Dr. Jarod Fox.
By Reggie Connell, Managing Editor
In Summary:
Dr. Jarod Fox, an infectious disease physician with Orlando Health, is making his first bid for elected office as he challenges Republican Rep. Doug Bankson for Florida House District 39. In an interview with The Apopka Voice, Fox outlined his priorities, including expanding Medicaid, addressing Florida's physician shortage, reforming education, improving affordability, and preserving local control over development decisions. He also shared why he believes voters are looking for new leadership and how his campaign is relying more on door-to-door conversations than on campaign dollars.
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Dr. Jarod Fox spends his days diagnosing infections, weighing evidence, and making decisions that can change lives. Now the Orlando Health infectious disease physician hopes those same analytical skills can help him diagnose what he sees as Florida's political ailments.
For more information about the Fox campaign, visit his website.
Fox, a first-time Democratic candidate challenging Republican Rep. Doug Bankson for Florida House District 39, isn't running on years in elected office or party leadership. He's running on the premise that the Legislature needs more people who have spent their careers solving real-world problems and fewer who spend their time fighting over issues he believes most voters rarely discuss around the kitchen table.
Related: Jarod Fox to launch House District 39 campaign with Apopka kickoff event.
"I've been thinking about running for office for the past year," Fox said during an interview with The Apopka Voice. "A lot of the issues that I care about, health care-related issues and stuff, happen at the state level. Looking at the demographics and the previous elections, it felt like this was a seat that was pretty winnable."
Fox's path to politics began not in Tallahassee but in Washington, D.C., where he traveled as part of the advocacy arm of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. During Capitol Hill meetings, he came away disappointed by what he experienced.
"My representative at the time was Daniel Webster, and I was not pleased with my interaction with his office," Fox said. "A lot of the people there were a lot of anti-science stuff coming out of his office."
Rather than pursue a run for Congress, Fox concluded he could make a greater impact closer to home while continuing his medical career. Since moving to Florida in 2014, he completed his infectious disease fellowship at Orlando Regional Medical Center before joining Orlando Health in 2017. Today, he primarily practices at Health Central Hospital in Ocoee. His wife is a primary care physician, and together they are raising three children in Winter Garden.
Not surprisingly, health care forms the foundation of his campaign.
"The number one thing that they could do immediately that would decrease some of the costs would be to finally expand Medicaid," Fox said. "Florida is one of 10 states that haven't decided to expand Medicaid, so it leaves a gap in coverage for some of the lower-income people."
He believes that the state's refusal to expand Medicaid doesn't simply hurt uninsured residents—it increases costs for everyone.
"They seek all of their care in the hospital and the emergency rooms," he said. "Their care is expensive, whereas if they had coverage and could get the preventative care that they need, they wouldn't end up in the hospital. Those uninsured patients end up driving up costs for everybody."
Fox says another health care crisis is approaching as Florida's physician workforce ages.
"There are not enough physicians," he said. "It's only going to get worse, unfortunately, in the state, because over 30 percent of our physicians are over the age of 60."
His prescription includes expanding graduate medical education, increasing residency positions in primary care, and improving loan repayment programs for physicians willing to practice in underserved communities.
"I think having a physician voice there might be able to get some of those bills across the finish line with my perspective on those issues," he said.
Although health care is central to his campaign, Fox says costs consistently dominate conversations with voters.
"Affordability, unfortunately, is a big issue for everybody, regardless of what district they're in," he said.
He believes lawmakers have focused on the wrong housing issue, emphasizing property taxes rather than property insurance.
"The state legislature decided to tackle property taxes without tackling property insurance, which is a bigger driver of the affordability issues around housing," he said.
Fox has emerged as a vocal critic of the proposed constitutional amendment that would significantly reduce local property tax revenues. While he understands why tax cuts appeal to voters, he questions whether supporters have fully explained the consequences.
"There's not 30 percent in any county budget that is completely wasteful and that you can cut without cutting some sort of services for that particular city or county," he said.
He predicts that communities will eventually face difficult choices involving libraries, parks, recreation facilities, and other local services.
"I don't think there's a person out there that's going to want those things cut," he said.
Education represents another area where Fox believes Florida has drifted away from its mission.
"Our teachers remain the lowest-paid teachers in the country," he said. "We've made it all about passing a particular test every year," Fox said. "Teachers are just having to teach to make sure that their students pass the test instead of making sure that they have the competencies they need to be successful once they get out of K-12 schooling."
Instead, he supports an approach built around practical skills and project-based learning.
"I think we need to get back to the competency-based approach to public education," he said.
Growth and development also rank high among Fox's priorities. District 39 includes three of Orange County's fastest-growing cities—Apopka, Ocoee, and Winter Garden—and he believes Florida's current development pattern is becoming increasingly expensive.
"We keep pushing the growth further and further out," he said. "As the growth expands outward, the infrastructure has to follow that."
He favors more mixed-use development that combines housing, businesses, and services within the same neighborhoods.
"That not only will drive down costs, but will also improve the quality of life of people because they have all of the things that they need in the vicinity of where they live," he said.
Fox also opposes recent state efforts to limit local governments' authority over growth decisions.
"I am all for local control of our government," he said. "There's not a one-size-fits-all approach for every community."
Instead, he believes Tallahassee should establish broad standards while allowing cities and counties to make decisions based on local needs.
"I would rather see the local municipalities and counties have as much control as they can, with the state just providing some guardrails," he said.
His recent door-to-door campaigning has reinforced that belief. Fox said infrastructure concerns dominate conversations in South Apopka, where residents frequently report utility issues.
"Every door I knocked on, they had the same thing to say—that they're the first people to lose their power in a storm and the last people to get it back," he said.
As a first-time candidate challenging an incumbent, Fox acknowledges that the odds are not in his favor. Yet he believes voters are increasingly willing to replace experienced officeholders with newcomers if they feel government is no longer responding to their concerns.
"People are hungry for a change," he said.
He says his goal is to help break the Republican supermajority in Tallahassee while working across party lines whenever possible.
"I'm one of these politicians who is willing to work with the other side," he said. "I don't think it serves any of our constituents any good by not getting things done in the state legislature."
Fox's campaign has raised just over $20,000, but he insists that fundraising won't determine the outcome in November.
"I've been telling people that the doors are where you win elections," he said. "Those are the people who vote. Money doesn't vote."
That philosophy has shaped nearly every free hour outside the hospital.
"Everyone has told me that I'm the first person that's ever knocked on their door," Fox said. "Those are the people that you're planning to represent, and how do you plan on representing them if you don't know what they care about?"
Whether that approach is enough to unseat a two-term incumbent remains to be seen. But Fox says he isn't asking voters to elect him because he's a physician or because he's new to politics. He's asking them to believe that listening still matters.
"The only promise I'll make is that I will represent you to the best of my ability when I get to Tallahassee," he said. "I can't promise I'll be successful in every endeavor, but I will do my damndest to represent them and vote accordingly."
Key Points
- Dr. Jarod Fox says expanding Medicaid and increasing Florida's physician workforce are his top health care priorities.
- He argues property insurance—not property taxes—is the state's biggest affordability challenge.
- Fox supports increased investment in public education and moving away from heavy reliance on standardized testing.
- He opposes state preemption of local growth decisions and favors giving cities and counties greater authority over development.
- The first-time candidate says his campaign is focused on door-to-door conversations and believes voters are increasingly open to political newcomers.
Editor's Note: A correction was made on July 1, 2026 to the spelling of the candidate's first name from "Jared" to the correct spelling "Jarod."
