Jeffrey Peter "Dr. Jeff" Datto, a Hialeah resident who describes himself as a neuroscientist, is seeking the office of Florida governor in the Nov. 3 general election. He has no prior elected office, according to Ballotpedia. Datto is running with No Party Affiliation.

His running mate is Juan Santana, according to the Florida Division of Elections. Datto filed for the race on Dec. 5, 2025, and qualified on June 12, 2026, by paying the qualifying fee. He describes himself as a patient and civil rights advocate on his campaign social media.

The race includes Byron Donalds (Republican), David Jolly (Democratic), Charles Burkett (No Party Affiliation), Dean Ocean Abrams (No Party Affiliation), Frank Russo (No Party Affiliation), Moliere Dimanche (No Party Affiliation) and Scott Jewett (Libertarian), according to BallotReady election data.

Candidate information

Full name: Jeffrey Peter Datto

Ballot name: Jeffrey Peter "Dr. Jeff" Datto

Party: No Party Affiliation

Residence: Hialeah, Florida

Education: Datto said he earned a bachelor's degree from Johns Hopkins University, graduating magna cum laude with a 3.82 GPA one year early. He said he holds an MD-PhD from Thomas Jefferson University, where he was a Gibbon Scholar on a full scholarship. Datto said his graduate-school GPA was 3.99. He also said he scored 220 on the United States Medical Licensing Examination Step 1, above the national average of 205, and passed Step 2 CK and Step 2 CS. Datto said he is an alumnus of Cherry Hill High School East.

Running mate: Juan Santana

Experience and public service

Datto has seven published research papers with approximately 400 citations, focused on spinal cord injury locomotor recovery and Krabbe disease, affiliated with the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. His research focused on globoid cell leukodystrophy, also known as GALC deficiency.

Datto said he worked as a researcher at the University of Miami's Miami Project to Cure Paralysis for approximately eight and a half years. He said he was selected as one of five NIH/NINDS F30 Scholars nationally, receiving a full scholarship, stipend and research budget.

He also said he served as a research associate at Duke University and as a without-compensation employee at the Miami and Gainesville VA Medical Centers, according to his campaign Facebook page.

Datto said he founded Make Your Voice Shine Florida, a nonprofit advocacy organization. He also said he founded DattoAI.com, an entrepreneurship venture. Datto described himself as an author and as the creator and producer of The Real RIP, a media production.

This is his first campaign for elected office.