Florida House, District 78
Represents District 78 (Part of Lee) in the Florida House; votes on state laws and the state budget. Term: 2 years.
Partly verified. Either the November opponent could not be confirmed from available sources, or only a few positions are documented. Confirm the full candidate list on your county sample ballot; unknown positions are shown as such.
How we verified who is on the ballot
Candidate list taken from the Florida Division of Elections, 2026 general election candidate list on 2026-09-18 ; statuses Qualified/Unopposed only. Counties from the Legislature's district listings.
Debates and forums
- No debate or candidate forum has been scheduled in this race (checked Oct. 17, 2026). Checked Vote411's Florida debates-and-forums calendar, the League of Women Voters of Florida newsroom, the county Leagues, chambers of commerce, Tiger Bay clubs and local NAACP branches; every legislative forum they list was held during the primary.
Candidates
Report an error ↗Susan Frantz
Susan Frantz was raised in Lee County and founded Frantz Marketing Solutions, a Fort Myers marketing and public-affairs firm she has run for more than 15 years. She serves on the boards of Our Mother's Home, cancer-support organizations and SWFL Inc., and on an advisory board at FGCU's business college. She entered th…
Cindy Banyai
Cindy Banyai holds a master's and Ph.D. from Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University in Japan and has worked for about 20 years in community development, evaluation and nonprofit leadership in Southwest Florida and abroad. She teaches college courses, runs a consulting business, and was the Democratic nominee for Congress…
Side-by-side on the major issues
Each row is a statement. The chips show how each candidate's stated positions or record relate to that statement. Expand a row to read the evidence and sources. "No public position found" means we could not find a statement or record on the topic, not that the candidate has none.
| Issue | Susan Frantz Republican | Cindy Banyai Democratic |
|---|---|---|
| Taxes & spendingCutting taxes should be a top priority, even if it means less government spending on services. | Strongly agrees· stated position Her campaign site lists cutting taxes and eliminating waste and fraud, and promoting limited government, among her positions. | No public position found |
| Property taxesFlorida should eliminate or sharply reduce homestead property taxes, even if local governments must cut services or find other revenue. | No public position found | Strongly disagrees· stated position Opposes eliminating property taxes because they fund schools, police, fire and other local services; proposes a summer sales-tax holiday instead. |
| Property insuranceThe state should intervene more directly in the property-insurance market (rate caps, expanding Citizens, stricter insurer regulation) rather than relying mainly on market-based reforms. | No public position found | Strongly agrees· stated position Her plan calls for state insurance for disasters, citing the Jolly plan. |
| Housing affordabilityGovernment should do more to make housing affordable (subsidies, zoning changes, rent measures). | No public position found | Strongly agrees· stated position Her Fair & Free Florida plan calls for a 5 percent annual cap on rent increases and full funding of the Sadowski affordable-housing trust fund. |
| ImmigrationImmigration enforcement should be stricter, including large-scale deportation of people in the country illegally. | Strongly agrees· stated position Her site lists securing the border and ending illegal immigration as one of her positions. | Strongly disagrees· stated position Her plan calls for ending mandatory 287(g) agreements between local police and federal immigration authorities and for public oversight of migrant detention facilities. |
| AbortionAbortion should be legal in most cases (Florida's six-week ban should be repealed or loosened). | No public position found | Leans agree· stated position Her campaign home page lists 'body autonomy' among the freedoms she says have been rolled back; she does not spell out a position on the six-week law. |
| GunsGun laws should be stricter (keep the red-flag law and the age-21 purchase rule; expand background checks) rather than looser (permitless or open carry, lower purchase age). | No public position found | No public position found |
| Health careGovernment should expand its role in health coverage (expand Medicaid in Florida, extend Affordable Care Act subsidies). | No public position found | Strongly agrees· stated position Her plan lists Medicaid expansion. |
| Education & school choicePublic money should follow students to private, charter or home schools (universal school vouchers). | No public position found | Strongly disagrees· stated position Her plan calls for ending private and religious school vouchers and moving scholarship administration into the state education department. |
