Candidate Profile: Dr. Carlos Johary Sr.

Longwood dentist, real estate investor and pilot Dr. Carlos Johary, Sr. is challenging incumbent State Rep. Doug Bankson for the House District 39 seat in the Aug. 18 Republican Primary. The district includes Winter Garden and Apopka and part of Seminole County. State representatives serve for two years and earn $29,697 annually.

“I’m not really running against him,” Johary told VoxPopuli in an extended interview. “I just feel the calling that I should do something.”

Johary, 64, who owns seven dental practices and the Apopka Airport, is wagering that Bankson may leave the State House after this term and he wants to be in position to step up. (VoxPopuli is unaware of any plans Bankson has to vacate his seat.)

“I'm leaving this earth one day. So why shouldn't I try to make it a little bit better? I've spent most of my life doing things for me. Why can't I spend the remainder of my life doing it for my children and their children and for other people?” he said.

Johary, whose mother is Lebanese and father is Egyptian, told VoxPopuli he voted for President Donald Trump twice and leans Republican on most issues, but may vote Democratic “depend[ing] on the issue.”

“I have the flexibility and an open-mindedness that I can vote on the left side or right side of the aisle,” he said.

And he made a point of saying, he can’t be bought.

“I don't need money. I'm definitely not doing this for the pennies they pay their politicians in Tallahassee. I'm not doing it for money. I'm not doing it for power. I could care less about power.

“I just see our country is not what it used to be. People are struggling economically, socially. It seems like if you're wealthy and you're popular, you get off with murder. And if you have a lot of money, you can buy anything you want, and you can get into any election, any position that you want. I don't want to do that. I'm running as a free-spirited guy that would like to make a change.”

Here, Johary answers questions from VoxPopuli and the News Collaborative of Central Florida.

If elected, what are the three most pressing problems you want to address, and what do you suggest to solve them?

Keeping green space. You have to balance that we got a growing state, a lot of people are influxing in. You gotta provide homes for them. So in other words, build taller buildings and conserve the green space around it versus wiping out all your green space and building all these homes. Florida is already so many feet underwater. We're going to be sinking one day. We're under sea level, basically, so it just takes Antarctica to have some ice melt, and our beaches will be gone. Don't say it can't happen because I believe in the changing of the atmosphere and global [warming], the warming of the atmosphere.

Homelessness and hunger. Why do we have so many people on the streets homeless, hungry? That's shameful. We're in America. We shouldn't have that.

Reducing taxes. We charge so much taxes for everything. Why do they go back and charge taxing on food? They took it away many years ago, and they brought it back. You shouldn't charge people tax on food.

The thing that really upsets me is the lottery. We had money for education, and it was government money that went toward education. Then they said for so long, Let's have a lottery. Nobody wanted the lottery. Nobody wanted gambling. They always find a way to eventually get that in there. In the state of Florida, gambling was only allowed by the Seminole Indian tribe for so long, and politicians always have a way of working year after year after year to try to slide things in and break laws and create new ones.

So they said, Okay, we passed the lottery. That money goes to education. I thought the lottery money will be on top of the government money for education so we’d end up with a lot more money for education. They didn't do that. The lottery money replaced the government money for education. So we're still in the same situation, but now we got lotteries passed and gambling passed. They took that education money, used it somewhere else. I just thought that was crooked, it was sneaky and that was not what I had envisioned

Why do you deserve to be elected?

I’m a different kind of candidate. It's my word that means everything, and I'm very ethical. So why not me? I have experience in everything but state politics. I've been a donor for scholarships for students going to college since 1996. My dad was an educated man, really into education, so all of his children are educated. We’re all doctors and dentists and professionals. We're honest. We're church-abiding people, good Christian people. We love one another. We attend church, take care of people, look after people, [are] very sympathetic. You vote for me, you're voting for honesty.

I won't get into a bashing against my opponent, who for all intent (sic) and purposes, is more qualified just because of the experience level. But I could say something, one thing [that’s] negative. A pastor in politics — that makes someone question or look at things a little different, because pastors are real religious. They got their views that they go accordingly with. But when you start throwing other kinds of issues at them, like abortion, it could be quite challenging. It could raise eyebrows.

Where do you stand on abortion?

I am torn between it. Put it this way, there's no easy answer on this one, and I'm gonna get attacked from left or right no matter what my answer is. It's a woman's body. She should have every right to determine the fate of what comes out of her body without violating laws. In other words, if you're going to have sex, you should be prepared for the consequences, and you need to be careful and be more of an adult, a responsible adult, and protect yourself so you don't have a child by accident.

I think abortion should be outlawed unless there are extenuating circumstances which would warrant it, and that is my answer, and that's how I've always felt.

According to a University of North Florida poll, Floridians say affordability is their top issue. What are your solutions for dealing with Florida’s affordability issue?

That's a tough one. It's going to take a lot of cooperation. You can give incentives to contractors, say, for instance, we will let you build 20 acres if you put like three acres aside for green space. Maybe we'll lower your taxes and your permitting fees and your impact fees, and in return, you charge less for the homes you're building.

