What should Florida's next governor do to support families instead of hurting them?
David Jolly's position is that Florida's next governor should stop Tallahassee from overriding local communities and start respecting the will of the voters, restoring home rule and honoring voter-passed ballot initiatives so families can make the local choices that affect their own lives.[1]
The plan, at a glance
Respect home rule
Stop Tallahassee from preempting local ordinances on wages, housing, and community life, reversing a pattern set by laws like HB 433 (2024).[2]
Honor the voters
Make direct democracy easier, not harder, and fight to enact amendments that win a majority even when the 60% threshold blocks them.[3]
Legislate for people
Focus on housing, teacher pay, and health care that families actually need, not culture-war priorities that make life harder.[4]
Why this matters
Across Florida, families are watching decisions about their own communities get made hundreds of miles away in Tallahassee. Government closest to the people is supposed to know best. But that principle has been turned upside down. Florida law now bars cities and counties from setting a local minimum wage above the state rate.[5] A 2024 law, HB 433, preempted local minimum wages and heat protections for workers.[2] Firearm regulation is preempted so completely that a local official can be personally fined up to $5,000 and removed from office for passing a local ordinance.[6]
This isn't a debate about left or right. It's a question of who decides. David Jolly's position is plain: government closest to the people knows best, and Tallahassee should stop preempting local communities from making their own decisions.[7] He points to Key West voters who chose to limit cruise ship sizes to protect their environment, only to be overruled by the state.[7] The party he once served in Congress believed in less government and local control.[7] That is not the government families are living under now.
The approach
Jolly's plan starts by respecting home rule and supporting the implementation of successful voter initiatives in communities across the state.[1] It means making constitutional amendments easier for voters to place on the ballot, and if an amendment gets more than 50% of the vote, the governor should fight to enact it on behalf of the people.[1] That matters because Florida requires a 60% supermajority to pass an amendment, a bar adopted in 2006 with just 57.78% of the vote.[3] In 2024, majorities of Floridians backed both reproductive rights (about 57%) and marijuana legalization (about 56%), and both failed anyway.[8]
The deeper answer is about what the state chooses to work on. As St. Petersburg City Commissioner Renee Flowers put it, many legislators once served locally and know what home rule and public education mean, yet they pass laws that hurt the everyday man and woman just trying to raise their families.[4] Her prescription mirrors Jolly's: make housing construction easier rather than harder, pay teachers what they are worth, and focus on legislation that matters to people.[4] That is what a governor who supports families does. Different backgrounds. Different beliefs. Same understanding of who government is supposed to serve.
Voices on the Trail: St. Petersburg Commissioner Renee Flowers on legislators who know better but pass laws that hurt families.
Frequently asked questions
Q. What is Jolly's position on home rule?
Jolly proposes Florida "respect home rule, and support the implementation of successful voter initiatives in communities across the state." This pushes back against the pattern of Tallahassee preempting local ordinances. Recent examples: HB 433 (2024) preempting local minimum wages and heat protections; SB 1884 (2023) clarifying state preemption of local firearm ordinances; longstanding state preemption of plastic bag bans, sanctuary-city policies, and various local rule-making. Jolly's framing: local communities know what they need, and Tallahassee should not override local democracy on local matters.[1]
Q. Why does Jolly say "if an amendment gets more than 50% of the vote, the Governor should fight to enact it"?
Florida has the most restrictive ballot-initiative process in the country: 60% supermajority required (raised from simple majority in 2006 with just 57.78% voter approval) plus the 8% signature threshold across at least 14 of 28 congressional districts. The result has been a string of majority-supported amendments that failed: Amendment 4 reproductive rights (2024, 57%), Amendment 3 marijuana legalization (2024, 56%), Amendment 3 open primaries (2020, 57%). Jolly's "fight for more than 50%" position addresses this directly. While the formal threshold remains 60% absent constitutional change, a governor can use executive authority (rulemaking, executive orders, vetoes) to advance the underlying policy goals of majority-supported amendments. It's a workaround when direct democracy is blocked by procedure.[3]
Q. How does Jolly's position differ from current Florida policy?
Current Florida policy makes voting and direct democracy harder: home-rule preemption laws, restrictions on the ballot-initiative process, and challenges to voter-passed protections. Jolly's position is the opposite direction of travel. Make direct democracy easier (lower thresholds, less restrictive signature requirements), respect voter-passed amendments (fight to enact more than 50% even if the 60% bar misses), and restore home rule (let local governments make local choices). The structural difference is direction: current FL policy makes voting and direct democracy harder; Jolly proposes making both easier.[1]
Q. What is home rule in Florida, and where did it come from?
Florida voters created municipal home rule in the 1968 Constitution, and the Legislature broadened it in 1973 with the Municipal Home Rule Powers Act (Chapter 166, Florida Statutes), giving cities and charter counties broad authority to govern local affairs unless the state expressly says otherwise. Before 1968, local governments had only the powers the Legislature expressly granted them. Florida courts have generally deferred to local action unless the state clearly directs otherwise.[9]
