Candidate Profile: Stephanie Murphy

Three-term Congresswoman Stephanie Murphy, who represented District 7 from  2017 to 2023, is running for Orange County Mayor. Mayor Jerry L. Demings, currently undergoing treatment for prostate cancer, is term-limited.

Born in Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City, Murphy, 47,  came to the U.S. “as a refugee and an immigrant” with her parents when she was an infant. After 9/11, she was inspired to go work at the Department of Defense as a national security specialist. After the Pulse nightclub shooting, Murphy launched an underdog campaign for the House of Representatives and became the first Vietnamese woman to be elected to Congress. There, she co-chaired the Blue Dog Coalition of moderate and conservative Democrats and served on the House Ways and Means and Armed Services committees and the January 6th Select Committee. After leaving Congress, she founded the Center Aisle Coalition to represent the ideological middle of American politics, prioritizing practical solutions over partisanship.  

“For me, public service is about giving back to a country that has given me so much,” the mom of two said in a recent phone interview.

In the private sector, Murphy has spent time in academia, as a 2023 Pritzker Fellow at the University Chicago Institute of Politics and teaching finance at Rollins College in Winter Park. She also served as managing director at Sungate Capital and a strategy consultant at Deloitte Consulting. In addition, she chairs the Future Forum Foundation, co-chairs the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the National Security Advisory Board at the Rand Corporation and the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security.

She told VoxPopuli that she’s running for Orange County Mayor because the county community is at “an inflection point.”

“We're growing fast because people know what a great place it is to live. But we need real leadership at the county level to ensure that growth results in opportunity, not just additional pressures on working families.” She said she hoped her experience in the private sector and the federal government would “deliver real results for this community.”

Murphy faces a crowded field in the nonpartisan Aug. 18 election, including Winter Park businessman Chris Messina; Clerk of Courts Tiffany Moore Russell; and Orange County Commissioner Mayra Uribe.

The Orange County Mayor earns $248,089 annually.

If none of the candidates earn more than 50 percent of the vote, the top two vote-getters will advance to a run-off on Nov. 3.

Here, Murphy 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?

1. Affordability

Housing is the biggest financial challenge facing many Orange County families, and it’s the foundation of my affordability agenda. The simple reality is that we are not building enough housing to keep pace with our growing community, and that shortage is driving up costs.

As mayor, I will increase the supply of attainable housing by streamlining permitting, reducing unnecessary barriers to construction, encouraging thoughtful development where infrastructure already exists, and partnering with employers and the private sector to expand workforce housing. We can create more housing while protecting the character of our existing neighborhoods.

Orange County cannot become a world-class community if teachers, nurses, first responders, hospitality workers, young professionals, and families can no longer afford to live in the community they serve.

2. Livability

Livability means making Orange County a place where families can spend less time stuck in traffic and more time enjoying the community they call home. As our county continues to grow, we must invest in infrastructure before it falls behind. That means improving roads, modernizing transportation, expanding parks and recreational opportunities, protecting our natural resources, strengthening stormwater infrastructure, and delivering world-class county services.

Growth is a sign of Orange County’s success, but it must be managed thoughtfully. We can welcome new residents and businesses while protecting neighborhoods, preserving our quality of life, and ensuring our infrastructure keeps pace with growth.

3. Opportunity

Opportunity means creating an economy where every resident has the chance to build a successful future right here in Orange County. Tourism will always be one of our greatest strengths, but we must also diversify our economy by attracting higher-wage employers in industries like advanced manufacturing, aerospace, defense, life sciences, technology, and financial services, while continuing to support the small businesses that are the backbone of our local economy.

We also need to invest in people. That means expanding workforce training, apprenticeships, mentoring, and creating Orange County Promise so more students can earn a community college degree or workforce credential. We can’t afford not to make that investment. By connecting more residents to good-paying jobs and creating pathways to upward mobility, we can ensure Orange County remains a place where families can build lasting prosperity for generations to come.

Why do you deserve to elected in this race?

I’m prepared to lead Orange County on day one. Throughout my career in business, national security, and Congress, I’ve managed complex challenges, built consensus, and delivered results. The Orange County Mayor oversees an $8 billion-plus organization with thousands of employees, making it one of the largest executive leadership roles in Central Florida. But the mayor also serves as Chair of the Board of County Commissioners, where success depends on bringing people together, building consensus, and turning good ideas into action. My experience leading organizations and working across policy differences has prepared me to do both.

