Less than two weeks after Palm Coast City Council member Charles Gambaro announced a run for Congress against incumbent Randy Fine, Will Furry, a Realtor in his first term on the Flagler County School Board, said he is running for the congressional seat.
Furry will continue serving on the School Board until the end of his term in November. He cannot run for both seats. His fate will be decided in the Aug. 18, 2026 primary, when he would be one of a slew of Republicans challenging Fine.
“The entry of another candidate into the Congressional race is another clear indicator that our current representative in Congress is not meeting the needs of the residents of District 6,” Gambaro said today. “I look forward to a spirited campaign.”
Furry’s decision opens at least two seats on the board: his District 2 seat and the District 1 seat currently held by Derek Barrs, a DeSantis appointee, and soon to turn over to another gubernatorial appointee as Barrs takes a job in the Trump administration. The District 4 seat, currently held by Christy Chong, is also up in that election. Chong has not said whether she will run again.
In 2022, Furry defeated Courtney Vande Bunte and Lance Alred to win the seat. Vande Bunte said today she is not running in 2026. Alred, an elected member of the East Flagler Mosquito Control District board, said he is undecided for now.
Three Republicans have filed to run for the congressional seat so far, not including Fine, Gambaro or Furry. (Candidates don’t have to file qualifying papers until they start taking campaign contributions.) It is likely that more will file yet as Fine’s bigoted and incendiary statements have drawn criticism from Republican ranks and made his seat vulnerable to challenge. Furry’s own turbulent tenure makes his seat vulnerable. Running for Congress on a raft of low expectations may be a face-saving way to avoid defeat in a school board race.
Never known for his political acumen or insights, Furry framed his coming campaign in the customary talking points of hard-right candidates, some of which still a better fir for a school board race than for a federal race–cut taxes, cut “wasteful spending,” support vouchers, support parental choice, support Trump and “a strong border,” and especially glory in “faith,” in line with an evangelical but inaccurate interpretation of the separation of church and state: “The way I understand the Constitution is that separation is to protect the church from the state, not the state from the church,” he said. “And I think we all have a moment in our life when we really see God do something big.”
Furry, who described himself in a statement as a “MAGA Republican and America First supporter of President Donald J. Trump,” appears to be that big thing. Speaking on GOP operative Jearlyn Dennie’s weekly infomercial on WNZF, Furry said he was called by God to run.
“He’s calling me to bring representation to the district that I live in, that I currently serve in, and have actually produced results for, and I can take that wisdom to Washington, D.C., with me,” Furry said. (The interview is airing this weekend. WNZF’s Rich Carroll first reported the announcement.)
“This is a heavy lift for me and my family and everything, and I’m willing to do that for my community,” Furry said. “I prayed to God, said, Listen, if you don’t want me to do this, close the doors. Just close them right now. But as I walked through, the doors kept opening. People started coming around me. Support started to grow, and then, you know, here we are today, announcing that I’m running for the United States Congress.”
Fine said earlier this year he decided to run to help President Trump save the world: “God saved his life so that he could save the world, and since he says he needs my help to make that happen, then that’s what I’m going to do.”
Just as Amy Carter had advised her father on nuclear policy, Furry’s youngest son influenced him on running for Congress: “I asked him, I said, so how do you feel about this?” Furry said. “You know this will cause me to be very busy, and, you know, be out of town for periods of time to serve our country. And he thought about it for a minute and pondered, and he said, Well, I get to meet Donald Trump. And I said, Well, I’ll do everything I can.”
Like Gambaro, Furry is critical of Fine and his general foreignness to the 6th Congressional District, where Fine has never lived.
“We have somebody who kind of snuck into Congress during a special election,” Furry said of the congressman. “I don’t really look at him as an incumbent. He’s more of a placeholder and wasn’t properly vetted by the electorate.”
Ten minutes into the interview, Dennie asked Furry the first issue-related question: what would he do about the national debt? The question seemed to take him by surprise. “We have to cut all this wasteful spending,” he said, “pass, you know, a budget, a balanced budget amendment, and stop borrowing from our grandchildren’s futures.” He didn’t say how. Dennie didn’t ask him.
Furry claimed he was “doging before doging was actually a thing here,” a reference to the acronym for the so-called “department of government efficiency” started by the Trump administration and cloned in redder states like Florida. Furry implied that he’d cut spending at the school district.
“The previous administration had spent our reserves down to a dangerous level where, when I had our first budget meeting, they had said that we were one percentage point away from the state coming in and taking over our books,” he said. “That’s how bad our finances were when I took over the school board. But then in just two years, we restored that reserve from around $3, a little over $3 million, to over just about $9 million.”
Furry was fabricating. The district’s reserves never fell to $3 million. The last budget on the “previous administration”’s watch, in July 2022, had a $6.5 million reserve. Furry was seated that November. In his first budget, for the 2023-24 fiscal year, eight months into his tenure, the reserve had fallen to $6 million. It was $9 million this July, buttressed by the last of the Covid-recovery funds made possible by the Biden administration’s lavishing of aid dollars on local governments. It is projected to fall back to $7.6 million by year’s end as the district contends with dropping enrollment and school vouchers’ siphoning of district dollars to subsidize private education.
Furry champions the syphoning.
“Parental rights and school choice are two big things right now that are what Florida’s modeling for the rest of the country,” Furry said. “And I think that we are a template. And I believe that I was on the front lines of implementing these policies right here at the local level. And I know I’m ready to bring them to Washington, DC as well.”
