Democratic candidate for Florida governor David Jolly picked up the endorsement of a prominent civil rights leader who called President Donald Trump’s behavior “despicable and evil.”
The Rev. Dr. R.B. Holmes of Tallahassee’s iconic Bethel Missionary Baptist Church, which helped organize Florida’s civil rights movement, said in 50 years as a church leader he has never seen a political climate where “politicians are so mean, naive and evil.” Holmes hosted a town hall on Feb. 9.
Days earlier, Trump had posted on social media a depiction of former President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama’s faces on apes.
The Rev. R.B. Holmes introduces Democratic gubernatorial candidate David Jolly at a town hall meeting in Tallahassee, Feb. 9, 2026
“It is an evil statement to call anyone a monkey. … If a person should call the first Black president an ape and the First Lady an ape, I want a governor who will denounce that,” Holmes said as he introduced Jolly.
The image of the Obamas, which appeared to have been generated by artificial intelligence, showed the bodies of two apes whose faces have been replaced by that of the former president and first lady. They appeared to be in a jungle with apes flying in the background.
The White House eventually deleted it and Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Feb. 6 he only looked at the first part of the video and didn’t see the part featuring the Obamas. “I didn’t make a mistake. I looked at the beginning of it and it was fine,” the president said.
Jolly is one of six major party candidates running to succeed term-limited Gov. Ron DeSantis. After Trump’s post, Jolly immediately took to X to call the meme vile and to urge voters to make America good again.
Jolly told the audience of more than 50, which included pastors of nine North Florida churches, university students, retired federal workers and state workers that they should expect a higher standard of behavior from elected officials and would-be leaders.
No other gubernatorial candidate has criticized the Trump post. “That’s a disqualifying moment in this race,” Jolly said about his competitors’ silence.
“The reason that there has been no condemnation of the President’s activities is because of a complete moral failing of our leaders, and a lack of courage in a moment where people demand to see it from their leaders,” Jolly said.
David Jolly at a town hall meeting in Tallahassee where he said Florida and the country is suffering from a complete moral failing of elected leaders
Americans are being forced to wrestle with their national identity, Jolly said, including in the aftermath of events in Minnesota where two protesters were shot and killed by federal agents.
A campaign spokesperson for Republican front-runner Byron Donalds, a GOP congressman from Naples, said when the campaign inquired about the post, they were told “that a staffer had let POTUS down.”
Jolly says he has held 171 community meetings since last June as part of an effort to build a coalition of moderate, independent voters with a focus on an affordability crisis and plans to expand access to housing, healthcare, and education.
But controversies over enforcement of immigration laws, as well as the president’s late night social media postings, has forced Jolly to discuss the quality of leadership offered by elected officials.
“There’s something bigger that’s happening now in terms of our own national identity, where we’re holding a mirror up to ourselves, asking ourselves, who are we as a people? And too many days, the answer that we find is unsettling,” Jolly said, adding that voters should demand a higher standard of behavior from elected officials.
Jolly is competing with Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings, among others, for the Democratic nomination.
Among registered Democrats, a January Mason-Dixon poll shows that Jolly “has a narrow 23% to 19% edge over … Demings,” adding, “This margin is insignificant, particularly given that 58% are undecided at this time.”
USA TODAY contributed reporting. James Call is a member of the USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jcall@tallahassee.com. Follow on him X: @CallTallahassee.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: David Jolly urges higher moral standard in governor race