Winter Garden’s Bowen Kou, owner of a chain of nine Asian grocery stores and three Paris-style bakeries, is in a three-way Republican primary together with Cheryl “CJ” Blancett, the Leesburg property manager heading to trial in September on felony grand theft charges; and State Rep. Keith Truenow, the Tavares farmer that State Sen. Dennis Baxley, who held the seat since 2016, tapped to replace him now that he’s term-limited out.

The winner of the GOP primary on Aug. 20, will face Democratic nominee Stephanie Dukes, who ran unsuccessfully in 2022, on Nov. 5, but the district — largely comprised of Lake County with a small part of southwest Orange County near Winter Garden and Ocoee — is so reliably Republican that it’s thought that's merely a formality and the primary winner will most likely go to Tallahassee.

Early voting takes place Aug. 5-18, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Check our list for locations. The deadline to request a mail-in ballot is Aug. 8; it must be returned to the Supervisor of Elections office by 7 p.m. on Aug. 20. 

Kou, who became an American citizen in 2019 and moved to Winter Garden in 2021, embodies the ideal of the “American Dream.” He fled China as a teenager after spending two weeks in jail in 2012 for gifting his grandmother an American Bible. He started his first business in college, dropped out of school and bootstrapped his way into owning a chain of grocery stores and bakeries in seven states. Married with three children, Kou has a strong faith and deep love of country — he likes to say he bleeds “red, white and blue.” He’s pro-business, hawkish on immigration and a devoted supporter of Republican presidential nominee and convicted felon Donald Trump. When Trump was found guilty of all 34 felony counts, Kou posted on Facebook, “I STAND WITH TRUMP.”

“I believe God has a plan for me, and I want to protect the American dream,” Kou said. “That's why I want to run for the office.”

Self-funded campaign

Kou’s campaign is largely self-funded with $1.4 million of his own money — and not that of lobbyists and political action committees, which he routinely touts. A search of his campaign contributions found no PACs funding him.

A self-made businessman — he started his career in college, buying and selling used textbooks — Kou is running on a pro-business platform. A key plank is speeding up permitting processes and stopping credit card companies from charging fees on the sales tax of a purchase, which he said would help small business owners.

No tolls for residents

Kou’s most ambitious plan is to eliminate tolls for Florida residents.

“For people, entry-level, younger people, they can't afford $300 a month just go to work. So, this toll is hurting the economy, hurting the family, in Central Florida,” Kou said.

Kou claimed the majority of toll revenues is being used to build more highway roads that will collect more tolls. Toll roads are not funded by taxes and are used to build more roads and for operations and maintenance, according to Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise. Kou points to Florida’s more than 700 miles of toll roads — the most in the nation — as proof of overspending.

He believes that if the state maintains the toll rate for commercial vehicles and out-of-state vehicles, then the revenue will be enough to maintain the budget for highway repair and maintenance and he can cut the tolls for Floridians. Last year, Florida generated approximately $1.1 billion in tolls, with a total turnpike operating revenue of $1.2 billion, according to Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise 2023 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report.

On a website for his toll plan, Kou explains that trucks generate approximately $200 million in tolls annually, according to Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise 2023 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report. He also states that tolls for out-of-state vehicles generate $75 million in annual revenue. But there does not seem to be a source for that data point. It’s not in that 2023 Florida Turnpike report. And Kou could not say where he got that information. When pressed, he got defensive and texted that he found the number “a year ago” and “you can’t expect me to go back to research cover to cover tonight.”

Ask Keith Truenow

Kou had difficulty answering questions about other statewide issues he would be expected to vote on if elected. Asked about climate change, homelessness, gun safety and education, among others, Kou’s wife and campaign spokesperson Hong Kou said those kinds of questions were “better for Truenow” and “you can’t expect someone who’s not a career politician to know this.” They said Kou would consider those things once he is in office.

Meanwhile, here’s what he did tell us:

Reducing home/insurance prices

Kou said home ownership has become too expensive for three reasons: high interest rates, property taxes and homeowner’s insurance. He said he plans to use his business background to improve government efficiency and cut wasteful spending. He said this would lead to the federal government printing less money, which would lower inflation and reduce interest rates. Government efficiency would allow the state to cut taxes in general, including property taxes, he added.

According to a 2023 report from the Insurance Information Institute, between 15 and 20 percent of Floridians do not have homeowners insurance as premiums doubled and tripled in the face of stronger, more frequent storms and a shrinking roster of insurers willing to write policies in Florida. Kou said “I don't take money from lobbies, so I'm able to balance the regulation between law firm[s], insurance compan[ies], and consumers.”

Conservative education

Kou said he wants to put conservatism back into the education system. He wants to institute Bible study during school hours and believes children should be allowed to pray in school. According to his website, Kou wants to give parents more say in education and wants parents informed about their child’s curricula. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Kou said he “stand[s] firm banning sexual orientation or gender identity discussions in elementary schools” in response to the return of an LGBTQ book on sexual and gender identity to a high school library in Alachua County.

[Ed. Note: Many of the Parents Rights in Education restrictions were reversed in March, including the ban on free expression in classrooms.]

Reducing Rx prices

Kou favors lowering the costs of prescription drugs. His solution is to pass a law that would allow Florida to import pharmaceuticals from the European Union. He claims this will lower drug prescription costs by 70 percent and relieve Medicaid and Medicare programs. 

“We pay three times [more] for the same prescription compared to Europeans,” he told VoxPopuli. He said he was the only candidate talking about this.

Kou opposes vaccine/mask mandates and “centralized government control over health care.” He’s been endorsed by Stand For Health Freedom, an organization that opposes government health mandates.

