Darryl Block

The cost of living is crushing families in this district, and Tallahassee has spent years looking the other way. I’ll push for upfront pricing and a real crackdown on the junk fees that pad every bill you get. I’ll modernize our price-gouging laws so you’re protected when prices spike, not just after a hurricane is declared, and back gas-tax relief when fuel prices jump because of things no family here caused. And I’ll go after the property-insurance companies that keep raising rates while their profits climb. Affordability isn’t a slogan for me. It’s the whole reason I’m running.

Our public schools teach nearly three million kids, and the majority in Tallahassee treats them like an afterthought while shoveling billions into private-school vouchers with almost no accountability. I’ll vote to fully fund neighborhood public schools, raise teacher pay, and give teachers the job security to stay in the classroom instead of leaving the state. I’ll fight to shrink overcrowded classes and get schools back to basics: strong teachers, safe buildings, and kids ready for college, a career, or the trades. Public money belongs in public schools. Period.

Too many families here skip care or drop coverage because they can’t afford it, and that’s a choice the state made. Florida still refuses to expand Medicaid and leaves federal dollars on the table year after year. I’ll vote to expand Medicaid, rein in the prior-authorization games insurers use to deny care, and force real transparency on prescription-drug pricing. I’ll also protect and expand mental-health services that too many families can’t reach when they need them. Healthcare should be about getting patients the care they need, not clearing a maze of barriers built to save insurers money.

I’m running because families here are paying more for groceries, gas, rent, and insurance while the people in charge spend their time on political theater. I’m not a career politician and I’m not looking to climb a ladder. I’ll show up, do the work, and put this district ahead of donors and special interests. You’ll always know where I stand, because I’ll tell you plainly and vote that way. If I don’t deliver, hold me to it.

Insurance and taxes are pricing people out of homes they’ve lived in for decades, and seniors are getting hit hardest. I’ll push to hold the property-insurance market accountable, capping runaway rate hikes and taxing the excess profits insurers are sitting on. I’ll support building the kinds of homes working people can actually afford and protecting longtime homeowners from being taxed and priced out of their own neighborhoods. One bill won’t fix this, but I’m not interested in studying the problem for another four years. I’m interested in giving people relief they can feel.

No. I’ll vote against it. Gutting local revenue with no plan to replace it doesn’t cut your costs, it just moves them, onto fees, onto renters, onto small businesses, and out of your schools, fire rescue, and law enforcement. I support real, targeted relief for the homeowners who need it most, especially seniors and working families choosing between food, medicine, and their mortgage.

Families are already paying too much for power, and no one should see their bill go up so a data center can move in. We should require companies to disclose exactly how much energy and water a project will use, and make those big users pay for the plants and lines they need instead of pushing the cost onto your bill. Reliability, conservation, and environmental impact all get weighed before a single new cost is approved. I’m not against growth. I’m against families subsidizing it.

Water. Clean drinking water and healthy springs, lakes, and rivers are the backbone of life and the economy in District 36, and reckless development is putting them at risk. As we grow, I’ll fight for smart decisions on stormwater, flooding, and the wetlands and natural areas that filter and store our water. We can protect our water and grow the economy at the same time, but only if the state stops treating clean water as optional.

No, and I won’t pretend otherwise. What Florida is doing right now is cruel, expensive, and completely disregards the US Constitution. . Chasing down people with no criminal record, tearing families apart, and standing up detention operations that raise serious constitutional and humanitarian red flags doesn’t make anyone safer. It wastes your tax dollars and makes whole communities afraid to call the police. Real enforcement focuses on people who actually threaten public safety, respects due process, and doesn’t treat immigrant families like props in a political fight.

Less strict, without apology. The six-week ban is extreme and often hits before a woman even knows she’s pregnant. These are decisions for a woman, her family, and her doctor, not for politicians FULL STOP

I oppose it. Tallahassee has overridden local communities more than fifty times on everything from leaf blowers to housing density, and most of it is about power, not good policy. The state should set a common standard only when an issue truly demands one statewide. Otherwise the people who live in cities like Sandford, Oviedo and Winter Springs should decide how they grow, not a legislator from the other side of the state. I’ll defend home rule and vote against preemption unless there’s a genuine, compelling reason the issue can’t be handled locally.

Yes. I’ll vote to protect lawfully adopted rural boundaries and a community’s right to plan its own future. These boundaries limit sprawl, protect our water and wildlife, and keep development from outrunning the roads, schools, and drainage we already struggle to fund. Landowners still deserve clear rules and fair treatment, but the state shouldn’t be able to bulldoze a community’s long-term plan just to hand a developer a win.

