Jolly enters governor’s race as a Democrat: ‘The Free State of Florida is a lie’
David Jolly, the former Tampa-area congressman who left the Republican Party seven years ago, is holding court with the press in an Aventura Hilton conference room, rolling out an announcement that everyone knows is coming: He’s running for governor as a Democrat.
“We have an affordability crisis in the state that has people from all walks of life questioning whether or not they can continue to live in Florida,” says the 52-year-old attorney and father of two kids, ages 6 and 4. “I think the affordability crisis is hitting everyone from every walk of life, and I think there’s a strong case to be made that Republicans have largely created this environment.”
Jolly is the first Democrat of note to launch a campaign ahead of the November 2026 election, despite joining the party only six weeks ago. For the Republicans, U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds is running with President Donald Trump’s endorsement, and Florida first lady Casey DeSantis is mulling her own campaign to succeed her term-limited husband.
Jolly, who left Congress in 2017 and registered without party affiliation a year later, has been on something of a charm offensive of late. He has been traveling the state and meeting with voters in churches to raise his profile and listen to frustrations with Florida’s Republican-dominated government.
“This is a home for the rich and the reckless under [Gov.] Ron DeSantis,” he says.
Politically, Jolly is moving in the opposite direction of the state he wants to lead. Florida is becoming more Republican, voting for Trump in the last three presidential elections. Miami-Dade County, where Jolly, the son of a Southern Baptist minister, lived as a young boy, voted for a Republican president for the first time since 1988.
But in a wide-ranging, half-hour interview, Jolly said Floridians are waking up to the other trends in Florida under Republican rule: The Sunshine State is becoming less affordable, less tolerant and less accommodating to those who don’t share the governor’s religious and ideological beliefs.
“The ‘Free state of Florida,’” Jolly said, “is a lie.”
Political handicappers aren’t likely to give Jolly — or any Democrat — much of a chance to win in 2026, even with an open governor’s seat up for grabs. Republicans now control every statewide elected position and hold super-majorities in the state Legislature. Active GOP voters outnumber active registered Democrats by more than 1.2 million.
Even Jason Pizzo, Florida Democrats’ former Senate leader — whose district includes the Hilton where Jolly met with reporters Monday — declared the Democratic Party “dead” when he announced in April that he was registering as an independent ahead of his own planned run for governor.
Jolly, who lives in the Gulf Coast town of Belleair Bluffs with his wife and kids, also shares some common threads with the most recent Democratic candidate for governor: Charlie Crist, a former Republican governor and ex-congressman from the Tampa Bay area who lost by nearly 20 points to DeSantis in 2022.
Jolly knows Crist well, having lost his Pinellas County seat in the U.S. House of Representatives to the former governor in 2016.
“Charlie would always say, ‘I didn’t leave the party. The party left me,’” Jolly said, explaining how his political experience is different.
“I left the Republican Party. I changed.”
What follows are exchanges from Jolly’s interview with the Miami Herald, edited for brevity and clarity.
Q: Why in this environment today, in Florida, are you running for governor as a Democrat?
A: I’m running for governor because we have an affordability crisis in the state that has people from all walks of life questioning whether or not they can continue to live in Florida. That is a lived experience for my wife and I. We have two young kids, 6 and 4. I think the affordability crisis is hitting everyone from every walk of life, and I think there’s a strong case to be made that Republicans have largely created this environment, refused to do anything about it, and I hope to change that.
Q: You were Republican, you became independent, and now you are full on embracing the Democratic ideas. How do you tell people that we should believe you now?
A: Charlie [Crist] would always say, “I didn’t leave the party. The party left me.”
I left the Republican Party. I changed. I tested a different theory in politics. Is it okay to change your mind? Is it okay to grow? … That journey was a 10-year journey, not a 10-month journey … I supported, as a Republican, marriage equality, gun control, climate change, campaign finance reform. Republicans didn’t want me. Democrats didn’t need me.
I conflated religious beliefs with being anti Roe [v. Wade] when I entered politics. That’s true. I also, though, was someone looking for solutions. I was the only Republican in Congress to vote against the Planned Parenthood investigation, the only one when Republicans moved to defund it. I offered a compromise to move the money to community health centers so that there would be a continuation of care in communities across Florida and across the country.
It wasn’t really a pivot for me to register as a Democrat. I had kind of been there all along — not all along — but you know, during my [no-party-affiliated] years, I was an ally of the Democratic Party. So it has not been a significant pivot.
Q: What are your thoughts on the current state of Florida Ron DeSantis has created?