Abortion

Kou supports Florida’s current abortion policy, a six-week ban with an exception for victims of  rape, incest and human trafficking. In those cases, women have up to 15 weeks to get an abortion. The law also includes exceptions for nonviable pregnancies due to fatal fetal abnormalities and to save a woman’s life.

Kou is urging his supporters to vote against Amendment 4, a measure prohibiting government control over abortion, that will be on the Nov. 5 ballot.

Gun rights

Kou is “pro-Second Amendment,” but he said there are “pros and cons” to open carry, and he isn’t sure whether he supports it. When asked about banning assault weapons, he said he would not support a ban, adding that any focus on gun safety should be on the person who is using the weapon, not the weapon itself. He maintains that criminals will always find ways to get guns, lawfully or not, and citizens need to be able to defend themselves. He has not decided whether he supports measures that prevent people with a mental illness from owning a gun.

Supporting law enforcement

Kou vowed to donate his state senate salary to the Florida Sheriffs Association (FSA) to help supplement its budget. The FSA is a nonprofit professional organization comprised of Florida’s 67 sheriffs, approximately 3,000 business leaders and 100,000 private citizens, that offers training and lobbies on behalf of Florida sheriffs. Asked why he plans to donate to the FSA instead of directly to sheriffs’ offices, Kou said in an email that “the FSA works to support hiring more law enforcement officers by offering grants and financial assistance to sheriff’s offices.”

According to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, as of 2022, there are an average of 2.42 full-time law enforcement officers per 1,000 people in Florida. The Lake County Sheriff’s Office has 1.59 officers per 1,000, while the Orange County Sheriff’s Office has 1.86 officers per 1,000.

“I'm not looking for a job or a career in our government, so I don't rely on my salary,” Kou said.

State senators earn $37,300.

Immigration hawk

Kou supports Trump’s hard-line border policies and said he would work with Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis to prevent undocumented immigrants from arriving in Florida by further securing Florida’s shores from overseas arrivals. He favors the “deportation of illegal immigrants.”

Limiting China’s influence

On his website, Kou rails against socialism, adding that having lived in China, he recognizes “socialist agendas.”

He said he gives full-throated support to a Florida law that prohibits Chinese nationals along with citizens from Venezuela, Syria, Iran, Russia and North Korea from buying certain properties in the state. The law — currently being challenged in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals on the grounds that it violates the Fair Housing Act and creates “Chinese exclusionary zones” — makes it a felony for Chinese buyers to purchase “large swaths” of agricultural property and land within 10 miles of military bases, airports, seaports, power plants and other “critical infrastructure.”

After receiving the FRSCC mailers that accused him of having ties with the Chinse government, Kou posted on Facebook that he plans to “reel in” TikTok usage, limit Florida’s trade with China and “end [Florida’s] dependence on Chinese manufacturing.”

Kou explained in an email that while he doesn’t want to ban Chinese companies from operating manufacturing companies. Rather, he wants to “focus on diversifying our supply chains and increasing domestic manufacturing capabilities to reduce reliance on any single foreign source, particularly China.”

Anti-Asian attacks

According to a survey conducted by Savanta Research earlier this year of 6,272 U.S. respondents 16 and older, 1 in 3 Asian Americans have been the target of anti-Asian hate this year. That includes Kou who has been the target of racist attacks since his campaign began.

Kou’s campaign signs have been repeatedly defaced with “China Funds” and “CCP,” which refers to the Chinese Community Party. The Lake County GOP has received calls from constituents saying it needs to put a “white man in that position,” VoxPopuli reported.

Starting in June, the Florida Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee (FRSCC) began sending out a barrage of political advertising mailers (approved by Truenow, according to mailer statements), citing the 14 percent of Kou’s donors who live out of state and have Asian names along with inconsistencies with his Form 6 financial disclosure form, to suggest he’s a Chinese government puppet.

The FRSCC also built an opposition website that has highlighted Kou’s ongoing legal troubles in St. Louis after one of his grocery stores was shut down following a failed health inspection and the discovery of 8,000 pounds of rotting fish. Kou wrote in an email to VoxPopuli that the store closed because the roof collapsed and blamed landlord negligence. He sued the property manager, who countersued Kou for allegedly failing to pay rent and breaking a 10-year lease. The matter is still in litigation, said Kou, adding he’s lost the $11 million in annual revenue the store earns.

The FRSCC also recently released a video ad attacking him for taking “socialist” “government bailouts” and hiring foreign workers for his businesses. Kou told VoxPopuli the “bailouts” were Small Business Administration loans to help grow his business. In an interview with Florida’s Voice founder Brendon Leslie, included in the attack ad, Kou said the “foreign workers” were foreign college students who speak the languages of the customers and vendors who frequent his stores.

Kou’s hit back with two defamation lawsuits — one against the FRSCC and its chair State Sen. Ben Albritton; the other against the Naples, Fla.-based conservative news outlet Florida’s Voice and its founder/CEO Brendon Leslie and political nonprofit Common Sense America Executive Director Steve Crim for an article based on a letter Crim wrote to Gov. Ron DeSantis calling Kou a Chinese national and warning that China was trying to get a toehold in Florida.

Kou told VoxPopuli his donors were friends and business associates from across the country, many of whom were donating to a political campaign for the first time. Kou’s Form 6 financial disclosure form lists his net worth as $16.1 million, with approximately $2.6 million in assets and about $200,000 in liabilities. He told VoxPopuli he mistakenly wrote $1,623 for a mortgage instead of $162,036 and did not include his business assets because he thought the form was only for personal assets.