(Photo courtesy David Jolly’s campaign)
David Jolly isn’t afraid of change. It’s something he embraces both personally and professionally, at least when it’s for the better.
A former Republican who represented Pinellas County in the U.S. Congress from 2014-2017, Jolly announced his campaign to succeed the term-limited Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in June. As a Democrat:
It wasn’t a decision he made lightly, something he discussed with Watermark Out News on the campaign trail, where he’s met with several LGBTQ+ groups. He remained the only Democrat in the race until Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings filed to run Oct. 31. The general election is scheduled for Nov. 3, 2026.
After becoming a prominent Republican critic of Donald Trump’s policies during his first term, Jolly left the GOP in 2018. In recent years he’s regularly appeared as a political commentator on outlets like MSNBC.
He was registered as an Independent until April, an experience Jolly says “unlocked my own thinking about policy and politics.” He also notes his journey from Republican to Democrat has a consistent throughline.
It began with his initial interest in the GOP. Jolly says he was drawn to the party largely for its “smaller government” stance, something he feels has changed, and because “we’re heading toward an economic crisis because of our debt,” which he still believes.
“I always had this dissidence when it came to some of the hard cultural issues,” he notes, even as the son of a minister. Still a practicing Christian, Jolly says that while his father frequently centered love in his messaging, he was “in an evangelical or faith environment” that largely subscribed to traditional views on issues like reproductive and LGBTQ+ rights.
Despite this, “I was never comfortable seeing [those views] in government,” he says.
It’s why Jolly was largely known as a “moderate” Republican in Congress. He pushed back against the conservative Tea Party movement, supported marriage equality in 2014, spoke out against Trump’s Muslim ban in 2015 and advocated for gun regulation after Pulse in 2016.
“I guess my history within the party is one of fighting the trend further and further right, but always being on the losing side of it,” Jolly reflects now. “I have changed on issues, and I talk about that, but I realized what I saw in today’s Democratic Party were the values that I have held and tried to exercise, both as a Republican when I lost those battles and when I tried to mobilize as an Independent.
“What I finally saw in the Democratic Party were the values I’ve been fighting for all along,” he continues. “That the economy should work for everybody, absolutely everybody … that the government has a role and a responsibility in our life … and we should be a place where everyone’s empowered, lifted up and where our rights are protected. Regardless of the color of your skin, where you were born, who you love or who you worship.”
It’s something his campaign outlined from the outset. Jolly hopes to tackle Florida’s affordability and insurance crisis, increase funding for the state’s schools, make Florida a leader in campaign finance reform and ethics and strengthen the local economy.
Jolly — who like 57% of Florida voters supported Amendment 4 in 2022, which would have protected abortion access — also wants to restore reproductive freedom in the state.
Additionally, the campaign wants Florida to “accept the science of climate change” and invest in climate resiliency, reduce gun violence by banning the sale of assault weapons and requiring universal and comprehensive background checks and to deliver affordable healthcare by expanding Medicaid.
Jolly also believes Florida should “fight crime, not communities.”
“Whether you’re a native-born Floridian, an immigrant to our state, or a Tallahassee politician, if you break the law in Florida you’ll be held accountable,” his website states. “But Florida can also be a state that corrects disparities in criminal justice for communities of color and immigrant communities, promoting local control of community policing.”
The candidate hopes to end Florida’s “culture wars” as well, which have been used to “divide and demonize” Floridians. Jolly wants the state to “create a home where everyone is valued, respected and welcomed,” embracing everyone, including the immigrant and LGBTQ+ communities.
“Both as a matter of law and as a matter of leadership, the LGBTQ+ community has been under attack, and particularly the trans community,” Jolly says. “We need a voice of leadership that defends and stands up for and is an ally of the community. That is certainly what I tried to do over 10 years ago in Congress, when it was highly unpopular as a Republican.”
So much so that after Jolly told The Washington Post he supported same-sex marriage in 2014 — while still advising he personally believed marriage was between a man and a woman — that local conservatives threatened their support in the race he ultimately lost.
“You ran for Congress as a member of the Republican Party with a platform clearly affirming that ‘marriage, the union of one man and one woman must be upheld as the national standard’ and now you have turned your back on this standard,” faith leaders published in an open letter. “We reject your illusory and false distinction between ‘personal views’ and ‘constitutional views’ as a legislator as you made no such distinction during your campaign.”
In a first, Jolly confirms to Watermark Out News that his personal views on marriage equality have evolved as well.
“Today, I would tell you that I would not interpret the Bible from a Christian viewpoint prohibiting same-sex marriage, because it would be in conflict with what I believe to be a fundamental truism of Christianity, which is that everyone is created by design, created in the image of God, created with perfection,” Jolly says.
