Jeff Greene

This page was current at the end of the individual's last campaign covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.

Jeff Greene

Democratic Party

Elections and appointments

Last election

August 28, 2018

Contact

Campaign Facebook

Jeff Greene (Democratic Party) ran for election for Governor of Florida. He lost in the Democratic primary on August 28, 2018.

Biography

Prior to starting his career as a real estate investor and developer, Greene attended John Hopkins University and Harvard Business School.

Greene ran for U.S. Senate as a Democrat in 2010 and lost to Kendrick Meek in the primary by a 51 to 38 percent margin. He spent $23.5 million of his own money in the race. In 1982, he unsuccessfully ran for Congress as a Republican in California.

Elections

2018

See also: Florida gubernatorial election, 2018

See also: Florida gubernatorial and lieutenant gubernatorial election, 2018 (August 28 Democratic primary)

General election

General election for Governor of Florida

The following candidates ran in the general election for Governor of Florida on November 6, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Ron DeSantis (R)	49.6	4,076,186
		Andrew Gillum (D)	49.2	4,043,723
		Darcy Richardson (Reform Party)	0.6	47,140
		Kyle Gibson (No Party Affiliation)	0.3	24,310
	Submit photo	Ryan Foley (No Party Affiliation)	0.2	14,630
		Bruce Stanley (No Party Affiliation)	0.2	14,505
		Other/Write-in votes	0.0	66

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 8,220,560 (100.00% precincts reporting)
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Raphael Herman (No Party Affiliation)
• Randy Wiseman (L)

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Governor of Florida

The following candidates ran in the Democratic primary for Governor of Florida on August 28, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Andrew Gillum	34.4	522,164
		Gwen Graham	31.3	474,875
		Philip Levine	20.3	308,801
		Jeff Greene	10.1	152,955
		Christopher King	2.5	37,616
	Submit photo	John Wetherbee	0.9	14,426
		Alex Lundmark	0.6	8,655

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 1,519,492
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Richard Dembinsky (D)

Republican primary election

Republican primary for Governor of Florida

The following candidates ran in the Republican primary for Governor of Florida on August 28, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Ron DeSantis	56.5	916,298
		Adam Putnam	36.5	592,518
		Bob White	2.0	32,710
	Submit photo	Timothy Devine	1.3	21,380
	Submit photo	Bob Langford	1.2	19,842
		Bruce Nathan	0.9	14,556
	Submit photo	Don Baldauf	0.8	13,173
		John Joseph Mercadante	0.7	11,647

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 1,622,124
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Angel Rivera (R)

Campaign themes

2018

Greene's campaign website stated the following:

