Since David Jolly announced his run for Florida governor last year, he has spoken at more than 200 town hall meetings across Florida.<\/p>\n
On Thursday night, his campaign stopped at West Tampa\u2019s famed La Teresita Restaurant, where he riffed for nearly an hour before 350 mostly older voters feeling optimistic after last week\u2019s surprise Democratic victories in two legislative special elections<\/a>.<\/p>\n Jolly, a former Republican congressman who represented Pinellas County, urged an energetic message that cautioned Democrats, who haven\u2019t won a statewide election in eight years, to keep in mind that Republicans hold a commanding edge in active registered voters.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are more enthused than ever to turn out and to win elections, but let\u2019s not presume that we have already won hearts and minds,\u201d Jolly said. \u201cSo between now and November, we have to prove ourselves worthy to an emerging political coalition that we have not seen in the country, and certainly as Florida Democrats we have not seen in a very long time.\u201d<\/p>\n Several Democrats afterward said Jolly left them feeling inspired. They will choose between him and another leading Democrat, Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings, in August.<\/p>\n Here are some highlights:<\/p>\n He has to convince Democrats to vote for him in the August primary, but Jolly doesn\u2019t shy away from his GOP roots.<\/p>\n It might be risky: He\u2019s trying to get the nomination from a party that four years ago bet on another former Republican to run for governor and lost big. But Jolly, who registered as a Democrat last year, doesn\u2019t just mention his past and move on. It\u2019s a major theme in his pitch and a variation onformer Republican Gov. Charlie Crist\u2019s\u201cI didn\u2019t leave the party, it left me\u201d explanation for his Democratic conversion.<\/a><\/p>\n Jolly told the crowd Thursday that he was the only Republican in the U.S. House in 2015 who voted against a bill authorizing an investigation into Planned Parenthood<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cChange is part of my story,\u201d Jolly said. \u201cAnd so I speak openly about my change because I celebrate my change in politics. You see, I don\u2019t think the problem in politics is people who change. I think it\u2019s people who won\u2019t change.\u201d<\/p>\n He needed to quit his party, he said, because he was kind of a \u201cBush 41 Republican\u201d that didn\u2019t mesh with a GOP that continued to lurch to the right.<\/p>\n \u201cI fought the Tea Party and lost. I fought the Freedom Caucus and lost. I fought Trumpism and I lost.,\u201d Jolly said. \u201cI walked away from the fact that the party I signed up for was a party of less government, and then it became the party of no government, and now government\u2019s the enemy. Folks, government is not the enemy. We are the government, and when we attack government, we\u2019re attacking ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n That moral element to Jolly\u2019s argument resonated with Thursday\u2019s audience.<\/p>\n \u201cI supported Crist, but it felt like he was going through the motions,\u201d said Mickey Castor, an 86-year-old retired social services manager who is also the stepmother ofDemocratic U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor of Tampa. \u201cBut David has a real fire in the belly when he\u2019s talking about his values.\u201d<\/p>\n Jolly waited until the end of his speech to note that he had yet to mention President Donald Trump, even on a day when the president fired Tampa\u2019s own Pam Bondias U.S. attorney general.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not asking people in this race to litigate the president,\u201d Jolly said. \u201cThis race is about what (former Democratic governors) Bob Graham and Lawton Chiles used to focus in on: the responsible administration of government. Are we educating your kids? Do you have access to health care? Do you feel secure in your home or in your apartment? Do you feel as though we\u2019re investing properly in the environment and quality of life in the state of Florida?\u201d<\/p>\n Jolly didn\u2019t mention the Republican front-runner in this year\u2019s gubernatorial race, U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, who polls consistently show is leading Jolly (and Demings) in a head-to-head race and has a war chest that dwarfs anyone else in the race.<\/p>\n If Jolly fired shots at anyone, they were aimed at Florida\u2019s current governor, RepublicanRon DeSantis.<\/p>\n \u201cThe problem with this governor is that he thinks he\u2019s the smartest person in the state,\u201d Jolly said. \u201cI know you\u2019re not surprised to learn he\u2019s not. Your next governor is not going to be either.\u201d<\/p>\n