David Jolly runs for Florida governor as a Democrat

David Jolly, a former Republican congressman who became a Democrat, is running for Florida governor.

Jolly won the Democratic primary on Aug. 18 and faces Republican Byron Donalds in the general election, according to NBC News. Six other candidates are also on the ballot, according to BallotReady: 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).

Candidate information

Name: David Jolly
Party: Democratic
Office sought: Florida Governor
Election date: Nov. 3, 2026
Running mate: Former Democratic Congresswoman Gwen Graham of 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); law degree from George Mason University (2001), according to BallotReady

Jolly describes himself as a fifth-generation Floridian and the son of a Baptist minister, Lawson Jolly, according to his campaign website.

Experience and public service

Jolly served as staff and general counsel in the office of U.S. Representative Bill Young (FL-13) 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 BallotReady.

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

Jolly left the Republican Party in September 2018. He spent several years as an independent, co-founded the Forward Party in 2022, then registered as a Democrat in April 2025 and launched his gubernatorial bid in June 2025, according to Wikipedia. He also worked as a political analyst at NBC and MSNBC, according to his campaign website.

On the issues

Jolly has outlined positions on several policy areas on his campaign issues page, as reported by BallotReady:

Housing and insurance: Jolly calls the property insurance crisis 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 costly repairs.

Education: Jolly says public schools have been inadequately funded for decades and proposes a 10-year plan that includes increasing teacher pay by 30 percent. He says the state voucher program is built on an economic model likely to collapse and calls for means-testing vouchers and capping tuition inflation at private schools that accept them.

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.

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 ethics reform and says the state should make constitutional amendments easier for voters to place on the ballot.