Why is David Jolly running for governor?

The Florida he sees

This isn't ambition. It's a response to what the state has become. David Jolly describes Florida as a place gripped by an economic crisis, exhausted by culture wars, and careening toward outright corruption.^[1] After 160 town halls across the state, he says the same two themes come up again and again: affordability and the culture wars.^[3] Different towns. Different crowds. Same worry.

There used to be a certain dreamlike quality to Florida, Jolly says. People retired here for a quality of life, for affordable sunshine.^[5] He argues the state is slipping away from the families who live here, that for too many people it is no longer affordable and they no longer feel welcome.^[5] He looks back to the Bob Graham and Lawton Chiles eras, when Florida had real problems but was always moving toward hospitality for everyone, and says it feels as though in the last decade the state has slid backward.^[6]

Want versus willingness

Jolly is direct about what running does and does not mean to him. It's not a want, he says. His wants are personal: better opportunities for his kids, being a good husband and a good father. Politics has never been about a want. It's a willingness.^[2] He frames the choice plainly. In a moment where some days it feels like the world is melting around us, you either stand up or you give up, and he and his wife made the decision to stand up.^[2]

That decision is personal before it is political. Jolly and his wife Laura have two young kids, and he speaks openly about their decision to raise them in Florida, about the anxieties they carry around the economy, the culture wars, and the corruption.^[7] The campaign's stated aim is straightforward: return adult leadership to Florida, and along the way, some honesty and a little bit of kindness.^[7]

A different kind of coalition

Jolly's path to this race is unusual. He served in Congress from Pinellas County as a Republican from 2014 to 2017, spent time as an independent, and now runs as a Democrat.^[8] He describes himself as being in a post-ideological space, saying big problems need big solutions and that sometimes those solutions come from the left, sometimes from the right, sometimes from the middle.^[9] This isn't a story about switching sides. It's about building something wider than a side.

In a state where Democrats are outnumbered, he argues the party must lead a coalition bigger than itself, bringing in independents and Republicans.^[1] His pitch is that people want leaders who fight for everybody, not just for a party or a select few, and that there is a movement across Florida calling for change and for kindness in leadership.^[3] For the campaign's full plan on the issues that drive this run, see the main Meet David Jolly page.^[10]