Deb Denys left out of Port Orange forum for Volusia County chair candidates

Deb Denys, a candidate for the Volusia County chairperson's seat , said she was excluded from a chair's candidate forum on Wednesday night and denied the opportunity to participate once she arrived.

The Birthplace of Speed Republican Assembly chapter of the Florida Republican Assembly hosted the event at Port Orange Christian Chuch, according to a flyer posted by Denys.

Denys said no one from the organization contacted her about the event. She happened to hear about it last night when people asked her why she wasn't there. She arrived after the forum started.

"I stood there waiting for an invitation to join the discussion," Denys said in a Facebook post on her campaign page. "Nothing. Then, Don Burnette requested that I join them on the platform to which Doug Petit the moderator said, no."

She said Randy Dye also asked that she join the stage but was also denied.

Brower was not at the event but people from his campaign were, she said.

Denys said she sat in the audience thinking the organizers would correct the situation and invite her on stage.

"But, no, they just kept asking questions of Randy and Don," she said in an interview with the News-Journal.

Denys entered the race this month. The other candidates entered the race last year. But she said that the DeLeon Springs Community Association updated its recent campaign forum to include her.

"It can be done," she said.

Denys said of being excluded, "It made me more aware that I'm a challenge to them. ... Why else would you silence a voice?"

Birthplace of Speed Republican Assembly President Garry Hinson spoke with the News-Journal on Thursday afternoon.

"I regret this has all transpired the way it did," he said.

He said the group's Vice President Stephanie Cox is in charge of booking the speakers and scheduling. He said she already had things coordinated before Denys filed to run and didn't want to change the event.

After Denys walked into the room, Cox told Denys that she could have 5-10 minutes to speak to the crowd after the forum, Hinson said. But Denys left before the end.

"Maybe she thought this would look good to hit the newspaper," he said.

He also said that Denys has "the proverbial snowball's chance in Hades of winning."

Denys said that no one offered her time to speak.

"That never happened," she said.

Doug Pettit, who unsuccessfully ran for council in 2022 with Brower's backing , said he's not part of the organization. Some of the people involved in the event are friends, and he agreed to be the moderator, he said. He said he was not involved in the planning, but his role was to present the questions on stage.

Pettit said when Denys came in, he asked if she should be invited on stage. But he said leaders of the group shook their heads.

Pettit said that at the end of the forum, he said publicly that he thought Denys should have been invited to come up on stage once she arrived.

He said Hinson told him the event was planned well before Denys was a candidate.

"I find that to be a questionable reason to exclude her," Pettit said.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Deb Denys left out of Port Orange forum for Volusia County chair candidates