What will David Jolly do to keep ideologues out of Florida's public health system?
David Jolly has said he would fire the Surgeon General of Florida on his first day as governor and replace that person with a public health leader who believes in vaccines, science, and evidence, restoring public health leadership to its basic job of protecting Floridians rather than fighting culture wars.
The commitment, at a glance
Day one action
David Jolly says the loudest applause he gets across Florida comes when he commits to firing the Surgeon General on day one and bringing in someone who believes in public health, vaccines, and science.[1]
Science over ideology
The campaign believes public health leadership should be about public health, not ideology, keeping ideologues out of the state's science.[1]
Bigger than party
David Jolly frames this as a universal issue that resonates whether the room holds ten people or five hundred.[2]
Why this matters
Across Florida, people are saying the same thing. Public health leadership should be about public health. Not politics. Not ideology. The office of the Surgeon General exists to protect Floridians. Right now, for too many families, it isn't doing that job.[1]
This isn't a left or right question. It's a question of whether the people leading Florida's health agencies believe in the basic tools of medicine. Vaccines. Data. Science. David Jolly has said that keeping ideologues out of the state's science is the first step, and that on day one as governor he would fire the Surgeon General and bring in someone who believes in public health.[1]
The approach
David Jolly describes this as one of the most universal things he says on the trail. It doesn't matter if there are ten people in the room or five hundred. The applause is the same. He frames the goal simply: keep the ideologues out, and bring in a Surgeon General who believes in vaccines and science.[2] It sits inside a larger conviction the campaign carries: that leaders should serve everyone, not just their party or a select few.[3]
The concern is bigger than one appointment. Florida is one of ten states that has not expanded Medicaid.[4] About one in seven working-age Floridians went without health insurance in 2024, well above the national rate.[5] When the people in charge of public health treat science as a battleground instead of a tool, those numbers get worse, not better. David Jolly's view is that the state can't fix access if the leadership doesn't believe in the medicine. Fixing who runs public health is where it starts.
Why Florida's Next Governor Will Fire the Surgeon General.
This page answers one question. To see the campaign's full plan on health care, including Medicaid expansion and scaling up community health centers in every county, visit the Health Care issue page.
Frequently asked questions
Q. Would David Jolly really fire the Surgeon General on day one?
Yes. David Jolly has said that firing the Surgeon General of Florida is something he gets to do on his first day as governor, and that the loudest applause he receives across the state comes when he commits to it. He says he would bring in someone who believes in public health, vaccines, and science.[1]
Q. Why does he say public health leadership matters so much?
The campaign's view is that public health leadership should be about public health, not ideology, and that keeping ideologues out of the state's science is essential. David Jolly frames this as universal, resonating whether he is speaking to ten people or five hundred.[2]
Q. Is this a partisan attack?
The campaign frames it as bigger than party. David Jolly says people across Florida want leaders who will fight for everybody, not just for their party or a select few, but for a Florida for everyone.[3] The commitment to science-based public health is presented as a universal issue rather than a left or right one.[2]
Q. How many Floridians are uninsured right now?
About one in seven Florida adults ages 19 to 64 lacked health insurance in 2024, an uninsured rate of 15.5 percent compared to 11.3 percent nationally. Florida's overall rate of 10.9 percent is one of the highest in the country and rose from 10.7 percent in 2023.[5]
Q. Has Florida expanded Medicaid?
No. Florida is one of 10 states that have not expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. As of May 2026, 41 states (including DC) have expanded; the holdouts are Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. As governor, David Jolly says Florida should commit to expanding Medicaid in the face of cuts from Washington and Tallahassee.[4]
Q. How does this fit into his broader health care plan?
Fixing who leads public health is the first step. David Jolly's broader plan is to introduce two major packages to the Legislature: one to expand Medicaid, and one to scale up the direct delivery of primary health care through Federally Qualified Community Health Centers and county health clinics, with the goal of reaching all 67 Florida counties. He proposes piloting the community health center scale-up for five years.[6]
Q. What are Federally Qualified Health Centers?
Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) are community-based primary care clinics that serve patients regardless of insurance status, using a sliding-fee scale for low-income patients. They operate under Section 330 of the federal Public Health Service Act. Nationally, over 32 million Americans use HRSA-funded health centers annually, with about 90 percent of patients at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level.[7]
Q. Why does the campaign say this is about affordability?
David Jolly describes Florida as gripped by an affordability crisis and exhausted by culture wars, themes he says people consistently raise after doing 160 town halls across the state. He argues that leadership rooted in ideology rather than science makes health care harder to access and more expensive, and that Floridians want leaders who solve the most problems for the most people.[8]
Sources
- David Jolly, Why Florida's Next Governor Will Fire the Surgeon General (video), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbwjqzerOek · 2026-05-21
- David Jolly on firing the Surgeon General (campaign video), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbwjqzerOek · 2026-05-21
- David Jolly on leadership for everyone (campaign video), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzSpIBCQ6UU · 2026-03-09
- Kaiser Family Foundation, Status of State Medicaid Expansion Decisions, https://www.kff.org/medicaid/status-of-state-medicaid-expansion-decisions/ · 2026-05-06
- U.S. Census Bureau, Health Insurance Coverage by State 2023 and 2024, https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/2025/demo/acsbr-024.pdf · 2025-09-01
- David Jolly, As Governor: Healthcare affordability, https://davidjolly.com/healthcare · 2024-01-01
- HRSA Bureau of Primary Health Care, Impact of the Health Center Program, https://bphc.hrsa.gov/about-health-center-program/impact-health-center-program · 2024-01-01
- David Jolly on Florida's affordability crisis and town halls (campaign video), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzSpIBCQ6UU · 2026-03-09
Public health should be about public health. Nothing else.
When science becomes a battleground, families pay the price. Have a question for David? Visit the Town Hall and ask.