But this campaign isn’t about my résumé. It’s about the future of Orange County. I’m running to make our community more affordable, more livable, and full of opportunity so the next generation can build their future right here at home.

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?

The greatest pressures on working families are the rising costs of housing, transportation, insurance, and everyday necessities. While many of those challenges are beyond the control of local government, county leaders have a responsibility to make every taxpayer dollar count.

Smart investments in stormwater systems, flood mitigation, and resilient infrastructure not only protect homes and businesses, they can also reduce risk over time. While the county can’t set insurance rates, lowering flood risk is one way local governments can help improve insurability and ease pressure on insurance costs over the long term.

My priorities are straightforward: make housing more attainable, improve infrastructure, grow higher-paying jobs, and ensure county government delivers better value for every taxpayer dollar. That’s how we make Orange County more affordable for the people who call it home.

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 will vote no. I support responsible property tax relief, but I do not support eliminating a major source of local revenue without a credible plan to replace it. Property taxes fund essential services residents rely on every day, including public safety, roads, parks, stormwater infrastructure, and emergency management.

I’m also concerned the proposal could make Florida’s housing shortage worse. Exempting newly permitted homes under $250,000 from property taxes would leave counties and cities responsible for providing roads, public safety, parks, and other services without the revenue to pay for them. That creates a strong disincentive to approve the attainable and workforce housing our community desperately needs.

Eliminating property taxes without a responsible replacement plan could also shift more of the burden to regressive taxes and fees that hit working families the hardest. Tax relief should be thoughtful, sustainable, and protect the services that make Orange County a great place to live.

Orange County’s budget has grown significantly in recent years, so we should first improve efficiency, hold departments accountable, and ensure taxpayer dollars are focused on core priorities. If this amendment were approved, my priority would be protecting public safety and other essential services through a comprehensive spending review, delaying lower-priority projects where appropriate, pursuing additional state support, and finding efficiencies before considering higher taxes or fees.

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?

Innovation and economic growth are essential to Orange County’s future, but they should not come at the expense of working families and small businesses. The rapid growth of data centers across Florida is increasing demand on our electric grid, and residents can feel the impact in their monthly utility bills whether those facilities are located in Orange County or somewhere else in the state.

Florida’s utility regulators should require transparency, full cost-of-service pricing, long-term commitments, and appropriate financial safeguards before utilities invest in new infrastructure for large energy users. Companies that require significant new generation, transmission, or grid upgrades should bear the cost of those investments rather than shifting them onto existing ratepayers.

As Orange County works to diversify our economy, we should welcome companies that create high-quality jobs, strengthen our tax base, and generate lasting economic value for our community. Every project should be evaluated on its overall economic impact and the opportunities it creates for our residents. In many cases, industries such as advanced manufacturing, aerospace, defense, life sciences, and technology create more jobs, stronger career pathways, and broader economic benefits than data centers alone. My focus will be on attracting the kinds of investments that deliver the greatest long-term return for Orange County while protecting residents from unnecessary increases in their cost of living.

What do you think is the biggest environmental issue your government should address in Florida?

Protecting Florida’s water resources while making our communities more resilient to flooding and extreme weather is one of the most important environmental challenges we face. In Orange County, clean water and resilient infrastructure aren’t just environmental priorities—they’re essential to protecting our neighborhoods, strengthening our economy, and maintaining our quality of life.

As mayor, I will invest in stormwater infrastructure, flood mitigation, water quality, conservation, and smart growth that protects our natural resources while accommodating a growing population. These investments also help safeguard homes and businesses, reduce long-term costs, and can improve our community’s resilience to future storms. Protecting our environment and protecting our economy go hand in hand, and Orange County should lead on both.

What skills would you bring from the federal government and the private sector to the county mayor’s position?

 At the Department of Defense, I set the budget priorities for an $800 billion dollar budget. We as Orange County have an $8 billion dollar budget. We need to align the priorities of this community with the resources that taxpayers have provided the county with and have a county government that can deliver for its residents.

In the private sector, I have been put in a lot of different complex organizations and have worked shoulder to shoulder with the teams there to basically navigate difficult situations and bring value to the organizations. And in Congress, I have pulled down billions of dollars for this community, whether it is in support of our infrastructure needs or supporting small businesses during the pandemic or ensuring that we have resources to preserve our environment and support veterans and seniors in this community. All of those diverse experiences come  come together for the important role of mayor, that is both legislator and executive.

