David Jolly seeks Florida governor's office Nov. 3

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 are Charles Burkett, Dean Ocean Abrams, Frank Russo, Jeffrey Peter Datto and Moliere Dimanche, all running with no party preference, and Scott Jewett, the Libertarian candidate, according to BallotReady election data.

Candidate information

Party: Democratic
Running mate: Former Democratic Congresswoman Gwen Graham, who represented Florida's 2nd Congressional District, according to Wikipedia
Born: Oct. 31, 1972, in Dunedin, Florida; grew up in Dade City, Florida
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
Background: Jolly said he is a fifth-generation Floridian and the son of a Baptist minister, Lawson Jolly

Experience and public service

Jolly served as staff and general counsel in the office of U.S. Representative 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, according to Wikipedia. He founded Three Bridges Advisors in 2011, according to BallotReady.

He represented Florida's 13th Congressional District in Congress from 2014 to 2017 as a Republican. Jolly said his work on campaign finance reform was featured on CBS' "60 Minutes" while he was in Congress.

He left the party in 2018.

Jolly spent several years as an independent after leaving the Republican Party in September 2018. He 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 said he also worked as a political analyst at NBC and MSNBC.

On the issues

The following positions are stated by Jolly on his campaign issues page and represent the candidate's own responses.

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

Environment and energy: Jolly said Florida should accept the science of climate change, protect beaches and state parks, and invest in resiliency statewide. He said the state should require greater integration of clean energy technologies into public utilities, saying those technologies can drive down utility costs for consumers.

Education: Jolly 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 likely to collapse and called for means-testing vouchers and capping tuition inflation for voucher students.

Healthcare: Jolly said Florida should expand Medicaid, calling it a critical program that supports childbirth care, long-term care for seniors and funding for hospitals across the state.

Government reform: Jolly said Florida has some of the weakest ethics and campaign finance rules of any state. He called for sweeping ethics reform and said the state should respect home rule and make constitutional amendments easier for voters to place on the ballot. He also pledged to reopen the Hope Florida investigation if elected, according to Sparker's Soapbox.