{"id":445558,"date":"2026-11-02T23:28:19","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T23:28:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/445558\/"},"modified":"2026-11-02T23:28:19","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T23:28:19","slug":"donalds-jolly-both-make-closing-arguments-in-polk-county-amid-dem-gains-orlando-sentinel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/445558\/","title":{"rendered":"Donalds, Jolly both make closing arguments in Polk County amid Dem gains \u2013 Orlando Sentinel"},"content":{"rendered":"

One day before voters will ultimately choose between them, gubernatorial candidates Byron Donalds and David Jolly<\/a> descended upon an unlikely battleground \u2014 ruby red Polk County, where Democrats are turning out at a higher rate than Republicans.<\/p>\n

Despite Republicans holding a voter registration edge of 1.5 million voters across Florida, Democratic turnout has been strong statewide through vote-by-mail and early voting, keeping candidates like Jolly and U.S. Senate Candidate Angie Nixon in the game<\/a> as Election Day approaches.<\/p>\n

\"DemocraticDemocratic gubernatorial candidate David Jolly speaks during a rally at Parkview Christian Center in Haines City on Monday, November 2, 2026, in an effort to gain support and votes as he makes stops across Florida on the eve of Election Day. (Rich Pope\/Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n

That strength is being seen not just in blue strongholds like Orange County \u2014 where Democrats are running up huge turnout numbers \u2014 but also in the normally crimson exurban areas such as Polk.<\/p>\n

More Republicans have voted in Polk than Democrats overall, thanks to a large registration advantage, but 40% of Democrats have cast ballots compared with 30% of Republicans as of Monday, a concerning trend for the GOP that led to Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis himself warning his party on social media last week about the county\u2019s lagging turnout.<\/p>\n

Overall, according to the Division of Elections, 38.2 percent of the state\u2019s registered GOP voters have cast ballots compared to 49 percent of the state\u2019s registered Democrats.<\/p>\n

With the GOP\u2019s registration advantage, that still comes out to 2.18 million Republican votes cast compared to 2.03 million Democrats, meaning Democrats will have to appeal strongly across party lines and with independent voters to claim victory on election day.<\/p>\n

Early in-person voting ended in Florida on Sunday, but mailed ballots will be counted as long as they are received by 7 p.m. on election day.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery vote is now available to us, including Republicans,\u201d Jolly said. \u201cWe did see in the data the same thing that Gov. DeSantis saw.\u201d<\/p>\n

Republicans famously vote in huge numbers on Election Day and could potentially swamp any gains Democrats have made \u2013\u00a0something Donalds is banking on tomorrow.<\/p>\n

Donalds, who appeared Monday at a Beef \u2018O\u2019 Brady\u2019s restaurant in Lakeland, urged attendees to tell the people they know to vote Tuesday and that \u201cFlorida is on the line.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFlorida has not happened by accident \u2026 We have to get out and vote. That\u2019s what is required right now,\u201d he said. \u201cThe crazy stays in California \u2026 That is not coming to the great state of Florida. Let\u2019s get out and vote. Let\u2019s get out and win.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ByronByron Donalds speaks as wife Erika Donalds look on during a stop of the Defending the Florida Dream Bus Tour stop at a Beef \u2018O\u2019 Brady\u2019s in Lakeland, on Monday, November 2, 2026. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda\/ Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n

Jolly, who appeared at Parkview Christian Life Center Church in Haines City, told a crowd of churchgoers and union labor that he believed the race was close because \u201cthere\u2019s a new coalition in American politics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Afterward, he told reporters he believed that coalition includes former Republicans like himself, along with MAGA loyalists of President Donald Trump who disagree with actions like the Iran War in his second term.<\/p>\n

Particularly, he believes his promise to sign a one-year moratorium on building\u00a0hyper-scale data centers gives him a fighting chance in Polk, where DeSantis four years ago won by 30 points, carrying 65% of the vote.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe story\u2019s gonna be about a people in the deep red state of Florida who rose up, and raised our voices and exercised their vote and said, \u2018We\u2019re not going to do this anymore, we\u2019re going in a new direction\u2019,\u201d he exclaimed. \u201cAnd when we do that, we don\u2019t just win an election folks \u2026 we\u2019ve just changed the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Seminole, where Republicans hold only a slight registration advantage, a greater percentage of Democrats have voted, with 47% casting ballots before election day. Less than 40% of Republicans have voted.<\/p>\n

Democrats are even outperforming Republicans in Sumter County, home of The Villages and a bastion of conservative politics.\u00a0 So far it has the highest turnout in Central Florida, with nearly 55% of voters casting ballots. Nearly 63% of registered Democrats there have voted, compared with nearly 56% of Republicans.<\/p>\n

