David Jolly seeks Florida governorship as Democrat

David Jolly, a former Republican congressman turned Democrat, is running for Florida governor in the Nov. 3 general election. Jolly won the Democratic primary on Aug. 18 and faces Republican Byron Donalds, according to NBC News.

Also on the ballot are Charles Burkett, Dean Ocean Abrams, Jeffrey Peter Datto, Moliere Dimanche and Frank Russo, all running with no party preference, and Libertarian Scott Jewett, according to BallotReady election data. The Sarasota Record profiled Jewett in a separate candidate profile.

Jolly's running mate is former Democratic Congresswoman Gwen Graham, who represented Florida's 2nd Congressional District, according to Wikipedia.

Candidate information

Full name: David Jolly
Date of birth: Oct. 31, 1972, in Dunedin, Florida
Hometown: Grew up in Dade City, Florida. Lives in Pinellas County with his wife Laura and their young family, according to his campaign website.
Family: Fifth-generation Floridian and the son of Baptist minister Lawson Jolly, according to his campaign website.
Education: Bachelor's degree from Emory University, 1994. Juris doctor from George Mason University, 2001, according to BallotReady.
Party history: Served in Congress as a Republican from 2014 to 2017. Left the Republican Party in September 2018. Co-founded the Forward Party in 2022. Registered as a Democrat in April 2025, according to Wikipedia.

Experience and public service

Jolly represented Florida's 13th Congressional District from 2014 to 2017, according to BallotReady. His work on campaign finance reform was featured on CBS's 60 Minutes while he was in Congress, Jolly said on his campaign website.

Before his time in Congress, Jolly served as staff and general counsel in the office of U.S. Rep. Bill Young from 1995 to 2006. He worked as a lobbyist at Van Scoyoc Associates from 2007 to 2011 and founded Three Bridges Advisors in 2011, according to Wikipedia and BallotReady.

After leaving Congress, Jolly worked as a political analyst at NBC and MSNBC, according to his campaign website. He also served as executive vice president and principal at Shumaker Advisors Florida starting in 2018, according to his public biography.

On the issues

Jolly has outlined positions on several policy areas through his campaign website and other public statements. The positions below reflect the candidate's own stated views.

Education: Jolly said he proposed a 10-year plan to revitalize public education, including increasing teacher pay by 30 percent to bring salaries closer to the national average. He said the state voucher program "is built on an economic model that is likely to collapse" and called for means-testing voucher funding and capping tuition inflation for voucher students.

Housing and insurance: Jolly called the property insurance crisis the primary reason Floridians struggle to afford a home. He said he supports creating a state catastrophic fund to remove natural disaster perils from the private market, a move he said would sharply reduce property and car insurance rates. He also proposed a no-interest state-backed loan program for condominium associations facing costly repairs.

Environment: Jolly said Florida should accept the science of climate change, protect beaches and state parks, and invest in resiliency statewide. He called for greater integration of clean energy technologies into public utilities.

Healthcare: Jolly said he supports expanding Medicaid and codifying the Roe v. Wade and Casey v. Planned Parenthood framework for reproductive healthcare at the state level.

Government reform: Jolly said he pledged to reopen the Hope Florida investigation if elected, according to Sparker's Soapbox. He called for sweeping ethics and campaign finance reform, saying Florida has some of the weakest ethics and campaign finance rules in the country.