- April 3, 2025
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As Volusia County Councilman Jake Johansson throws his hat in the ring for the Florida Senate, two candidates have filed to run in 2026 for his at-large seat: Daytona Beach Shores Mayor Nancy Miller and Mike Poniatowski, an emergency operations manager for AdventHealth.
Miller filed to run for the seat on Jan. 9. She's served as mayor of Daytona Beach Shores since 2018, and was reelected for a second four-year term in 2022. Through that time, Miller said, her focus has been advocacy — particularly for beach renourishment following Hurricanes Ian and Nicole.
Miller is also past chair of the Volusia County Elected Officials Roundtable.
"I felt like I understood the needs of Volusia County, and that I could bring my background and experience into advocating a collaboration to the county," she said.
Miller is also president of the Florida League of Mayors, becoming the first Volusia representative to hold the position, and in January, she was elected president of the Volusia League of Cities.
The ongoing flooding issue is Miller's top priority, she said. She's co-chairing a countywide stormwater mitigation and flooding committee alongside Johansson. The committee recently held its second meeting, with St. Johns River Water Management staff present.
"Getting a handle on that just not complaining about the flooding — that doesn't do us any good," Miller said. "We have to find solutions. That's my number one priority."
Encouraging redevelopment on blighted properties, rather than building on new land, and building relationships between the cities and the county are other priorities for Miller.
"I'm looking forward to adding a little bit of a different perspective on the County Council right now," Miller said. "I do have one opponent. I would imagine for that seat, there's probably going to be more, but looking forward to that too. I understand he's a very nice gentleman I'm running against. I just feel, right now, that I have the background and experience, and especially working right spot on with that flood committee, knowing what's going on and trying to solve what I think is ... the biggest issue on the people's mind."
Poniatowski filed to run for the at-large seat on March 4. A lifelong resident of Volusia County and Spruce Creek High School grad, Poniatowski said he decided to run to protect the future of Volusia.
"The only way we can protect it is if we elect the people who want to protect it — who have the best interests of the county at heart, of the rural character of the county, of the expansiveness of the county," Poniatowski said. "And those leaders should not want to see something like a Fort Lauderdale, because Volusia County is not a Fort Lauderdale."
Poniatowski's background includes former public safety experience, including past work in law enforcement and as a volunteer firefighter, paramedic and EMT. He's a resident of Port Orange, and said he has seen how development and flooding have personally affected him and his neighbors.
"Overdevelopment affects everybody," Poniatowski said. "We need to have protections in place that won't take property owners' rights away, but will give us guidelines that make sense to protect the rural character of Volusia County."
This is the second time Poniatowski is running for the at-large seat on the County Council, having run against Pat Northey in 2000.
This time around, in addition to flooding and development, Poniatowski said that infrastructure improvements and long-term financial goals, such as striving to adopt the rollback rate for county taxes, are some of his priorities.
The council needs leaders that "do not want to kick the can down the road," he added.
"At every meeting, there is something that comes up where one or two or three or four of the council members want to just kick it down the road," Poniatowski said. "We elected them to make the decisions in the county on an immediate basis, based on the best interests of the county and the voters. Not special interests."
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