“	Jobs and Wages Florida’s families deserve a raise, and Jeff Greene is running for governor to give them one. Jeff knows what it’s like to lose everything and live paycheck to paycheck. His father saw the family’s financial security crumble when the textile industry collapsed in the Northeast during the 1960s. To make ends meet, his dad worked a vending-machine route in Palm Beach, and Jeff’s mother waited tables at The Breakers hotel. Jeff built his business from nothing with the can-do, hard-working attitude his parents taught him and the entrepreneurial spirit he taught himself. He wants the same for Florida’s families. Previous governors have said job growth alone was the path to prosperity. But Florida’s families have learned the hard way that’s simply not true. Working longer and harder for less is all that these empty promises have delivered for Florida’s workforce. When a mother or father has to work three jobs to put food on the table and a roof over their family’s head, something is terribly wrong. Rather than spending precious taxpayer dollars on incentives to lure low-paying jobs to Florida, we should embrace our beautiful environment and low tax climate to add a third dimension to our appeal. That’s a fully trained and adaptable workforce. We must integrate our community colleges, public universities and K-12 learning opportunities to ensure we can do any work businesses bring our way – as long as it pays a living wage! Jeff fully supports raising Florida’s minimum wage to $15 per hour. It’s only fair and ensures Floridians have the dignity of fair pay for an honest day’s work. But when Jeff is governor, wage growth won’t stop at the minimum wage. He will ensure that everyone benefits from expanded wages. That means women receive equal pay for equal work. Wage equality is as important as wage growth. This requires understanding the historic issues which have depressed women’s wages and making sure Florida fights back. We want the companies coming here to know we value their workers no matter their sex, and that extends to our friends in the LGBTQ+ community. Companies that offer good pay value states that value their workforce. And Florida’s welcome mat is open to everyone. Raising pay isn’t the only answer. To bring those high-paying jobs to Florida, we need a trained workforce, and that means changing our education system. To see Jeff’s plan for reinventing Florida’s schools to adapt to today’s economic environment, please click here. Education Jeff Greene is the product of public schools. They prepared him for the future, enabling him to get a great college education with help from government-subsidized student loans and work-study programs. Every child in Florida deserves the same opportunity. But Florida’s schools today are the product of 20 years of Republican rule. Education funding has been held hostage, and we are experiencing a true state of education emergency: our public schools rank 40th in the country. In today’s system, the quality of your education depends on where you live and the size of your parents’ paycheck. When Jeff is elected governor, he promises to change that. His vision for Florida prioritizes public education and ensures that every student in our state receives a world-class education. He is committed to giving educators a well-deserved raise. And he will stop the flow of public dollars to private and charter ‘schools with no rules.’ Florida’s kids will have to compete in a global marketplace for the jobs of the future. The current education system has limited student achievement by simply pushing kids to pass high-stakes tests. Jeff wants to transform our education system to bring best practices from other states and countries, just like he has at the Greene School. That’s the innovative, non-profit, need-blind Kindergarten through 7th-grade school Jeff and his wife founded in West Palm Beach. It has never taken a dime of public funds. Jeff understands that kids learn to read until the third grade, but after that, they read to learn. Sadly, only 54% of Florida’s third graders can read at grade level. Things only get worse: 64% of high school graduates aren’t proficient readers…and only 19% of that same group of students can perform grade-level mathematics. Florida is failing our students and slamming closed the door to future success. That’s why Jeff supports two years of full-time Pre-K to prepare kids to learn when they hit elementary school – and increased resources so that they leave the K-12 system prepared for whatever is next. But we can’t really say we value education as a state until we value the educators who propel our future generations forward every day. That’s why teachers deserve a raise in Florida. Increasing their pay means we can attract the best and the brightest. It also means we can reward the hard work our dedicated teachers have done for years without fair compensation. Wouldn’t you want the best teacher possible for your child? We can, and should, have that for every child in Florida – and with Jeff Greene, we will. Criminal Justice Reform The scales of justice are not balanced in Florida. Our prisons are overcrowded. Our sentences are unequal. And we’ve disenfranchised men and women who have earned their right to a second chance. Too many Floridians are languishing in jail, leading to lost wages, lost jobs and broken families. As governor, Jeff Greene will work to expand civil citations over criminal ones. He will reduce penalties for non-violent crimes. And he will invest in diversion programs to help build people up – not lock them away. Jeff will also reform the bail-bond system, which is unfairly applied. And he’ll work to eliminate private prisons that are mismanaged and not focused on rehabilitating inmates. Speaking of rehabilitation, Jeff will work to expand access to drug treatment programs and sentencing reform. That way we will help, not criminalize, those with addiction and mental health issues. Jeff believes in ending mandatory minimum sentences and empowering judges to decide what punishment fits the crime. He understands that for our system to work on behalf of our citizens, Florida judges must represent Florida’s communities. So he will appoint diverse judges who make honest and fair rulings. Jeff also understands that the school-to-prison pipeline is real. He understands that when people are in desperate situations, they do desperate things. That’s why for him, it all comes back to high-quality education and fair-paying jobs. Standing Up to Trump on Immigration Donald Trump has taken our country hostage with dangerous rhetoric that is not only unacceptable, it’s un-American. He has sided with violent white supremacists. He has called Mexican immigrants “rapists.” And he has torn immigrant children from their parents. Trump is ripping families apart by deporting good men and women who have been positive members of their communities for decades. He should be clearing a path for their citizenship instead. Trump’s separation of infants and children at the southern border is a human rights violation and an international embarrassment. He made an executive order supposedly to end the separations. But in reality, he doesn’t show a commitment to family reunification. The president has done nothing to end the inhumane treatment of immigrants under his “zero tolerance” policy. This is especially personal for Jeff and his family. At 5 years old, without knowing a word of English, Jeff’s wife Mei Sze and her family fled their home in Malaysia to escape ethnic persecution. They were forced to immigrate to Australia. There they were taken in, together, and empowered to restart their lives after being torn from everything they knew. It was a very difficult time for Mei and her family, but it could have been so much worse. She could have been one of these children on our southern border, ripped from her family and literally thrown in a cage — not allowed to hug her siblings, unable to communicate with her parents. We must have compassion in the face of extreme adversity. We must show respect for every person, no