David Jolly, a former Republican congressman turned Democrat, is running for Florida governor in the Tuesday, Nov. 3 general election. The race will appear on ballots across Pasco and Hillsborough counties.
Jolly won the Democratic primary on Aug. 18 and faces Republican Byron Donalds along with six other candidates, according to NBC News.
His running mate is former Democratic congresswoman Gwen Graham, who represented Florida's 2nd Congressional District, according to Wikipedia.
Candidate information
- Party: Democratic
- Born: Oct. 31, 1972, in Dunedin, Florida; grew up in Dade City
- Residence: Pinellas County, where he lives with his wife Laura and their young family, according to his campaign website
- Education: Bachelor's degree from Emory University (1994); juris doctor from George Mason University (2001), according to BallotReady profile data
- Family: Jolly says he is a fifth-generation Floridian and the son of Baptist minister Lawson Jolly
Experience and public service
Jolly represented Florida's 13th Congressional District from 2014 to 2017 as a Republican. Before that, he 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.
After leaving Congress, Jolly worked at Shumaker Advisors Florida starting in 2018 and as a political analyst at NBC and MSNBC, according to his campaign website.
He left the Republican Party in September 2018 and spent several years as an independent. He co-founded the Forward Party in 2022, registered as a Democrat in April 2025 and launched his gubernatorial bid in June 2025. His campaign website says his work on campaign finance reform was featured on CBS' "60 Minutes" while he served in Congress.
On the issues
Jolly has outlined positions on his campaign issues page. All statements below reflect the candidate's own positions.
Education: Jolly says he would propose a 10-year plan to revitalize public education, including increasing teacher pay by 30 percent. He says the state voucher program relies on an economic model likely to collapse and that private schools accepting vouchers should cap tuition inflation and provide the same specialized services public schools offer.
Housing and insurance: 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.
Environment: Jolly says Florida should accept the science of climate change, protect beaches and state parks, and invest in resiliency. He calls for greater integration of clean energy technologies into public utilities.
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 calls for sweeping reform and says he would reopen the Hope Florida investigation if elected, according to Sparker's Soapbox.
Endorsements
Jolly has received endorsements from the following individuals and organizations, according to Sparker's Soapbox and BallotReady profile data:
- Miami Herald Editorial Board
- Maxwell Frost, U.S. House of Representatives (FL-10)
- AFL-CIO
- United Teachers of Dade
- The Hillsborough Society
- Palm Beach Human Rights Council
- Miami Beach Democratic Club
- LGBTQ+ Democratic Caucus of Palm Beach County
- Florida LGBTQ+ Democratic Caucus
- Florida Education Association
- Democratic Environmental Caucus of Florida
The other candidates in the race are Byron Donalds (Republican), 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) and Scott Jewett (Libertarian), according to BallotReady.
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