The aptly-named David Jolly has a level of faith in Florida’s future that I’m not sure we deserve.
“I am an idealist,” the Democratic candidate for governor says. “But I am not naive. I’m not foolish … If we think the answers are easy, we’re fooling ourselves.”
Jolly makes us want to believe in a much better Florida than the one we’re living in now.
In too many ways, the state we love has become a miserable place.
Mike Stocker/Sun Sentinel
Steve Bousquet, Sun Sentinel columnist.
We live in the land of Alligator Alcatraz, where rainbow crosswalks are painted over in black paint in the middle of the night.
We live in a state where health “experts” tell us that little kids do not have to be vaccinated against measles and polio any more.
We live in a state with a six-week abortion ban, yet with a record-breaking number of death row executions.
We live under a governor who gleefully shipped migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard; celebrates an “open carry” gun law; undermines academic freedoms; transforms universities into hotbeds of cronyism; actually sees drag shows as a threat to the republic; and attacks diversity in all its forms.
“Is this the right place to raise our own children?” Jolly asks. “I contemplate that now.”
He is a fifth-generation Floridian and the 52-year-old son of a minister (“a Southern Baptist preacher’s kid,” as he puts it) who wants to be the next governor.
If the race were held today, he would face U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, who has the enthusiastic backing of the one Republican who matters — Donald Trump.
Jolly was a congressman from St. Petersburg who learned the political ropes working for Rep. C. W. (Bill) Young, a man widely respected across the aisle when that lofty concept still existed.
He used to be a Republican, then became an independent, and is now a Democrat — a personal evolution that he will have to defend from now until Election Night.
If Jolly has anything to say about it, the next election for governor is going to be about change. Changing what Florida is.
“Florida voters are screaming for change,” Jolly said, speaking to the Capital Tiger Bay Club in Tallahassee on Thursday.
What’s the alternative? Four more years of “more of what got us into this,” he says.
He calls the state’s abandonment of public education, and the paltry pay for teachers, is a “moral wrong.”
He supports school choice (his own children receive tuition vouchers) but insists that with him in office, voucher schools will be held to the same standards as public schools — a promise that drew loud applause.
He thinks of his kids, a six-year-old and a four-year-old, not yet knowing what either will be when they grow up.
If Florida continues as it is, “will they feel loved and embraced in this state?” Jolly asks. “I don’t think so.”
He’s quietly going around the state, holding town halls, spreading his message to 50 or 100 people at a time.
He envisions a state that “works for everybody” regardless of where you live or “who you love,” as he often says.
You have to be optimistic when you’re a Democrat in a state that has not elected a Democrat as governor since Lawton Chiles in 1994.
Republicans have a voter registration advantage of 1.4 million and it’s growing every month. It is mathematically impossible for any Democrat to win statewide without appealing to Republicans and NPAs, voters who have no party affiliation.
A demand for change is Jolly’s best hope. He has to convince enough Republicans and independent voters that this state is on the wrong track — catastrophically so.
If enough people here are satisfied with unaffordable housing and sky-high insurance rates, then obviously Jolly has no shot.
If too many Democrats don’t think the preacher’s son has a prayer, that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. They will stay home and one more Republican will win in a landslide.
But as Jolly says: “When you have a chance to change the world, you take it.”
Steve Bousquet is the Opinion Editor of the Sun Sentinel and a columnist in Tallahassee and Fort Lauderdale. Contact him at sbousquet@sunsentinel.com or (850) 567-2240 and follow him on X @stevebousquet.