A: This is where it’s a lived experience. We have a 6 and 4 year old. We wrestle with the question, “Do we raise our kids in Florida?”
This is a home for the rich and the reckless under Ron DeSantis. Whether that’s because he favors developers, he favors the billionaires over the working class, whether it’s because he ignores public health … denies science where it matters. Whether it’s his attack on academia, whether it’s his notion that he wants to divide us over who we love or who we worship … The implicit biases behind the DeSantis administration are ugly, they’re gross … The “Free state of Florida” is a lie.
We’ve got a shot to change this.
Q: From your perspective, what have [Democrats] gotten wrong?
A: I’ve run more campaigns than I’ve been a candidate in so I know national Democrats and state Democrats have failed to meet voters where they’re at.
This is not a federal race. This is about the affordability crisis, education vouchers, corruption in Tallahassee. If Democrats start talking about Donald Trump in the governor’s race, we lose. This race isn’t about Donald Trump. It’s arguably not about DeSantis. It’s about the direction DeSantis has taken us. And so part of that is just kind of messaging. Are we on the right message for where voters are?
Q: Democrats have a serious problem in South Florida with the Hispanic vote. How do you plan to handle that?
A: We have to build a coalition that is broad and deep in communities across the state that includes socioeconomic, demographic subject matter, regional. We have to build and invest in communities where people believe in change.
I do think in the past, Democrats have been too hesitant to condemn the regime, to condemn communism, to condemn socialism. We can embrace capitalism that has fair rules that allow for opportunity for all people. We can condemn the regime but lift up the Cuban people. That is true of Venezuela, to Haitian Americans and others. … If we can change a conversation on this in Florida, we’ve changed it nationally.
Republicans for too long have succeeded in conflating immigration with crime. It’s ugly, it’s xenophobic, it’s wrong and it’s immoral. We can recognize and celebrate the contribution of immigrants, their contribution to our economy, their contributions to our culture. Lift them up. Celebrate them. Welcome them.
Q: How does Jason Pizzo play into the upcoming elections?
A: I’m going to say something you don’t hear a lot of Democrats say. I have enormous respect for Jason Pizzo because he followed his political convictions. I didn’t know Jason Pizzo 90 days ago. This isn’t an area that I’m from. I disagree with him when he says the Democratic Party is “dead.” I think the Democratic Party is alive and well and capable of winning next November.
But I’m not going to criticize Jason … My job is to build a coalition that he can believe in and everyone else can.
Q: You alluded to the Hope Florida scandal, what’s your take?
A: It sure appears criminal, and I think an investigation is merited, and I think investigation is likely being obstructed by Republican allies of the governor. And I think it’s clear that $10 million was stolen from the Medicaid program. I think the governor and First Lady are reacting with vanity, which doesn’t surprise me, and they’d be smart to just shut up.
Q: What do you think of DeSantis’ immigration blueprint?
A: When Ron DeSantis plays theater with our migrant community, putting them on planes, sending them to Martha’s Vineyard, or using tax dollars to go to Texas to grab a plane or whatever he was doing, that is just ugly, immoral behavior, and should be condemned.
Q: Should Florida force local law enforcement to join the 287(g) task force program?
A: The federal government has a responsibility to provide for immigration enforcement. That’s just the reality … My concern is that I think Republicans are just racing to embrace the president in a way that it’s skipping over due process, skipping over funding, it’s ignoring enforcement in criminal justice in other areas where local law enforcement should be looking … I think it’s just a matter of getting it right.
Q: And the affordability crisis that you’re talking about specifically is housing?
A: It is largely driven by housing costs, access to housing, contributed to mainly by the property-insurance crisis and the property-tax crisis. But I think we need big and bold changes … I think we need a CAT fund for property insurance, a state catastrophic fund that removes hurricane and natural disaster risks from the private market. You can actually reduce private insurance by about 60% if you do that in a lot of policies.
Q: Are you not prepared to offer a property tax solution because you don’t have one yet, or because you just don’t want to let it out today?
A: I believe we need property tax reform, but I believe it needs to be sober, reflect math, reflect revenue needs, include experts and economic growth and a real study, and then ultimately put those proposals in front of the voters, so that voters can decide. I don’t have a 10-point-plan on property-tax relief, but I think it is something that we need to do. I’m glad Tallahassee is talking about it. I just think they’re talking about it with a level of irresponsibility that should concern us.
Q: Are any of our local billionaires endorsing you?
A: I’m gonna leave that for next week. … we do have many of the traditional Democratic donors, supporters, electeds, former electeds … We have built a broad coalition.
