David Jolly finished his campaign for governor with a final, election eve rally Monday night, firing up hundreds of supporters in the state’s biggest bastion of Democratic voters: Broward County.
It was, perhaps, the most fiery speech of the campaign. At 40 minutes, it was one of the longest campaign speeches he’s delivered.
“We’re going to win this race. We are going to win the governorship of the state of Florida. We are going to win this race. I promise you we are going to win this race,” Jolly said at an event space in Wilton Manors. “We are going to defy history.”
Floridians are about to “stand up and say: ‘We’re not going to do this anymore.’ ”
He delivered a series of policy prescriptions, promised better times ahead and lambasted his opponent, Republican candidate Byron Donalds.
And he rebuked the political figure who is perhaps the biggest motivator for Democrats in 2026: President Donald Trump. He rejected Trump’s approach to politics, which he said tells people that “somehow if we hate each other a little bit more” things will be better.
“Donald Trump came to Florida and called me a dog. A dog. I don’t listen to anything the old man says anymore. And after [Tuesday] night, nobody’s going to listen to that guy any more. We are on the eve of a lame-duck president that the world’s going to know can’t lead the nation anymore,” Jolly said.
“Byron Donalds took to the stage and he called me short,” Jolly said. “Here’s what Donald Trump and Byron Donalds don’t understand: There is a difference between being short and being small. We are led today by small men.”
Florida needs something better, Jolly said. “You won’t make America great again if you don’t make America good again.”
Jolly, who was a Republican when he was a Tampa Bay area member of Congress, said one of the things he likes best about being a Democrat is “we do accept math, and science and data and public health.” He repeated the promise he said he makes everywhere: that on Day One he would fire Gov. Ron DeSantis’ surgeon general, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, who has espoused many controversial policies, including rolling back vaccine mandates for schoolchildren.
He said virtually everyone who hears that promise approves. “It’s heartbreaking that science is now a political issue. People in Florida want to keep their kids safe.”
Jolly promised to usher in economic change. He defended capitalism but said the government has a role to ensure services that the private sector can provide. “The economy should work for absolutely everybody,” he said. “If the economy is not working for everybody, then it’s not really working.”
Among his key policy proposals is creation of a catastrophic insurance fund to bring down the cost of windstorm insurance. And he rejected Donalds’ claim in TV ads that he supports a $1,000 hurricane tax. “He can spend $40 million on that lie, but a lie is still a lie.”
He said the Medicaid health care system for low-income people should be expanded, both to improve health and ultimately reduce costs. And he promised to rejuvenate public education after what he said were decades of Republican neglect.
Jolly, the son of a preacher, demonstrated some of the skills he saw as a boy.
He shed his suit jacket for the rally, then took the microphone off its stand and walked away from the lectern, sometimes returning to pound it. At 40 minutes, it was far longer than his routine campaign stump speech and — unusual for a politician’s speech that ran longer than the advertised ending time — almost no one left the hall.
At one point, he took out a handkerchief to wipe his forehead.
Lourdes Diaz, a Democratic activist from Pembroke Pines, said Jolly “let it all hang out.” Michael Rajner, another Democratic activist, said he’s seen Jolly speak half a dozen times, and declared it by far the candidate’s best speech.
The Wilton Manors rally, which featured a range of other candidates and political figures, was the last stop on the last full day of the Democrat’s campaign. Jolly said he wanted to deliver the final speech of the campaign in Broward because it’s where he began his candidacy.
“Let’s be honest Dems. The rest of the state isn’t like Broward County,” which is overwhelmingly Democratic. “We can’t win an election just by ourselves. We need help. We heed help. We need a bigger table. We need to grow a coalition.”
Earlier Monday, Jolly was in Haines City in Polk County and in West Palm Beach. A fourth stop, planned for Cocoa, was turned into a virtual event because of severe weather in Brevard County.
Byron Donalds, Republican candidate for governor, speaks to supporters at his campaign office in Hialeah on Thursday. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Republican gubernatorial candidate Donalds finished his campaign with four stops in the western part of the state.
Their itineraries were telling. Both held rallies in Polk County, which is traditionally Republican, but where the numbers indicate Donalds needed to shore up support and where Jolly saw opportunities to make inroads.
Through the weekend, 57,008 Polk County Republicans had voted early or by mail compared to 54,638 Democrats and 24,538 no-party affiliation/independents, according to numbers posted Monday by the state Division of Elections.
For the entire 2022 general election 54,436 Republicans voted early or by mail, compared to 45,190 Democrats and 19,783 no-party affiliation/independents.
In other words, there are more votes cast early in 2026 than 2022, but Democrats have increased their numbers far more than Republicans.
DeSantis, the Republican who won reelection four years ago by 19 percentage points, warned last week that his party was “underperforming” in Polk County.
Donalds also appeared in Tarpon Springs in Pinellas County, Sarasota and Bonita Springs in Lee County.
In Sarasota, Donalds talked up Florida, praised DeSantis and criticized Jolly.
“We live in the best state in all of America,” Donalds said. “There has been one state of America that has told the radical left ‘hell no,’ and that is the great state of Florida.”
“Our vision is to defend the Florida dream. That is our North Star,” he said.
Though he pledged to continue the course, Donalds also promised major changes to address a central voter concern: the high cost of property insurance.
“We all know what’s going on with insurance. The prices are high. We are going to lower premiums 20% in the state of Florida,” Donalds said.
Jolly, at his final day campaign appearances, said the reason insurance premiums are high is that Republicans who control state government refuse to take action.
Donalds, however, said he believes “in telling the people of Florida what we’re going to do and then doing it.”
He said Jolly can’t do that. “The reason why David Jolly doesn’t want to talk about his policies is because he doesn’t want to let you know the truth, that in typical liberal fashion, he has to tax you more, take more of your money to pay for his promises that he knows he cannot deliver on,” Donalds said.
Both candidates made a push for people who haven’t yet voted to get to the polls on Tuesday.
“Are you with me to make sure that the Florida dream is alive and well? Are you gonna help us make sure we keep Florida as the free state of Florida?” Donalds said. “Well, I’m telling you, we need your vote. Get out and vote because the Democrats are gonna find out one more time that they can have their crazy in California. They can keep the idiocy in Illinois. [Mayor Zohran] Mamdani stays in New York, but it doesn’t come to the free State of Florida.”
Democratic nominee for Governor David Jolly greets supporters during a campaign stop at Gray Box Theater in Wilton Manors on Monday, Nov. 2, 2026. (Carline Jean/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Ten Democrats warmed up the crowd, including Gwen Graham, the former congresswoman and daughter of former governor and U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, who is the nominee for lieutenant governor.
Also speaking: Annette Taddeo, the Democratic nominee for chief financial officer, and multiple Broward political figures: Todd Delmay and Michael Ferguson, candidates for the state House of Representatives; Mayor Dean Trantalis of Fort Lauderdale; state Sen. Tina Polsky, a top adviser to Jolly; state Rep. Dan Daley; Alfredo Olvera, president of the Dolphin Democrats LGBTQ+ political club; and Fred Guttenberg, the anti-gun violence advocate.
Guttenberg’s daughter Jaimie was one of the 17 people killed in the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre.
“Becasue of what happened to my family, I got very involved in politics,” Guttenberg said.
“We’ve got a lot of reason for hope and optimism. But it ain’t done yet,” he said. “We need every freaking vote.”
Political writer Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sunsentinel.com and can be found @browardpolitics on Bluesky, Threads, Facebook and Mastodon.