{"id":432450,"date":"2026-10-19T23:14:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T23:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/432450\/"},"modified":"2026-10-19T23:14:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T23:14:08","slug":"jolly-in-orlando-blasts-donalds-over-support-for-data-centers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/432450\/","title":{"rendered":"Jolly, in Orlando, blasts Donalds over support for data centers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Democratic gubernatorial candidate David Jolly blasted his GOP opponent, U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, over his support for data centers Monday at an Orlando news conference, highlighting the stark disagreements the two have on what is becoming one of the defining issues of the governor\u2019s race.<\/a><\/p>\n

Jolly, speaking near Camping World Stadium, reiterated his promise to enact a one-year moratorium on hyper-scale data centers on his first day in office and criticized Donalds, who he said has repeatedly changed his stance on the issue and took donations from groups that encourage their development.<\/p>\n

\u201cByron has basically become a vessel for every special interest that\u2019s controlled this state, \u201d Jolly said. \u201cCan we trust someone who has changed his position two or three times and is funded with over $10 million of data center money? I don\u2019t think we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Donalds, who has offered some conditional support for data centers, which are used as massive hubs of network infrastructure, has criticized the one-year moratorium on the large-scale facilities the state of New York issued in July.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut you also have to understand that when you start doing stuff like what New York just did, that\u2019s a signal to the business community that this is not a place to invest capital,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is not a place to invest in businesses, and so we have to be balanced and be mindful about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tech industry and data center developers have been a major supporter of Donalds \u2014 with $6 million in direct donations and advertising support from donors such as utilities like Next Era and Duke Energy, as well as firms like Google and Meta, according to the state government watchdog website Seeking Rents.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Jolly and Florida Democrats quickly used the issue as they work to win the governor\u2019s mansion for the first time in 30 years, dubbing the the GOP congressman as \u201cData Center Donalds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jolly said he had called the news conference on the state\u2019s first day of early voting to highlight the differences between him and Donalds on an issue he said is important to voters \u2014 and could help him secure the votes of disaffected Republicans and allow him to overcome the GOP\u2019s voter registration advantage in the state.<\/p>\n

\u201cVoters are frustrated. They\u2019re concerned about the economy. They\u2019re concerned in the story of data centers that politicians just aren\u2019t listening to them,\u201d Jolly said. \u201cSo I think the lesson in this cycle is you don\u2019t have to be a Democrat to vote for a Democrat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jolly spoke at the news conference alongside former U.S. Senator Bill Nelson, who represented Florida in the U.S. Senate for 18 years. Nelson also spoke out against the facilities.<\/p>\n

Polls show voters dislike large-scale data centers.<\/p>\n

A July University of North Florida poll found 68% of Florida voters disapprove of data centers being built in their area, including 84% of Democrats surveyed and 52% of Republicans. 76% of voters with no party affiliation also don\u2019t support them.<\/p>\n

Jolly said he\u2019s toured communities with data centers in other states and has become concerned by their potential impacts on public health.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter visiting Data Center Alley in Northern Virginia, I left having met with families where young kids have been treated for respiratory conditions, adults were complaining of hearing loss,\u201d he said. \u201c\u2026We\u2019ve seen the destabilization of communities, the devaluation of real estate, the extraction of traditional commerce.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jolly held the news conference just hours before his scheduled 6 p.m. rally in Eatonville.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Democratic gubernatorial candidate David Jolly blasted his GOP opponent, U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, over his support for data…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":432451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[2811,28,114,115,1335,139,141,140,99,109],"class_list":["post-432450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-election","tag-florida","tag-latest-headlines","tag-news","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-politics","tag-social"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432450","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=432450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}