OCALA, FL (352today.com) – An Ocala husband and wife are riding high in a nationwide online “America’s Favorite Couple” contest and are asking for locals to help them move to the next round of competition.
Xavier and Michelle De La Cruz Taylor have been together for seven years and married for four; they met when Michelle moved to the Ocala area and took a job at the same place where Xavier was working.
The Taylors are currently the frontrunners in the quarterfinals of “America’s Favorite Couple,” an online contest mounted by professional fundraising company Colossal. This seems to be Colossal’s main thing—producing lots of cozy online competitions, and using them as a platform for fundraising by offering voters additional votes in exchange for donations to the charities designated for each contest.
The two (extremely legit) nonprofits benefiting from “America’s Favorite Couple” are Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, which fights hunger in L.A. County, and Oceana, “the world’s largest international advocacy organization dedicated solely to ocean conservation.”
On the line for the Taylors is a grand prize that includes $20,000, a trip to have dinner with “America’s Favorite Couple” Ambassadors Jeff and Emilie Goldblum (yes, the very famous actor and Olympic gymnast), and an advertorial feature in Variety magazine.
The deadline to see who moves on to the semifinals is this Thursday, August 27, 2026, so show some local love and cast a vote for the Taylors today… and maybe buy a few more votes to put ’em over the top while contributing to a worthy cause.