![\"Dave](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1789546700_46_6aaa0b33-2f33-4e53-8a26-5150f09b3f05_1734039656.jpg\")
<\/a>FORT MYERS, Fla. \u2014<\/p>\nDavid Jolly, a Democratic candidate for Florida governor, is urging voters to embrace a more civil and cooperative approach to politics. <\/p>\n
“I’m asking people to believe in something better. To believe in each other. To believe as a state maybe we can just soften the toxicity of our politics just a little bit,” Jolly said. <\/p>\n
Jolly, a former Republican turned Independent and now a Democrat, is running against Republican Byron Donalds and hopes to blur party lines as some prominent Republicans endorse his campaign. <\/p>\n
“Part of what I’m trying to do is return a little civility and goodness to our politics,” Jolly said. <\/p>\n
Jolly confirmed he has accepted multiple debate invitations, including one in Tampa, which he said Donalds pulled out of, and another in Miami. “We’ll see how he responds,” Jolly said. <\/p>\n
When asked about recent polls showing him gaining ground, Jolly said, “Voters are desperate for change, and if the election were tonight, voters would elect a Democratic governor.” <\/p>\n
Jolly criticized Donalds and former President Donald Trump for focusing on projects like ballrooms and data centers, saying, “All families in Florida want to do is build a good life here.” <\/p>\n
On the issue of AI data centers, Jolly said he would call for a moratorium on data centers if elected. “Both reasons of policy but also reasons of listening to voters. Seventy percent or more of the state says we don’t want them.” <\/p>\n
He added, “Byron Donalds and Donald Trump could simply listen to voters who say we don’t want them.” <\/p>\n
Addressing accusations about a proposed hurricane tax, Jolly denied the claim. “That is nothing I’ve ever put out there. He’s (Donalds) putting a lot of money into lying,” he said. <\/p>\n
Instead, Jolly proposed a state catastrophic fund to cover hurricane and wind insurance, which he said could reduce homeowners’ insurance costs by 60 to 70%. “Right now, we have a hurricane fund that bails out insurance companies. What if we use it to start bailing out homeowners?” he said. <\/p>\n
Jolly also clarified his stance on taxes, stating, “I do not support an income tax in the state of Florida. We will never have one under my governorship.” <\/p>\n
On property taxes, Jolly expressed cautious support for eliminating them, saying, “I think we have to be careful about the math. I say that because we want the math of Amendment 3 to work, but I’m not quite sure it does. I’ll respect what voters decide.” <\/p>\n
Jolly’s campaign continues to focus on his vision for Florida, as voters prepare to decide whether they will make him governor. <\/p>\n
To date, Byron Donalds has not accepted an invitation for an interview with Gulf Coast News.<\/p>\n
DOWNLOAD\u202fthe free\u202fGulf Coast News app<\/a>\u202ffor your latest news and alerts on breaking news, weather, sports, entertainment, and more on your phone or tablet. And check out the Very Local Gulf Coast app<\/a> to stream news, entertainment and original programming on your TV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Jolly outlines campaign priorities and challenges in Florida governor race FORT MYERS, Fla. \u2014 David Jolly, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401296,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[66845,133243,445,159663,159664,52520,1813,95221,409,28,94062,3291,32656,30,29,4833,15656,157840,17602,159662,7074,23855,159661],"class_list":["post-401295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-ai-data-centers","tag-amendment-3","tag-byron-donalds","tag-catastrophic-fund","tag-civility","tag-data-centers","tag-david-jolly","tag-democratic-candidate","tag-donald-trump","tag-florida","tag-florida-election","tag-florida-governor","tag-florida-governor-race","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-florida-politics","tag-homeowners-insurance","tag-hurricane-insurance","tag-income-tax","tag-miami-debate","tag-property-taxes","tag-republican-candidate","tag-tampa-debate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}