{"id":413240,"date":"2026-09-28T23:25:01","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T23:25:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/413240\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T23:25:01","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T23:25:01","slug":"david-jolly-i-need-the-national-democratic-party-to-come-into-florida-and-start-spending-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/413240\/","title":{"rendered":"David Jolly: ‘I need the national Democratic Party to come into Florida and start spending money’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

With more polls<\/a> and election analysts suggesting David Jolly could become the first Democrat to win a governor\u2019s race in Florida in more than three decades, the former GOP congressman is appealing for money to defeat Republican Byron Donalds.<\/p>\n

This week the national elections rating group\u00a0Decision Desk HQ<\/a> shifted the Florida governor\u2019s race to a \u201cToss up,\u201d saying Donalds has a 60% probability of winning, down from 68%.<\/p>\n

Speaking to several hundred people who gathered in Tampa\u2019s Ybor City for a Tiger Bay \u00a0Club forum, Jolly was asked about what it was going to take to convince the majority of the electorate he is the better candidate to take the state forward over the next four years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI need the national Democratic Party to come into Florida and start spending money,\u201d he said to cheers, repeating what he said was a claim by a top Tallahassee Republican consultant that the only way he could lose is \u201cif the national Democrats chose to take a pass on Florida like they have in the past 10 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jolly has acknowledged he was never going to outraise Donalds for campaign contributions, but the money gap is widening as much as the polls are tightening. Donalds has now raised more than $115 million via his political committee, while Jolly has raised $15.8 million, combining his regular and political committee campaign accounts.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the national party doesn\u2019t come, I worry about this race,\u201d Jolly told reporters following his one-hour appearance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t mean to punch at Byron, but $75 to $100 million used on lies can be effective,\u201d he added. \u201cIf we lose this race because Byron\u2019s able to convince voters of something that\u2019s not true, when all we need is a little bit from national Democrats to come in and shore up this race, arguably prosecute the case against Byron, I\u2019m not going to have the resources to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

That tune is different than what Jolly was singing from a month ago.<\/p>\n

On the eve of the Aug. 18 primary, Jolly said<\/a> that while he didn\u2019t want to be \u201cna\u00efve\u201d about financial resources to remain competitive, \u201cthis is a cycle where you can get outspent 10 to one and still win.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0He added, \u201cI think we\u2019re going to see money come in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hillsborough County state Sen. Brian Nathan<\/a> was one Democrat outspent roughly 10:1 when he defeated Republican Josie Tomkow in a special election in Hillsborough County in March, but that race was relegated to one county, not a state with more than 13.5 million registered voters.<\/p>\n

Some Democratic strategists are skeptical national Democratic dollars will flow to Florida.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you keep waiting on national, it\u2019ll never come,\u201d Democratic fundraising strategist Jackson McMillan wrote in a social media post<\/a> Friday. \u201cBuild up your grassroots apparatus instead, your small $ program should be so much better than it is!\u201d<\/p>\n

Decision on not debating is \u2018final\u2019<\/p>\n

One way Jolly could get his message out would be a debate with Donalds, but the Democrat announced Sunday he would not do so this cycle.<\/p>\n

Jolly was asked by one member in the audience to reconsider, saying it was his \u201cduty\u201d to do so.<\/p>\n

Jolly disagreed, declaring firmly that his decision was \u201cfinal.\u201d<\/p>\n

He repeated comments he made earlier this week that he didn\u2019t want to \u201cplatform\u201d a candidate in Donalds, who he says has \u201clied\u201d about his platform, and that he wants to lead by example to his two young children about \u201celevating our politics to something better, not into driving us into further division and vitriol.\u201d<\/p>\n

Who has the better plan on property insurance?<\/p>\n

One of his policy positions that Jolly says Donalds is lying about is the latter\u2019s contention that his plan on property insurance would constitute a \u201c$1,000 tax\u201d \u2014 as Donalds-sponsored ads have said on television for weeks now.<\/p>\n

Donalds has based his statements by alluding to a report from Florida State University<\/a> about a plan introduced by a bipartisan pair of Florida lawmakers in 2024. (That plan is not publicly available but was shared with the Phoenix by the Donalds campaign.)<\/p>\n

Jolly acknowledged to reporters that his plan is \u201ca bold initiative\u201d but would need to go before voters as a constitutional amendment to be approved.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t do it by executive action, but the reality is, Florida homeowners feel more anxious than they do secure about the homeowners insurance market,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Donalds released his \u201cBring Down the Bill\u201d property insurance proposal earlier this month, which would maintain legislation passed by the GOP-led Legislature in 2022 and 2023. The Donalds campaign says those laws have reduced insurance lawsuits and in turn \u201chelped lower insurance companies\u2019 legal costs and resulted in lower homeowners insurance premiums.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jolly contends that\u2019s simply more of what\u2019s going on right now, and he says homeowners are not satisfied with the status quo.<\/p>\n

He may be right about that. In what is being labeled a \u201clandmark survey\u201d of 1,511 Florida property insurance policyholders published Friday by the Orlando Sentinel<\/a>, South Florida Sentinel, and the University of North Florida\u2019s Public Opinion Research Lab, 55% of those surveyed saw no signs the insurance market is improving and 26% said it it is getting worse.<\/p>\n

Florida Phoenix<\/a> is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: [email\u00a0protected]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

This article appears in Sept. 24 \u2013 30, 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay With more polls and election analysts suggesting David Jolly could…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":413241,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[445,1813,34793,202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-413240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-byron-donalds","tag-david-jolly","tag-florida-elections","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413240","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=413240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}