Ex-US Rep. David Jolly, now a Democrat, announces run for governor

Yahoo

2 days ago

Former Republican U.S. Rep. David Jolly is running for Florida governor as a Democrat.
Jolly, 52, represented most of Pinellas County from 2014 to 2017 in the House of Representatives. At the time, he was a Republican who had won a mostly Democratic region.
But after Republicans' embrace of President Donald Trump during his first presidency, Jolly left the party and became an independent and outspoken Trump critic.
He joined MSNBC, where he was a political commentator for the past eight years. He teamed up with former presidential candidate Andrew Yang to build a third political party, called Forward.
But Jolly told the Tampa Bay Times he's considered himself part of the Democratic coalition for a while, and his registration change in April just made it official.
'I waited a little too long, I suppose,' said Jolly, who lives in northwest Pinellas County with his wife and two children. 'But certainly to run for governor of the state of Florida, I think it's important that voters clearly understand my alignment with the Democratic Party.'
Jolly is running as a Democrat in a state that has moved away from its swing-state reputation and established itself as a conservative stronghold. He knows it's not going to be easy to succeed Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is term-limited.
'This is the home of MAGA,' he said. 'They are going to fire everything they've got at us.'
Trump has already endorsed Republican U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds for governor. And despite the controversy surrounding Hope Florida, first lady Casey DeSantis may also make a bid for the seat.
He's going to face a similar, if not harder, battle than former Gov. and U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist, a Republican-turned-independent-turned-Democrat who in 2022 lost to DeSantis by more than 1 million votes and 19 points.
Jolly, who lost his St. Petersburg House seat to Crist in 2016, is garnering some comparisons to his previous opponent.
But Jolly is trying to delineate himself from Crist's gubernatorial campaign.
'I think what we resent is politicians who refuse to change, who, when presented with new information or new realities of people's lives, refuse to change,' Jolly said. 'Change is a part of our campaign.'
Jolly is embracing his political evolution because, he said, his policies may have changed, but not his values.
'The party I belonged to used to be about fiscal discipline, less government,' he said. 'What's today's Republican Party in Tallahassee and in Washington doing? More debt, more spending, more deficits, and we want government in your classrooms and in your doctor's offices and in your bedrooms. Boy, have they changed. But they won't admit it.'
Jolly has tapped Eric Hyers, who has expertise in helping Democrats in red states, as his campaign manager.
Hyers is currently advising Scott Stringer on his campaign for New York City mayor, and he worked with both former President Joe Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris on their statewide presidential campaigns.
He also led successful gubernatorial wins in Rhode Island, Montana and Kentucky — where he helped Andy Beshear defeat a Republican incumbent and get reelected.
'I know from firsthand (experience) that Democrats can win in tough states, in red states,' Hyers said, 'when they nominate candidates who really care about people and have the ideas and solutions in proposals that voters understand will make their lives better.'
Jolly launched Florida 2026, a political committee focused on research and voter outreach in the Sunshine State.
He said his platform will focus on the affordability crisis, with the cost of housing a primary concern. He wants a state catastrophe fund to remove hurricane coverage from the private market, and he wants to enact property tax reform.
Some of his outreach priorities are immigrant communities in South Florida, residents in rural, agricultural industries and faith communities.
Lonna Atkeson, a political science professor at Florida State University, said although the state has gotten redder because of increasing polarization and redistricting in 2020, a Democratic governor is still a possibility in 2026.
'I do think that there are reasons that the Democrats could do better, but they have to get their act together as a party, which has been complicated for them,' Atkeson said.
The Democratic Party is having a nationwide identity crisis. And the Florida Democratic Party has been critical of Jolly in the past for switching up his political ideology.
The organization declined to comment for this article, saying it does not get involved with primary elections when there may be more than one Democrat running.
'Once the primary process is complete, we will be proud to throw our full support behind the eventual Democratic nominee for Governor of Florida,' the party said in a statement.
In April, the Florida Democratic Party was dealt a blow when Sen. Jason Pizzo abruptly announced he was changing his party affiliation to no-party.
The Florida Phoenix reported in January that Pizzo said he would not run for governor as an independent. But soon after leaving the Democratic Party, Pizzo said he was going to run for the governor's seat.
Jolly said he considered running for governor as an independent but didn't think a third-party candidate could win — but a Democrat could.
A Democrat winning governor in Florida could show the national party that the state is still a pathway to the White House, although he's not going to pursue that down the line, he said.
'We have to be in communities convincing people that Democratic values actually solve their problems,' he said. 'If we do that, we will have changed the country, we will have changed the state, but we will have changed the Democratic Party as well."