Yes. Local governments should have the flexibility, with public notice and real financial guardrails, to use a fair share of tourist tax dollars on the needs tourism itself creates: roads and transit, public safety, water and infrastructure, and workforce housing where there’s a clear tie to the tourism economy. Right now residents carry the cost of serving millions of visitors while that revenue stays locked into a narrow list of uses. That’s backwards. The people who live here shouldn’t foot the bill for the people passing through.

Enrollment is dropping because families are being priced out, because the voucher program is pulling kids and billions of dollars out of public schools, and because years of underfunding and political meddling have worn down trust. I’ll rebuild that trust by paying teachers what they’re worth, keeping classes smaller, expanding career and technical programs, and making school funding predictable instead of a yearly guessing game. And I’ll demand honest enrollment and financial data across every publicly funded option, so we plan responsibly instead of springing sudden school closures on families.

Yes. Any school taking public money should meet public standards, full stop. That means independent financial audits, clear reporting on where the dollars go, conflict-of-interest rules, background and safety checks, real academic reporting, protections for students with disabilities, and actual consequences for fraud or chronic failure. More than four billion tax dollars a year flow into private schools with almost none of the accountability we demand of public ones. Public money without public accountability is just a blank check, and I won’t sign it.

I support evidence-based vaccine requirements for school entry, with real medical exemptions. Broad opt-outs put infants and medically vulnerable kids at risk, and Florida is already fifth in the nation for measles because of it. Let me be clear: vaccines do not cause autism, and the number of shots an infant gets does not cause autism. Public-health policy should follow doctors and evidence, not political pressure or misinformation coming out of the Surgeon General’s office.

I’ll push for a full, independent, transparent review of the grand jury’s findings and follow the money wherever it leads. If public or charitable funds were diverted, I’ll use every lawful tool to claw them back and hold the officials and private players involved accountable. And I’ll fight for the oversight and conflict-of-interest rules that should have existed in the first place, so a program meant to help vulnerable Floridians can never again be used as a political slush fund.

I’ll protect every eligible Floridian’s right to vote and make sure every lawful ballot counts. That means keeping vote-by-mail and early voting accessible, protecting secure drop-off and a clear ballot-curing process, funding our election supervisors, and shielding voters and election workers from intimidation. You don’t get election integrity by making it harder to vote. You get it through secure systems, consistent rules, professional staff, and telling people the truth about the results.

Growth is coming. Bad planning doesn’t have to be. New development should never outpace the roads, schools, water, sewer, and drainage needed to support it, and the residents who already live here deserve a real say. At the state level I’ll fight to give local communities the flexibility to plan on accurate data, collect fair impact fees so developers pay their share, and bring residents to the table, instead of Tallahassee handing down one-size-fits-all mandates that ignore what’s happening on our streets.

I’ll fight for transportation funding that matches how fast we’re growing and push for road improvements before major development goes in, not years after the gridlock arrives. I’ll work with local governments, the regional transit authority, and FDOT to prioritize the projects that actually move traffic and keep people safe. And I’ll back fair developer impact fees, better signal timing, safer routes for people on foot and on bikes, and transit where it genuinely cuts congestion. Developers shouldn’t get to build first and leave you sitting in traffic later.

I defend home rule, plainly. The people of Oviedo, Winter Springs, Geneva, and every community here should have a real voice in what happens to their neighborhoods, schools, and growth. Statewide standards have their place, but preemption should be rare and backed by a clear statewide need. The state shouldn’t use its power to silence local voters or override local planning just because it can.

Yes. I support keeping Seminole County’s Rural Boundary because it protects our natural resources, holds back sprawl, and preserves the character of places like Geneva. I also respect property owners and believe they deserve clear rules and fair treatment. We can direct heavier growth to the right places and use tools like conservation easements or transferable development rights without tearing the boundary apart. Protecting the boundary and treating landowners fairly aren’t in conflict.

I’ll tell the truth about election results, even when I lose, and I’ll reject the intimidation and conspiracy theories that have poisoned our politics. I’ll back transparent audits, paper records, public observation under clear rules, and steady voter education. Candidates have a duty to accept verified outcomes and use lawful processes for real disputes, not tear down people’s confidence just because they didn’t like the count. Respect for elections starts with candidates having the guts to be honest.