 How would you develop the county economy?

If you work in this county, you should be able to afford to live in this county. So we grow our economic base and ensure that we have better paying jobs. But we also need to make investments into our workforce so that we can draw those better paying jobs here. Space-based missile defense is something that is going to be a huge area of growth for the country. None of our cell phones or anything else really works unless we can defend the assets that we have in space. Unmanned aerial vehicles, whether those are entities that deliver munitions, groceries, or people, are going to be a big growth area. And again, this community is well-suited to grow the businesses that are already in that space and recruit additional ones as we look to fulfilling the demands both nationally and internationally. And biomedical area is another area that I think we have a lot of advantages to grow and recruit businesses in that space.

An area that I worked on when I was in Congress was growing our modeling and simulation community. I think there's real opportunities for that sector and that industry cluster to expand as it relates to AI and creating safe environments that are closed off from the rest of the world for us to test models and do what we have been doing in the modeling and simulation arena for other types of cyber technology, cyberattacks. I am well-positioned to help diversify our economy in ways that we have talked about for decades but haven't really made meaningful steps in that direction.

What steps would you take to alleviate traffic congestion?

Transportation has been a top issue for this community for as long as I can remember. It was why my Congressional office worked so hard to bring down billions of dollars for the I-4 expansion, for smart traffic lights, for pedestrian and bike-friendly renovations of key main street corridors.

If this community makes a significant investment and progress into addressing multimodal transportation, we can try to stay ahead of the growth that's happening. But when I talk about an inflection point, that's what I mean. If we don't make these investments today, we are going to find ourselves living in a Houston or an LA-type of traffic condition. But it starts first with having a shared understanding that public transportation is a public good, and that some of the most successful public transportation doesn’t pay for themselves. New York City’s subway system — it doesn't pay for itself, but it is a key element of what makes the economy and the way of life in New York work. And so as a community, we need to ask ourselves what we're willing to invest in to make our economy and our way of life here in this community work, and then make the necessary investments.

 The way we pay for it is a little bit of county dollars, which is county residents. And we're lucky that the other part of it is tourists who come here. We can use that money. But we also have to pull down our fair share from the state. We are a net contributor of taxes to the state, and we currently do not pull down our fair share for the fact that we are one of the fastest-growing areas in the state. Our region alone is 7 percent of Florida's GDP, and so we should have a seat at the table. Then we need to pair that with federal money, and I know a little bit about being able to pull that down. So being able to pay for the kinds of investments in our infrastructure is going to take a local, state, and federal financing approach. And it's gonna take prioritizing the projects that will alleviate the greatest amount of congestion for the greatest number of people at a pace that keeps up with or catches up with the growth of this region.

 Where do you stand on how Orange County handled signing the addendum to the 287(g) agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to give corrections officers authority to transport detainees to federal facilities, and the governor’s threat to remove commissioners if they didn’t comply?

 I am a refugee and an immigrant. I understand what it feels like to live in a country where masked people are snatching citizens off the streets and creating a sense of fear in the immigrant community. Before this year, I never carried my global entry card with me, everywhere I went, but I do now as a way to avoid any kind of confusion as to whether or not I'm a citizen of this country. And it really breaks my heart that that’s where we are as a nation.

As it relates to immigration, immigration is a federal responsibility.  I would want Orange County to collaborate with state and federal law enforcement where it can and where it's properly funded to be able to not have unfunded mandates. But I also believe that our citizens should have their or residents of this county should have their constitutional rights respected. And I also understand, having spoken to the police departments and the sheriff's departments in town, they work really hard to build trust with communities. Our public safety depends on the trust between citizens and their law enforcement. Masked law enforcement violating people's rights erodes that trust, whether they're committed by federal agents or otherwise.

 What would you work on to ready the county for storm preparedness?

 The county can make a significant investment in stormwater management and also get the upside benefit of lowering insurance costs for residents, which will significantly affect the affordability issues in this county. Just like we can't keep delaying necessary investments into transportation, we cannot keep delaying necessary investments into infrastructure, because there are so many upside benefits of it. And it's, again, one of these things that we have to get ahead of growth on that issue. As much as people talk about utilities, water management is going to be one of the key issues that can either constrain or amplify our economic opportunities.