Will you vote Yes or No on the constitutional amendment to slash property taxes and explain your position. How would you replace lost revenue – fees and/or service reductions?

I'm definitely in favor of having taxes reduced on your primary residence. If you worked hard and you became successful in your life, most likely you have more than one home, and most likely you have a lot of businesses that generate income and taxes for the state of Florida. Why should you punish somebody for excelling in life? Why should you punish somebody for going to school, working hard, going to higher education, while somebody else starts a family at a younger age and enters the workforce at an earlier age?

You replace [lost revenue] by cutting government spending. I don't know exactly where to trim. I would have to really research and study it, but you're going to have to trim some things. I think [with] defense, trimming is one big thing. There's so much money there that can be placed throughout the country. You reduce your military spending, which is so exorbitant. That would help a lot, tremendously. We're in the trillions. One trillion dollars would go a long way in this country. I don't think we would have one person on the side of the road, homeless or hungry, with that kind of money.

Utility costs are rising for customers in Florida, and the proliferation of data centers is expected to exacerbate that issue. How should Florida’s utility regulators respond?

[Data centers] are going to have to pay their fair share of the electricity. I would imagine that they are privately owned, and they gotta foot the bill. I wouldn't say all of it, because we're gonna benefit from it as well, but a large portion of it, they're going to have to foot that. They're going to have to be responsible for it. It's only fair. As long as they're making a nice profit, they can afford it.

What do you think the biggest environmental issue is that the government should be addressing here in Florida?

The government has got to preserve our green space. It should be a local, state and federal concerted effort. It's what I had mentioned early on as one of my three big things. I've grown up in this area. I've lived in Florida all of my life except a couple years. We moved to Florida in 1966. I was born in ‘62. So I've seen it expand. I've seen all the orange groves get bulldozered down. All kinds of deals are happening between different government agencies and these developers, and they're basically taking dirt from one area, filling in a wet area and creating another wet area elsewhere. So it's sinkhole after sinkhole or the propensity for sinkholes is growing, astronomically. You see sinkholes appearing all over the place. We're touching the earth and really causing a lot of problems in how we're developing at an exponential rate.

Do you have a position on Florida’s state government attempting to roll back vaccines for school entry?

I would have to see data. I caught COVID-19 twice, and I was vaccinated. When I graduated dental school, it was absolutely mandatory [to get the hepatitis] vaccination. I don't like putting things in my body because I'm uncertain what the long-term effects are going to be. Even if you're in the medical field, you know pros and cons, but you don't know ultimately what could happen because everybody's system is a little different, everybody's health is a little different, and everybody's body reacts to medicine differently, so you have to be careful.

As far as vaccinations, that could be tough because that could infringe on religious aspects. I think they're important to continue. Polio, for instance, is very important. I know I was vaccinated at a very young age. I had all those shots, and I'm a very healthy individual. I think it's very important. That, I do agree with.

What is your position on removing books, including classic literature, from public school libraries that some parents or legislators believe are inappropriate for students to be reading?

I don't think you should roll back or take away classic literature. We all were raised on that. Kids are going to find out and investigate, and they're so curious. They're going to get their information from their cell phones, so taking it out of the classroom or from the libraries, you're not deterring kids from being able to obtain it. They're going to get it with their smartphones. So, are you saying we’ve got to get rid of smartphones because you're taking it out of the library? If it's something that's been there forever, why are you going to remove it all of a sudden? How is it harming anybody? We were raised with it, and these kids have it at their fingertips with their telephones. So I'm totally against taking things out of the classroom, unless it really is something controversial and bad that somehow ended up in the school system. But my kids went to private school, so I'm not so sure what they're talking about in public school.

Where do you stand on guns, open carry and the Second Amendment?

I have 10 guns. They're in the safe, locked up. I don't even practice. I don't even shoot. 

Someone I knew in high school dropped a gun on the ground and killed his best friend by accident, and it's been messing with his mind ever since. So guns, you gotta be very careful. I think education is very important. Gun permitting, taking courses to learn how to use a gun, very, very important. I understand they no longer require that. That's a shame because education is everything. I like gun ranges, places to go and learn how to shoot, practice shooting for self-defense.

I think to buy a gun, you need to have a valid license. You have to be of legal age. Now, what's the legal age for a gun carrier? Is it 21 or 18? I would prefer the older you are, the more mature and stable you should be. I think that there should be a cooling off period, and a background check is so, so important. I think we need to regulate gun shows a lot more because people buy guns on the free market or from individuals or from criminals on the street and they commit crimes using those guns.

So regulation, 100 percent absolute. It's part of our First Amendment (sic). For that reason, I don't think we should deny people the ability to carry weapons. It's part of the Constitution of the United States. But what we should do is regulate them, and I mean heavily regulate them. And age is so important. You should not have guns in the hands of very young people. It's a matter between freedom and having the right to do it. The right to carry that type of weapon and the freedom to have it. I'm up in the air there. But as far as regulation, I'm firm on that. It's got to be very regulated. That's people's lives in your hand.