| Environment & waterProtecting water quality, conservation land and climate resilience should take priority even if it slows development or raises costs. | No public position found | Strongly agrees· stated position Her plan proposes a state fund to help local governments fix water pollution and mandatory prosecution and higher penalties for polluters; she says she takes no developer money. |
| Growth & developmentGrowth and development should be slowed or more tightly regulated (higher impact fees, density limits, stronger local control). | Strongly agrees· stated position Her site lists stopping overdevelopment as a position and says she has seen overdevelopment threaten the character of Lee County. | Strongly agrees· stated position Says the state has taken too much decision-making from local communities and would restore home rule. |
| MarijuanaRecreational marijuana should be legal for adults. | No public position found | No public position found |
| Elections & votingVoting should be made easier (mail voting, drop boxes, restoring voting rights) rather than adding new restrictions. | No public position found | Strongly agrees· stated position Opposes making voting harder; wants free documents and agency coordination if proof of citizenship is required. |
| Crime & policingCriminal penalties should be tougher and police funding increased, rather than emphasizing reform and rehabilitation. | Leans agree· stated position Her site lists backing law enforcement, and she said keeping families and neighborhoods safe will be a top priority in Tallahassee. | Leans disagree· stated position Her plan would repeal the 2021 protest law (HB 1) and bar police tracking of protesters, and she has called for the Fort Myers police chief to resign over misconduct allegations. |
| Gender identity lawsFlorida's laws restricting gender-affirming care for minors and classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity should remain in place. | No public position found | Strongly disagrees· stated position Her plan calls for ending the classroom-instruction law she refers to as 'don't say gay' and repealing the Stop WOKE Act. |
| Energy & utilitiesGovernment should promote renewable energy and tighten oversight of utility rate increases, even at the expense of fossil-fuel production. | No public position found | No public position found |
| Trump administrationI approve of the direction of the Trump administration. | Strongly agrees· stated position Her site describes her as an America First conservative who will work alongside President Trump and Governor DeSantis to keep Florida moving in the right direction. | No public position found |
| VeteransExpanding VA services and veterans' benefits should be a top priority. | No public position found | No public position found |
Where they sit on the map
Each candidate is placed by the average of their documented stances. It is a summary of the table above, not an extra judgment.
How the axes are computed
Each axis is the average of a candidate's coded stances (+2 to −2) on a fixed set of statements, so it comes straight from the documented positions and nothing else. A candidate needs at least three documented statements on an axis to be placed.
Economic issues (toward "Smaller government (lower taxes, less spending)"): Taxes & spending (agree), Property taxes (agree), Health care (disagree), Housing affordability (disagree), Property insurance (disagree), Energy & utilities (disagree), Social Security & Medicare (disagree), Teacher and staff pay (disagree).
Social & legal issues (toward "Conservative side of the statements"): Immigration (agree), Abortion (disagree), Guns (disagree), Education & school choice (agree), Elections & voting (disagree), Crime & policing (agree), Gender identity laws (agree), Marijuana (disagree), Environment & water (disagree), Trump administration (agree), Library and classroom materials (agree), School safety approach (agree).
| Candidate | Economic issues | Social & legal issues |
|---|---|---|
| Susan Frantz | not enough data | 1.67 (3 statements) |
| Cindy Banyai | -2.00 (4 statements) | -1.71 (7 statements) |
Other issues the candidates have raised
Priorities each candidate has brought up on their own, beyond the major-issue list above.
Susan Frantz
- Insurance and affordability — Her site lists fixing Florida's insurance crisis and championing affordability, without saying which reforms she favors.
- Schools — She said she is running to keep extremist ideas out of classrooms and lists empowering parents and protecting children as a position.
Cindy Banyai
- Wages and taxes — Her plan calls for a $22 minimum wage with annual cost-of-living increases, a summer sales-tax waiver for residents, universal all-day pre-K and child-care vouchers for working families.
- Ethics and home rule — Her plan centers on ending 'pay to play' contracting, restoring home rule, restoring citizen ballot initiatives and creating an elected ethics board.