David Jolly seeks Florida governor as Democrat after GOP past

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 will face Republican Byron Donalds along with six other candidates, according to NBC News. The other candidates on the ballot, according to BallotReady election data, are:

Charles Burkett (no party preference)
Dean Ocean Abrams (no party preference)
Frank Russo (no party preference)
Jeffrey Peter Datto (no party preference)
Moliere Dimanche (no party preference)
Scott Jewett (Libertarian)

Candidate information

Party: Democratic
Born: 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.
Family: Son of Baptist minister Lawson Jolly. Jolly says he is a fifth-generation Floridian, according to his campaign website.
Education: Bachelor's degree from Emory University (1994); juris doctor from George Mason University (2001), according to BallotReady.
Running mate: Former Democratic Congresswoman Gwen Graham, who represented Florida's 2nd Congressional District.

Experience and public service

Jolly served as staff and general counsel in the office of U.S. Rep. Bill Young of Florida's 13th Congressional District from 1995 to 2006, according to Wikipedia. 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.

He represented Florida's 13th Congressional District in the U.S. House from 2014 to 2017 as a Republican. He later served as executive vice president and principal at Shumaker Advisors Florida, according to Wikipedia. He left the party in 2018. He spent several years as an independent and co-founded the Forward Party in 2022. He registered as a Democrat in April 2025 and launched his gubernatorial bid in June 2025, according to Wikipedia.

Jolly says his work on campaign finance reform was featured on CBS' "60 Minutes" while he was in Congress, according to his campaign website. He also worked as a political analyst at NBC and MSNBC, his campaign says.

On the issues

Jolly outlines these positions on his campaign issues page, as compiled by BallotReady, unless otherwise noted.

Property insurance and housing: Jolly says the property insurance crisis is the primary reason many Floridians struggle to afford a home. He proposes a state catastrophic fund that would remove natural disaster perils from the private market, which he says would reduce property and car insurance rates. He also supports a no-interest state-backed loan program for condominium associations facing repair costs.

Education: Jolly says he would pursue a 10-year plan to revitalize public education, including increasing teacher pay by 30 percent to bring salaries closer to the national average. He says the state voucher program is built on an economic model likely to collapse and that private schools accepting vouchers should cap tuition inflation and provide the same specialized services as public schools.

Environment: Jolly says Florida should accept the science of climate change, protect beaches and state parks, and invest in resiliency. He supports expanding clean and renewable energy integration into public utilities. He says he would issue a moratorium on data centers if elected, according to Sparker's Soapbox.

Healthcare: Jolly says Florida should expand Medicaid, calling it a critical program that supports childbirth care, long-term care for seniors and hospital funding statewide.

Government reform: Jolly says Florida has some of the weakest ethics and campaign finance rules in the country. He supports a sweeping ethics package and says he would reopen the Hope Florida investigation if elected, according to Sparker's Soapbox.