It’s that time of the year again when we bring you Central Florida Seen and Heard, our annual flagship series. In the past, we’ve covered transportation, flooding, and immigration. This time around, in such a consequential election year, we decided to focus on the impact of your vote on your pocketbook. Today, we’re kicking off Central Florida Seen & Heard: Vote Your Budget in partnership with the Oviedo Community News.
How we got here
Last November, we here at Central Florida Public Media put out a survey asking you all what was important to you this midterm election year. As we stated then, the goal was for you to help inform our reporting this year. We asked about the races and ballot initiatives you wanted to learn more about. We asked whether there was anything that would keep you from voting, to which the answer was a resounding no. We asked what issues were going to drive your vote this year. To that last question, nearly 30% of respondents had an answer that involved the economy or finances in one way or the other.
A University of North Florida Poll from July also found that affordability remains the top concern for people in 2026.
Beyond our survey and the UNF Poll, we’ve noticed that the cost of living comes up in so many of our conversations with interviewees and people we end up in conversation with. We’ve listened to stories about retirees continuing to work, not to keep busy, but out of necessity. We’ve listened to stories about people ditching vehicles because the cost of maintaining them is just too much. We’ve heard from people who had plans to return to college to get their degree who now tell us that it no longer seems like a good option because there’s no guarantee they’ll get a job. And people making major life decisions not to have children because they’re already struggling financially without them. People have told us about changing their diets and going meatless and shopping at different grocery stores in order to save even just a little money. And we’ve heard and witnessed growing lines at food giveaways.
While people are concerned about the day to day costs of life, it’s an election year, which means there are a lot of candidates promising to fight for you and reign in cost and government spending.
Connecting the dots
Our goal with this series was to try to move beyond the catch phrases and the rhetoric. It was to take even just a fraction of the kitchen table conversations-- decisions and concerns around your budgets that keep you up at night-- and pose them to some of the candidates running for office. To have them, those looking to lead, break down what impact they believe they could have if elected to help you with some of these concerns.
We live in a world that is increasingly partisan but in this divide, what can be lost is the fact that who you vote for can have real world implications on your day to day life.
Policy decisions impact health care coverage, food benefits, what you pay in taxes, services that are available. This series aims to connect those dots.
As a journalism organization, we’re not telling you who to vote for. Those decisions are personal and made for various reasons. We just want to make sure you are informed and know that you are both Seen & Heard.
By the way, if you’re still undecided on who you’re voting for, check out our new Voter Guide covering not only all nine of the counties in Central Florida, but judicial races, statewide races and those for Congressional seats as well.
