U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds continues to weigh in on Florida’s insurance market as he runs for Governor, now suggesting that foreign companies and “climate change” analyses are partially to blame for high costs for homeowners.

“A lot of these reinsurance companies, a lot of them who are out of Europe, they’ve been trying to price in climate change risk, which is almost impossible to quantify, but that’s been in the calculations for how insurance companies have to stabilize their portfolios and their risk,” Donalds said on Rich Valdes’ “America at Night.”

The phrase “climate change” has been one that has dogged the current Governor.

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation last year striking it from state law.

DeSantis has said he’s “not a global warming person” and has complained about “politicizing the weather” but when he was running for President, he acknowledged the impact of human activities on weather patterns.

Donalds’ interviewer Tuesday night did not ask him if he believes climate change actually exists, but the Naples Republican suggested that it shouldn’t matter to reinsurers in assessing Florida’s market.

In addition to blaming European financiers for Florida’s problems, Donalds also said federal fiscal policy was driving up costs to “rebuild property” because “overspending inflates costs.”

Donalds previously said his goal is to “find a way to stabilize costs” by “reexamining some of our reinsurance capital requirements, reexamining cap requirements on insurance carriers,” along with a “lot of other things that we’re going to have to get into and really figure out how to synthesize the Florida insurance market so it can become a little bit more affordable for the people of Florida.”

The new language suggests that his position on the issue is still evolving.

His position matters to voters.

Polling last month from the Associated Industries of Florida Center for Political Strategy found that a third of voters see insurance costs as the biggest issue facing Florida.

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