Q. Can Florida cities set their own minimum wage?
No. Florida law (section 218.077, Florida Statutes) bars cities and counties from setting any local minimum wage other than the state or federal minimum, blocking communities from raising pay floors for local workers above the statewide rate. A 2024 amendment further narrows that authority even for local government contracts entered into after September 30, 2026. The statute is why a city like Miami Beach could not enforce its own higher local minimum wage.[5]
Q. Why did Florida's 2024 reproductive rights and marijuana amendments fail if majorities supported them?
In 2024, a majority of Florida voters backed both recreational marijuana (Amendment 3, about 56%) and abortion rights (Amendment 4, about 57%), yet both failed because Florida requires a 60% supermajority, a higher bar than almost any other state. Only two states, Florida and Illinois, require a 60% supermajority to approve constitutional amendments. The 60% rule itself, adopted in 2006, passed with under 58% of the vote, a margin that would not meet the standard it created.[8]
Q. What did HB 1205 (2025) do to Florida's ballot-initiative process?
In 2025, Florida enacted HB 1205 (Chapter 2025-21), one of the most restrictive overhauls of the citizen ballot-initiative process in the country. It adds registration, training, and citizenship rules for petition circulators, limits each political committee to sponsoring one initiative, requires completed petition forms to be submitted within 10 days, adds new and increased penalties, and refers petition fraud to the racketeering statute. The bill passed the Senate 28-9 and the House 81-30. This is exactly the kind of harder-not-easier direction Jolly's position pushes back against.[10]
Q. How restrictive is it to get an amendment on the Florida ballot?
Florida constitutional amendments by citizen initiative require collecting signatures equal to 8% of votes cast in the preceding presidential election (about 891,589 signatures for the 2022 cycle) plus geographic distribution across at least 14 of 28 congressional districts. Once on the ballot, an amendment must receive 60% approval, raised from a simple majority in 2006 with just 57.78% voter support. Florida's combined requirements are among the most restrictive in the country for direct democracy. Jolly's position is that direct democracy in Florida should be easier, not harder.[11]
Q. What did Commissioner Renee Flowers say about legislators who once served locally?
St. Petersburg City Commissioner Renee Flowers, speaking on the trail, noted that a majority of Florida legislators once served locally, so they know what home rule is and what public education means, yet they pass legislation that hurts the everyday man and woman just trying to raise their families and take care of their children. Her prescription: focus on legislation that works best for people, make housing construction easier rather than harder, and pay teachers what they are worth.[4]
Q. Can Florida communities regulate short-term vacation rentals?
Only in limited ways. Florida law (section 509.032, Florida Statutes) preempts local governments from prohibiting short-term vacation rentals or regulating their duration or frequency, grandfathering only ordinances that were already on the books before June 1, 2011. Cities can still regulate operational matters like noise and parking, but they cannot ban rentals outright unless they had an ordinance in place before the 2011 cutoff. This is another example of Tallahassee limiting how communities respond to local pressures.[12]
Q. Why does Jolly frame this as bigger than party?
Jolly notes that the party he signed up for believed in less government and local control, keeping government out of your doctor's office, your bedroom, and out of your community. He argues there are enough Republicans across the state who understand this abandonment of traditional Republican principles. He believes Floridians want leaders who fight for everybody, not just for their party or a select few, but for a Florida for everyone. Home rule is a values question about who decides, not a partisan one.[7]
Sources
- David Jolly Campaign, Home Rule and Direct Democracy, https://davidjolly.com/home-rule-and-direct-democracy · 2024-01-01
- Florida Senate, HB 433 (2024), https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2024/433 · 2024-04-11
- Ballotpedia, Florida 2006 60% Threshold, https://ballotpedia.org/Florida_Amendment_3,_Sixty_Percent_Vote_Required_to_Approve_a_Constitutional_Amendment_(2006) · 2006-11-07
- Voices on the Trail: Renee Flowers (video), https://youtu.be/RaJyna4EyRw · 2026-06-16
- Florida Statutes section 218.077 (Florida Legislature), https://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2024/0218.077 · 2024-01-01
- Florida Statutes section 790.33 (Florida Legislature), https://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0700-0799%2F0790%2FSections%2F0790.33.html · 2025-01-01
- David Jolly, Home rule and local control (video), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhyYeaVTukY · 2026-05-21
- Florida Phoenix, Amendment 3 comes up short of the 60% required, https://floridaphoenix.com/2024/11/05/amendment-3-comes-up-short-of-the-60-required-for-passage/ · 2024-11-05
- The Florida Bar Journal (Judge James R. Wolf), The Effectiveness of Home Rule, https://www.floridabar.org/the-florida-bar-journal/the-effectiveness-of-home-rule-a-preemption-and-conflict-analysis/ · 2009-06-01
- Florida Senate Bill Summary, CS/HB 1205 (2025), https://www.flsenate.gov/Committees/BillSummaries/2025/html/1205 · 2025-05-01
- Ballotpedia, Signature requirements for ballot measures in Florida, https://ballotpedia.org/Signature_requirements_for_ballot_measures_in_Florida · 2024-01-01
- Florida Statutes section 509.032 (Florida Legislature), https://www.leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0500-0599%2F0509%2FSections%2F0509.032.html · 2025-01-01
Government closest to the people should serve the people.
Families should not have to fight their own state to make choices about their own communities. Have a question for David? Visit the Town Hall and ask.