In Volusia County, where Trump rallied voters last week, more than 48% of Democratic voters had cast early and mail-in ballots, while the same was true for nearly 40% of GOP voters. The county\u2019s overall turnout was just shy of 39%, pulled down by decline-to-state voters who typically turn out in lower proportions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn every county in this state, Democrats are showing up at rates that we have not seen in years,\u201d Florida Democratic Party Chairwoman Nikki Fried stated in an emailed fundraising pitch Monday morning. \u201cIf we can keep that energy up on Election Day, I believe that we will take back Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the Jolly event, Christine Boland said she\u00a0hadn\u2019t yet voted but was excited to cast her ballot for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a firm believer in what he\u2019s standing for,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re coming out in numbers. The lines have been very long\u2026I think it\u2019s going to be a very close.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ed Chambers, of Lakeland, the president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, said his union is supporting Jolly in hopes of moving past \u201cdivisiveness.\u201d He believes Jolly\u2019s message of unity is playing well with voters.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are fed up,\u201d Chambers said. \u201cThe economy is bad. There\u2019s a lot of farmers in Polk, but there\u2019s more than that \u2026 they\u2019re just not energized.\u201d<\/p>\n

Donalds told reporters after his Lakeland event that he had already planned the visit to Polk County before DeSantis\u2019 X post about the lagging turnout there.<\/p>\n

He acknowledged Democrats are voting in higher numbers than in the 2022 midterm election, but said he is banking on a large spike in GOP turnout on Tuesday, adding that is what happened in the state\u2019s primary election in August.<\/p>\n

\u201cEarly voting amongst Republicans was pretty calm and pretty quiet. Democrats were obviously voting in large numbers during the early voting and mail periods. And then Election Day happened [and] 800,000 Republicans showed up,\u201d Donalds said, nearly doubling Democratic turnout that day. \u201cWe think that we\u2019re going to see a similar effort tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Donalds was joined onstage by a who\u2019s who of Florida Republican officials, including U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody, Lt. Gov. Jay Collins, Attorney General James Uthmeier, Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia, Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson and Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd.<\/p>\n

Simpson reminded attendees that DeSantis in 2018 only narrowly beat Democrat Andrew Gillum for the governorship by a margin of 0.4%. Collins warned them that the GOP\u2019s voter registration advantage doesn\u2019t matter unless people show up and vote, and Ingoglia said the entire Republican ticket will need massive turnout on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\"SenatorSenator Ashley Moody speaks during a stop of the Defending the Florida Dream Bus Tour stop at a Beef \u2018O\u2019 Brady\u2019s in Lakeland, on Monday, November 2, 2026. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda\/ Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n

Moody, who was appointed last year by DeSantis, is taking on Nixon to serve the remaining two years of former U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio\u2019s term. She told the crowd the midterms are going to be close and that GOP voters need to turn out in full force despite what has been a rain-soaked final few days.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe feel good about where we are. There\u2019s a lot of momentum moving into tomorrow. But no doubt we need people to vote. Whether it\u2019s weather or flooding, we don\u2019t want anything to keep people away from the polls,\u201d Moody told reporters after the event.<\/p>\n

Nixon made another appearance at the University of Central Florida<\/a> late Monday afternoon, her last appeal to young voters to make their voices heard at the polls.\u00a0About 80 people attended the rally.<\/p>\n

Nixon fired up the young crowd saying she would be their champion as \u201ca major proponent of free public education, period. From birth, meaning daycare, all the way to four-year college, that should be free.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nixon has more support than Moody among Gen Z, polls show, but those younger voters don\u2019t always cast ballots as reliably as older ones, who favor Moody.<\/p>\n

Democratic state Rep. Anna Eskamani, the leading candidate for mayor of Orlando next year, spoke too, urging students to think about what they struggle with \u2014 public transportation, access to education and medical care \u2014 and telling them they could trust Nixon to fight for them and their needs.<\/p>\n

Joshua Mueller, a Valencia College student, said that more than anything he is \u201cso happy to have an actual progressive candidate for Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n

Staff writer Annie Martin, University of Central Florida journalism student Dina Santiago, and the News Service of Florida contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One day before voters will ultimately choose between them, gubernatorial candidates Byron Donalds and David Jolly descended upon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":445559,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[2811,28,114,115,139,141,140,99,109],"class_list":["post-445558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-election","tag-florida","tag-latest-headlines","tag-news","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\/445558","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=445558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}