“That includes in their sexuality, and who they ultimately love,” he continues. “… I think there are a number of stories and teachings in the Bible that simply have no application to today’s society, particularly within a society in which a Constitution protects everyone. I think I would include homosexuality and same-sex marriage in that space as well.”
He also says it’s wrong for Democrats to “stray away” from transgender Americans, as some national politicians have. He vows not to do so in Florida.
“Some party has to defend the fundamental and basic rights of everybody, but also the dignity of everybody,” Jolly says. “I think that’s a faith teaching, that we defend people’s dignity, and I want to have that conversation with the faith community, that it’s okay to defend people’s dignity.”
As far as policy goes, Jolly says that means allowing individuals and families to make health care decisions for themselves.
“Get the politicians completely out of it,” he stresses. “I think that’s going to require a reversal. I think we also have to look at access to care through executive action where access is limited, let’s see what we can do.
“I used to belong to a Republican Party where we stayed out of people’s personal life, and we stayed out of their medical decisions,” he notes. “I think we should get back that place.”
Not everyone has welcomed Jolly’s evolution. U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, a Republican running for governor who’s backed by Trump, immediately criticized his entry in the race.
Calling him “completely out of touch with Florida’s voters and our values,” Donalds said that by “switching from Republican to Independent to Democrat, Jolly has officially completed his transition to become the next Charlie Crist.”
Crist, a former Florida governor and Republican who unseated Jolly as a Democrat to represent Tampa Bay’s District 13 from 2017-2022, vacated his U.S. House seat in hopes of returning to the governor’s mansion in 2022. He failed.
DeSantis triumphed with over 59% of the vote, securing a second term he’s used to champion anti-LGBTQ+ laws and policies across the state. The outcome has also led some Democrats to question if nominating a former Republican is the best way forward.
Jolly notes he welcomes the discussion.
“I love the conversation,” he says. “I talk about my change. I think change is important in politics. I don’t think the problem in politics is people who change — I think it’s people who won’t change.
“We’ve undergone the most divisive, toxic and ideologically transformational decade in American history,” Jolly continues. “I think we need people who change in the face of that. I worry more about people like Byron Donalds [and] elected Republicans, who have changed more than anybody in American politics in the last 10 years.”
Republicans used to champion less government and spending, Jolly explains, but now they “want Governor DeSantis in your bedroom, your doctor’s office, your library and your classroom.”
On debt, he notes, “Donald Trump is responsible for a greater increase in the national debt than anybody we’ve seen before … yet [Republican officials] all defend that, and they back it up.
“So I think there’s a real question about who’s changed, but the important thing is, who’s changed for the better?” he asks. “Who’s changed to better represent the state and represent the people?”
Jolly says it’s him.
“Charlie spent a decade trying to convince us he hadn’t changed, and no one believed him,” he charges. “I talk about my change. I’m proud of my change … and I’m a different candidate.”
A different candidate not just than Crist, he notes, but also every other Democratic candidate who lost by significant margins in recent elections.
“I think I bring a different candidacy than … anyone else, but it’s also a different cycle,” Jolly stresses. “That’s what we’ve got to realize as Democrats. We can win this cycle.”
He’ll need support from outside of the Democratic Party to do it. As of Sept. 30, Florida is home to 5.5 million Republicans, 4.1 million Democrats and 3.4 million Independents.
“I’m a super voter in the state of Florida. I’ve never missed an election,” Jolly says. “Never once as an Independent did the Democratic or Republican Party ever reach out to me. Never once. There are hundreds of thousands of Independent voter who never miss an election and never once get a call, an email or knock on the door.”
It’s something his campaign hopes to change — and while he rarely looks past next November, he does have a message in mind once the polls close.
“On election night, when we win, one of the things I want to do is stand up and say to the world that — in the home that launched the culture wars, the state of Florida — we apologize,” Jolly says. “We apologize as a state, to the country and to the world, for denigrating people, for making them feel unwelcome.
“We apologize and we want people to return to Florida,” he continues. “We want to celebrate everyone in this state, and this is now going to be a state where everyone’s welcome, whether you live here or you want to visit here.”
It’s a speech he hopes to make after uniting all types of people across Florida in the next year.
“My job is to be a strong enough candidate that this coalition can come together and lift all of us up and achieve change,” Jolly says. “I think we can do it. I think the moment’s here in Florida history, I really do.”
The general election will be held Nov. 3, 2026 and additional coverage will follow. To learn more about David Jolly and his campaign, visit DavidJolly.com.
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