matter their race, religion, nationality, or the language they speak. Floridians have spoken up and spoken out against Trump. They want a governor who will do the same. Jeff Greene has stood up to Trump on national television and in the president’s own dining room. As the next governor of Florida, Jeff will continue to stand up to the bully-in-chief in defense of ALL Floridians. LGBTQ+ Equality In Florida, discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity isn’t prohibited by law for housing, employment, public accommodation and education. As governor, Jeff Greene will work to prohibit discrimination against LGBTQ+ Floridians. This includes support for the Florida Competitive Workforce Act to protect workers from being discriminated against based on sexual orientation or gender identity, and Florida’s ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. He will work to ban bullying of students based on sexual orientation and gender identification while Donald Trump and his Education Secretary Betsy DeVos won’t. Jeff is a strong supporter of same-sex marriage, gay adoption rights, and equality for all. Women’s Rights & the Right to Choose Jeff Greene’s life changed when he met his wife, Mei Sze. They fell in love, chose to start a family, and are now happily raising three young sons. The key word here is chose. Jeff understands that a woman’s ability to chart her own path, achieving economic stability and independence, is directly correlated to her ability to choose when, and if, to become a mother. Republicans want to keep women from charting their own path on their own terms. But when Jeff becomes governor, he will fight for a woman’s right to choose and will veto any bill that infringes upon that right. He will also reject any legislation that threatens to defund Planned Parenthood and the critical health care that Planned Parenthood provides. He will work to repeal state funding for crisis pregnancy centers, which pedal dangerous misinformation about safe and legal family planning options. Wages also are an important issue for women. Florida women make 87 cents for every dollar that men earn, and that gap is even wider for women of color. Jeff will make closing the wage gap a priority. He will ensure that workplace discrimination, sexual harassment and coercion are not tolerated. Common Sense Gun Safety Solutions From Travon Martin to the Pulse nightclub and the tragic shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Florida has long been at the center of the gun control debate. But while politicians talk, more lives are being senselessly lost to gunfire. Jeff will take on the NRA (National Rifle Association) to make sure that Floridians’ lives and safety come first. The tragedy at Stoneman Douglas spurred Floridians—especially students—to demand action on gun safety. State lawmakers took a long-overdue first step by raising the age to purchase all guns from 18 to 21, raising the waiting period for purchases to three days, and outlawing the use of bump stocks. But Jeff Greene knows that more needs to be done to keep Florida’s schools and communities safe. As governor, Jeff will work to enact common-sense gun safety solutions. That includes a ban on military-style assault rifles to keep them out of schools and off the streets. He also wants to ban high-capacity magazines and close the loophole that allows firearms to be purchased at gun shows without a background check. Jeff believes we need to shine a spotlight on underserved communities, from Miami’s Liberty City to Tallahassee’s French Town, and everywhere in between, where gun violence is an everyday problem. Jeff understands that we need to make sure people have opportunities to lead productive, fulfilling lives. And we need to make sure that they don’t get caught up in dangerous situations out of desperation. He will do more to bring high-paying jobs, strengthen our public schools and give people a chance to do well. That should keep them from turning to gangs or guns. Protecting Our Environment From the Panhandle to the Keys, Florida’s coast is crucial to our economy and to Floridians’ way of life. Jeff Greene strongly opposes the expansion of drilling off Florida’s coast that was originally proposed by the Trump administration. Jeff will support funding to protect our beaches and shores so that they can be enjoyed by generations to come. With toxic algae threatening our waterways, with the now-annual bloom already blanketing 90% of Lake Okeechobee. Jeff will address this crisis immediately by funding CERP, addressing runoff from farming, septic leakage and lawn fertilizing, and prioritizing our environment over special interests, before it’s too late. Jeff knows global warming is affecting Florida. As a resident of Palm Beach County, he experiences it himself firsthand. Rising sea levels are already bad. And they’re only going to get worse, unless we can come up with a solution…fast. Through his efforts with The Greene Institute, Jeff will call upon leading experts from around the world to come up with an innovative and sustainable solution for Florida. The Institute’s Managing the Disruption conference brings together the finest minds in academia, business, and government. Jeff believes Trump’s decision to drop out of the Paris Climate Accord was a terrible mistake that threatens the long-term health of the planet. But that won’t stop Jeff from taking action for Florida. As governor, Jeff will also work to protect the Everglades and prevent Big Sugar from ruining this natural treasure. He will protect environmentally sensitive lands and mitigate saltwater intrusion that threatens sources of fresh water for millions of Floridians. Your Healthcare When Jeff Greene was growing up, a visit to the doctor wasn’t always within his family’s reach. He understands what a day’s lost wages may mean for a family. And he understands the fear that can come from opening a medical bill. But this will change under Jeff’s watch. He believes that healthcare is a right, not a privilege. Jeff will work to ensure access to high-quality, low-cost healthcare for all Floridians. This includes access to medical marijuana to help ease the pain of Floridians who are sick and suffering, and freedom from discrimination of medical use. And, he’ll protect a woman’s right to choose. Rick Scott should be ashamed of himself. Florida ranks 49th in the country when it comes to affordable healthcare. It’s one of a shrinking number of states that have refused to expand Medicaid, threatening vulnerable lives and costing us dearly. As governor, Jeff will expand Medicaid to provide healthcare coverage to more than 700,000 Floridians who can’t afford it. This is good for Floridians who can afford healthcare too. It has been estimated that Medicaid expansion would save the state over $500 million. Jeff will also fight back against proposed cuts to Medicare coming out of Washington. He will work to affordably expand high-quality, low-cost health insurance for children through Florida KidCare and its partners. Because everyone deserves to be covered. Providing Affordable Housing Florida is one of the hardest states in the nation for low-income residents to find affordable housing. In fact, nearly 800,000 low-income Floridians are forced to spend more than half of their income on rent. People in our state literally have to choose between paying rent and feeding their families. That is unacceptable. As governor, Jeff Greene will make strong investments in affordable housing. As a result, Florida workers and retirees will be able to live without spending beyond their means. And he knows what he’s talking about. As a successful real-estate entrepreneur, Jeff has experience building affordable housing. He believes in requiring developers to create affordable housing if they want to develop higher-rent properties.	”
—Jeff Greene’s campaign website (2018)

See also

• Governor of Florida
• Florida gubernatorial election, 2018

External links

Suggest a link

• Search Google News for this topic
• Florida gubernatorial and lieutenant gubernatorial election, 2018