David Jolly announces campaign for Florida governor

Full interview: David Jolly announces 2026 gubernatorial run

Former U.S. Rep. David Jolly sat down with FOX 13's Craig Patrick, announcing he's running for Florida governor as a Democrat in 2026.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - A former Republican is the first major Democrat to enter Florida’s 2026 race for governor. David Jolly represented Pinellas County as a GOP U.S. Representative from 2014-2017.

He was an outspoken critic of President Trump who cited changes in both parties in his decision to run as a Democrat, as well as his principles as a centrist.

Former U.S. Rep. David Jolly is running for governor in 2026 as a Democrat.

What they're saying:

"I'm for lower corporate taxes because I think it leads to greater economic growth. But I'm more for gun safety legislation because I think that reduces violence in our state," Jolly said.

Jolly acknowledged the statistical disadvantages of running as a Democrat in Florida, where active Republican voters increasingly outnumber Democrats, and Republicans have dominated in campaign fundraising. He hopes to succeed by winning over nonpartisan voters and disaffected Republicans.

"In a Republican super-state where Republicans will outraise and outspend us two to one, the only way to win an election is to build a true coalition of change," he noted. "Go into communities where we haven't been in a long time and to show that we can build trust and build coalitions, to listen to each other, and actually realize that maybe we should put change ahead of our partisan affiliation."

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Affordable Housing and Insurance Reform

Dig deeper:

Jolly is focusing his campaign on the affordable housing crisis. He supports a reduction in property taxes. He wants to use tourist and development tax dollars to build workforce housing and offer more block grants to communities for affordable housing.

He also proposed a state catastrophe fund far different from the cat fund Florida currently uses to provide state-backed reinsurance to private insurance companies. Jolly called for a state fund that could cover property losses from disasters in lieu of private coverage, which he claimed could reduce insurance for homeowners by 60%.

"I'm talking about fully removing natural disaster perils from the private market by funding a state catastrophic fund. Look, the private insurance market has collapsed in the State of Florida. It's not coming back," Jolly said. "Republicans are tinkering around the edges. They are bringing in under-capitalized firms, and as we've just seen, they're allowing insurance companies to send their profits out of state and keep the losses there. They're doing that to try to stabilize a market that cannot be stabilized. We have to recognize, when private markets fail, government has to step in. We do it in healthcare, right? We have Medicare and Medicaid and other programs because the healthcare market is just too expensive for many people. But we have to think about that in property insurance as well."

Former U.S. Rep. David Jolly is running for governor in 2026 as a Democrat.

Public Education

Jolly also called for a 30% public teacher pay raise and additional stipulations for private schools that accept vouchers.

"Why not require our private voucher schools to provide the same services that our public schools do? Now this also makes me a little bit of a different Democrat. I'm not for ending the voucher program, but we need to means test it and put rules and requirements on private schools that are on public schools if they're receiving state money. Let's view public and private educators as partners of Florida's families and say if you're going to educate our kids with public money, then you're going to abide by the same rules," he said.

The Environment

On environmental policy, Jolly favors additional fertilizer restrictions and smart, controlled growth to address the toxic algae problem in Florida’s fresh waterways. He also said the state must restore the Ocklawaha River, which sustained substantial damage from the failed and long-abandoned Cross Florida Barge Canal project.

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The Source: This story was written with information from an interview with David Jolly conducted by FOX 13's Craig Patrick.

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