The qualifying deadline for county candidates passed at noon on Friday, locking the field in for the 2024 elections. For the Volusia County Council, this means seven candidates will move forward, with one winning their seat unopposed. Three seats were up for election, with the incumbent Council members running for re-election in all three.
Incumbent County Chair Jeff Brower will face three opponents, while District 2 Councilman Matt Reinhart will face one. Troy Kent, the incumbent councilman for District 4, did not receive an election opponent and thus will serve another four years in office. Candidates are elected by the voters who reside in their districts, with the exception of the County Chair and At-Large seats, which are elected by the entire voting base of Volusia County.
The qualified candidates for each race are as follows, ordered alphabetically by surname.
Incumbent County Chair Jeff Brower will be running for a second four-year term in office, facing three challengers for the seat. Don Burnette is the two-term Mayor of Port Orange, and the first candidate who announced they'd be challenging Brower.
Next came Randy Dye, a car dealership owner and philanthropist known for his connections to NASCAR. Deb Denys was the fourth candidate to join, a realtor and former member of the Volusia County Council and School Board.
Incumbent Council member Matt Reinhart has only one challenger: tax accountant Steve Miller. Reinhart was first elected to the County Council in 2022, winning a two-year term. Ordinarily Council members would serve four-year terms, but the 2022 elections for districts 2 and 4 were set to be for two years in order to stagger the seats in accordance with the County Charter.
Miller served on the Daytona Beach City Commission from 1993 to 1995, and has also served on Daytona's Leisure Services Advisory Board. He also ran for office in 2022, coming up short in a bid for a return to the City Commission.
Incumbent District 4 Volusia County Council member Troy Kent faced no challenger for re-election, and thus will serve a full four-year term in office. Like Reinhart, he was elected to two years in 2022 per the County Charter, but has now secured another full term in his seat.
