Where I Stand
PEOPLE FIRST, NOT POLITICS
HEALTH / HOME / FREEEDOM
Gubernatorial Candidate Evelyn Castillo-Bach Unveils Bold Grassroots Plan to Tackle Florida's Cost-of-Living Crisis
Gubernatorial Candidate Evelyn Castillo-Bach Unveils Bold Grassroots Plan to Tackle Florida's Cost-of-Living Crisis
An estimated 44,234 families with children are homeless. Reported by Shimberg Center for Housing Studies at the University of Florida. June 2025
Evelyn Castillo-Bach, a Florida Democratic gubernatorial candidate running a grassroots campaign with a People First, Not Politics agenda, announced today her affordability plan focused on addressing the state’s cost of living crisis. Her plan is built on a simple framework: what you earn, what you pay, and what you owe.
I believe affordability has three parts: what you earn, what you pay, and what you owe. I don’t care which party an idea comes from. If it helps ordinary Floridians, I’m for it. If it doesn’t, I’m against it.
A 2022 state-commissioned report — suppressed by regulators and only revealed after a two-year public records battle by the Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times — found that while Florida-based insurers reported a $432 million net loss from 2017 to 2019, their affiliate companies reported $1.8 billion in net income.
- Castillo-Bach, who has been an Independent voter for most of her adult life, is running as a Democrat.
- She has built her campaign on three pillars: Health, Home, Freedom. Her motto, “People First, Not Politics,” reflects a belief that Florida’s challenges — from the insurance crisis and housing affordability to healthcare access and criminal justice reform — demand solutions rooted in lived experience, not party playbook.
Castillo-Bach Challenges Jolly to a Battle of Ideas
Castillo-Bach
Challenges Jolly to a
Battle of Ideas
Castillo-Bach calls for open conversation about Florida’s future: questions why Jolly announced a running mate and policy advisor 2 months before voters decide.
Castillo-Bach, who has been an Independent voter for most of her adult life, is running as a Democrat. She has built her campaign on three pillars: Health, Home, Freedom.
“I respect that base — the teachers, nurses, firefighters, law enforcement officers, correctional officers, the small business owners, the family farmers, the young professionals, the unemployed, the underemployed, all laborers and everyone trying to make ends meet. That is who I am running for. Not the party elite. Not the insiders who think they can handpick a nominee before the voters have spoken.”
“The August 18 primary allows me to fight for you,” Castillo-Bach said. “But the power to choose belongs to you. Let the battle of ideas happen openly, over coffee, for all to see.”
- Castillo-Bach, who has been an Independent voter for most of her adult life, is running as a Democrat.
- She has built her campaign on three pillars: Health, Home, Freedom. Her motto, “People First, Not Politics,” reflects a belief that Florida’s challenges — from the insurance crisis and housing affordability to healthcare access and criminal justice reform — demand solutions rooted in lived experience, not party playbook.
Independent Democratic Party candidate Evelyn Castillo-Bach calls for ban on data center secrecy and creation of a Florida Affordable Housing Fund paid by Big Tech.
Florida families have a right to know what is being built in their backyards, how much water it will consume, how much noise it will generate, how nature will be impacted and who is actually behind the project
Big Tech companies profit from Florida’s resources and should be mandated to contribute to the welfare of Florida families, farms, its young people and the working poor and middle class.
- Floridians cannot protect their health if they don’t know what is in their air and water.
- Homeowners cannot protect their home if they don’t know what is being built next door.
- Floridians cannot have freedom if corporations and government officials are making secret deals that affect them.
Evelyn Castillo-Bach a Grassroots Florida Gubernatorial Candidate Calls for a Ban on All Medical Debt
Evelyn Castillo-Bach, a long-time Independent voter running as a Democrat for Governor of Florida, today called for a ban on all medical debt.
She announced her administration will create Florida Direct Care. It will pay healthcare providers directly, bypassing insurance companies, for the benefit of the uninsured, underinsured, and working Floridians who cannot afford private healthcare.
“We need to see healthcare as a human right, not a privilege,” Castillo-Bach said. “Profit should not come from people getting sick.”
Castillo-Bach’s campaign focuses on three pillars: Health, Home, Freedom. She explained that banning medical debt is pivotal to protecting all three.
Healthcare provides the stability. It ensures people can remain where they live — homes, apartments, dwellings. Not driven out by medical debt and bad credit reports.
“Medical debt pushes people into homelessness,” Castillo-Bach said. “That ends under my leadership.”
Castillo-Bach Announced 6 Proposals:
1- Launch Florida Direct Care: Pays healthcare providers directly. No insurance companies. For those who cannot afford private healthcare.
2- Ban medical debt.
3- Ban reporting of medical debt to credit bureaus.
4- Ban lobbyists from writing laws for elected officials: Require full disclosure of all lobbying contacts.
5- Public database of healthcare prices: Any Floridian can see what services cost.
6- Cut waste and fraud in state healthcare spending: Independent audits of state contracts.
Criminal Justice Reform
Evelyn Castillo-Bach Rejects Calls to Abandon Reform
Evelyn Castillo-Bach, candidate for Florida Governor in 2026, rejects conventional political wisdom that she should abandon her position on criminal justice reform because her son is currently incarcerated. She argues that for nearly twenty-five years she has monitored the Florida Department of Corrections — the largest state agency with a $3.8 billion budget — making her uniquely qualified to fix a system that runs on bodies, vendors and budgets instead of justice.
I will be the first governor to prioritize criminal justice reform, including removing veterans from prisons and into medical facilities where they heal.
Whether state or federal, a prosecutor with unchecked power who answers to no one is a threat to every family in Florida.
A prosecutor who lets a billionaire predator walk free because of his connections should face the same scrutiny as a prosecutor who hides evidence to win a conviction against someone with no power and no money. Florida needs a governor who has seen this system from the inside and will not accept that any family is disposable.
- Florida Department of Corrections self identifie as the largest state agency in Florida.
- The department operates with a budget of $3.8 billion for fiscal year 2024-25 and employs nearly 24,000 staff members statewide.
- The department operates 143 facilities statewide with approximately 88,000 incarcerated individuals and over 145,000 offenders under community supervision..
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