican primary for Governor of Florida on August 18, 2026.

		Candidate
	Submit photo	William Todd Andros
		Jay Collins
		Shea Cruel
	Submit photo	Jenny Patricia Curtman
		Byron Donalds
		James Fishback
	Submit photo	Jim Holcomb
	Submit photo	Daniel Imperato
		John Joseph Mercadante
		William Reicherter
		Paul Renner
	Submit photo	Rachel Rodriguez
	Submit photo	Caneste Succe
		Bobby Williams Jr.

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	There are no incumbents in this race.
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Matt The Welder (R)

Endorsements

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Campaign themes

2026

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Shea Cruel completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2026. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Cruel's responses.

Expand all | Collapse all

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• Improving Teacher Pay/Education -Florida can afford first rate public schools. The reason we don’t have them is because we too often refuse to invest in keeping first-rate teachers, counselors and educators. Our future depends on a talented workforce. All high school graduates should be able to go to college/technical school, get a good paying job or join the military. Our teachers deserve a salary that reflects the hard work they put into educating our children
• Lowering Insurance Rates -Car insurance rates in Florida have experienced significant increases in recent years Currently Florida has the 4th highest car insurance rates in the U.S.. And ur homeowners insurance is through the roof with no signs of coming down. Enough is enough
• Care For Our Veterans - Every night, thousands of our veterans who served our country sleep on the streets of Florida. As a veteran, I find this unacceptable. No one who wore our nations uniform should ever be allowed to fall through cracks of our system

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

As a licensed mental health therapist I am passionate about improving our states mental health awareness. As a follower of Christ, I am passionate about following His teachings and preachings and helping the people of Florida who are struggling including single parents, our youth, middle class families and the elderly

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

Campaign finance summary

Campaign finance information for this candidate is not yet available from OpenSecrets. That information will be published here once it is available.

See also

2026 Elections

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Governor of Florida

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Footnotes

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