R.S. says
People who feel being called by the big cheese in the sky worry me. I wonder whether they truly know the difference between god’s call and a severe case of indigestion going into the wrong direction. I suspect that this Furry person is going to be Fine II.
Janet Sullivan says
Lord, help us all.
Jim says
I don’t care why Furry is running for Congress. I’m just glad he’ll soon be off the school board. Hopefully whoever replaces him will actually care about the public school system. That would be refreshing.
I’ll pull for Gambaro. Furry is no better than Fine and Fine is one of the lowest forms of life I’ve had the displeasure to encounter.
As for God calling on any of them, I guess that’s possible if God is just messing around and is curious as to just how screwed up this district is! From what I’ve seen, neither of them would recognize God’s word, spoken or written. Maybe they need to look closer – does the one speaking to them have horns by chance???
justbob says
Hearing voices from God…never a good thing.
Tired of it says
As it is Furry can barely understand the discussions before the school board. But in trump world the incompetent get placed in positions of authority.
Furry Baby says
Gods calling??? You know, sometimes people have really bad gas bubbling up. Unsure what it is.. .. they think gods telling them something .. .. only to find themselves siting in a temporary cloud of stink.
Willy James says
Ed Danko should run for Congress. He is more than qualified with his background and political experience!
Villein says
Beware of false prophets.
Pogo says
@Furry does have a record of failing upwards
… everywhere he goes — there he is; kinda like Trump, and the rest of the flea circus.
… every day — all over the world.
TR says
I doubt God has anything to do with politics and it’s not his/her intent to tell someone they should run for Congress.
Deborah Coffey says
When MAGAs are praying and listening to Donald Trump, they’re praying and listening to the wrong guy. They’re praying to the guy that wants to BE God, wants to be all powerful like God, and wants to control the entire planet Earth. The ending to this story will be extremely disappointing for all of them, including Donald. Let there be LIGHT.
Pig Farmer says
So Furry thinks God is a MAGA Republican?
DP says
Good riddance. Now if we could only get rid of Chong.
Bob says
“this Furry person is going to be…” just a bit too weird, as are all furries LOL.
Laurel says
It’s interesting to me that God often speaks to those who have little competence and bloated ambition. A race to the bottom.
Jane Gentile Youd says
Isn’t there anyone more qualified and caring to run for this seat than the list of unqualified, ( my opimion) do nothings…?
Jim says
Oh, and Will, by the way, since this is another election, be sure to have some of your cronies put out negative (i.e., lies) about your opponents just before the election like you did last time. After all, a man of God like yourself needs to maintain plausible deniability, right?
Your God and mine are not in the same universe. Mine expects us to follow the 10 commandments; yours thinks it’s okay to lie and cheat….
Goodbye, sinner….
A HS Diploma Educated Idiot says
I suppose God speaks to bim and tells him to go to Happy Hour at the local golf club where curses
like a sailor while pounding drinks and insults tnem.
Ed danko, former Vice-Mayor, PC says
Willy James, thank you for your comment and support, but I want you to know that I fully support General Charles Gambaro for Congress!! Again, thank you for the kind words, sir!
Cracker Jack says
Beware, beware. This is nothing more that a con, a money grab by this fake Pastor J pushing him from behind the scenes.
He is blind to see she has peppered his ego and told him that this is his calling directly from God.
She grabs money off the PACs and donors to assist him.
She claims she supports Republicans but in reality she cons a guy like this into believing he is hand picked by God to serve.
Will your smarter than that!
The Slime says
Hey Will,
Hate to tell you this, but I got a text from GOD telling me that he played a practical joke on you! Actually, he was also pranking Pastor (?) J AKA “The Big Con” as well. He knows that you two are gullible and are of low intellect. More importantly, he wanted to show that HE does have a sense of humor.
Skibum says
Randy Fine’s God (maybe drumph) wanted him to run for election. Will Furry’s God apparently directed him now to run against Fine. What, did God change his or her mind, or is Fine’s God and Furry’s God differnet entities and not seeing eye to eye?
When I lived in WA state years ago, we had a whacko extremist conservative woman running for governor, who proclaimed over and over that if voters would elect her she vowed to govern the state with the edicts of the bible. She lost by a landslide!
Armies still today like to spout that both sides have God on their side, like it is something of a sport… a wrestling match of entertainment so God can just sit back up there and enjoy the show, whichever side wins.
All of this ridiculousness should just STOP! There is a reason that politics and religion don’t mix… they are the oil and water that society should never try to combine. Yet here we are once again with someone thinking they have been anointed by the almighty to save mankind. Or maybe it’s just that Furry knows that maga mush brains will undoubtably be much more influenced by his self-adorned halo when they enter the voting booth. Yeah, that’s it exactly.
Shark says
It would be nice if God did call him !!!
Herschel says
Should we be worried that the Chairman of our school board thinks he has the necessary skills to run for Congress?
What is he teaching our kids? Or is this some ploy to gain attention for an inexperienced Chair and the fake pastor?
Bethechange says
Moron; …separation is meant to protect the church from the state. Is the implication THE church, as in ONE? So what then were the framers’ intent when Freedom of Religion was included in the Constitution? Wouldn’t it follow that church means all faiths and not just one, thereby necessitating Separation? I thought the Establishment Clause prohibits the government from establishing a state religion or favoring one religion over another. Regardless of what Will believes it MEANT, it ensures protection for any religion. Dig just a little, Willie boy.