David Jolly once won a bitter fight to represent a Florida swing seat in Congress as a Republican. Now, he’s exploring a run for Governor by meeting with Democratic clubs across the state.
Jolly, who spent much of his political energy in the last decade promoting political movements outside the two-party system, said he will run as a Democrat if he decides to seek the Governor’s Mansion next year.
“I’ve considered myself a proud member of the Democratic Coalition for years now,” Jolly told Florida Politics. “The coalition I would need is essentially the same. You need Democrats, independents and kind of mainstream Republicans to build a coalition. If you do it as an NPA (no party affiliation candidate) or as a Democrat, you are still asking if you can change the state.”
Jolly met with the Legislative Black Caucus, a heavily Democrat-leaning group of elected officials, in a Monday meeting first reported by POLITICO. But more important, Jolly said, have been meetings with local Democratic clubs all throughout the state over much of the past year. From speaking with party regulars, he feels his current political philosophy largely aligns with Florida Democrats.
But he has identified as nonpartisan since 2018, when he left the Republican Party halfway into President Donald Trump’s first term in the White House. He also has been involved in third-party politics, whether as Executive Director of the Serve America Movement in 2020 or as one of the co-founders of the Forward Party in 2022.
But Jolly said he can’t deny that American democracy is built around the two-party system.
“I still like multiparty democracies,” he said. “Around the world, they have greater participation, better satisfaction, better outcomes. But we don’t have a multiparty system in the U.S.”
Despite a shift toward Republican politics in the last four years, Jolly sees a hunger in Florida for a break from reactionary government. “Republicans spent eight years fighting culture wars,” he said. “Voters want them to address the insurance crisis and have better schools.”
He said his platform will focus on topics like reforming the insurance market and making sure Florida vouchers for private schools are adjusted for inflation rather than being paid at a low amount that still won’t help families.
He also believes one-party rule has resulted in open corruption in state government, and believes the public would embrace campaign finance reforms to combat that.
With term limits prohibiting Gov. Ron DeSantis from running again, Jolly said he also sees a path to victory that’s more clear just because there is an open seat.
“This is a good cycle for Florida to choose its direction,” he said.
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