MIAMI — Billionaire trial attorney John Morgan won’t be mounting an independent run for governor of Florida — but he’s still planning to file paperwork “in the coming days” to create a new party in the Sunshine State.
Morgan, the founder of the Orlando-based mega personal injury firm Morgan & Morgan and a previous big donor to Democrats, has been teasing the possibility of running for governor in 2026 for more than a year. He ultimately decided he didn’t want to give up his lifestyle and time with his family, he said Monday in a video post on X.
“I do like living in Hawaii, I do like my marijuana, and I do like spending time with my grandchildren,” Morgan, who’s now registered as a no-party affiliated voter, said, referring to how he lives outside Florida for much of the year.
Morgan is offering $100,000 to whoever helps him come up with a name for the new party he’ll be forming. Some followers on X had already begun making suggestions, but Morgan told POLITICO over text that he would soon be sending out rules for submissions.
“I need to be careful so as to follow the law for such contests and to set strict rules,” he said. “Because there can only be one winner and there may be multiple people with the same name.”
Morgan’s announcement comes roughly two months ahead of the qualifying date to run for Florida governor. He could have shaken up the race given his name recognition earned through billboards and commercials advertising his firm, his vast wealth and his successful campaigns in Florida to legalize medical marijuana and raise the minimum wage.
President Donald Trump has endorsed GOP Rep. Byron Donalds in the race, which propelled him to frontrunner status and helped him raise $67 million. Other Republicans running to replace term-limited GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis are Lt. Gov. Jay Collins and former state House Speaker Paul Renner.
Former Rep. David Jolly is leading in polls and fundraising on the Democratic side against Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings — a former sheriff and spouse to former Rep. Val Demings, both of whom are close to Morgan and have received his support in the past.
Asked about the current roster of candidates running for governor, Morgan didn’t directly say which campaign he would donate to, but added that despite his moves to create a third party he intended to give to both parties. He would make a determination, he said, based on “the lesser of two evils.” He noted he also had “old friends” like Jerry Demings in the race who he had supported “forever.”
He noted, however, that his favorite candidate to run for governor would have been state Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson. Morgan said Simpson, a former state Senate president and egg farmer, had a “personal relationship” outside of politics and praised him as “one of the finest men I have ever met” and someone who “gives a s—t about people.”
Morgan has offered praise before for Simpson, who hasn’t filed to run for reelection to agriculture commissioner but has Trump’s pre-endorsement as well as $33.4 million in his political committees.
Morgan argued in his Monday video message that what “ails us is the two-party system” and contended that most people agree on most things. When interviewed a year ago, Morgan was leaning toward the name the “Capitalist Party” for the soon-to-be-filed third party. He changed his voter registration from Democratic several years ago due to disagreements he had with positions held by the party.
Morgan said in the video that he would have entered the race for governor if “someone entered the race that I really had a problem with.” He also said he was thinking about what the job would entail and realized, “I’m not the kind of guy that can campaign door to door, go to Wawas or Buc-ees and cut yellow ribbons for grand openings.”
“And then I started thinking about the hurricanes,” Morgan continued. “I like to go to bed with a gummy, and I wouldn’t be able to take my gummies during hurricane season. So I didn’t like that either.”
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