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<\/a><\/p>\nMany political analysts considered Graham the favorite to capture the Democratic nomination for Governor in 2018, but she ended up losing to then Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum by 3 percentage points in that year\u2019s Primary. She went on to serve in President Joe Biden\u2019s administration as assistant secretary for legislation and congressional affairs at the U.S. Department of Education from 2021 to 2025.<\/p>\n
In introducing Jolly to the audience in St. Petersburg last week, Graham said she was nervous because it was her first public appearance since the death of her father, who served as Florida\u2019s 38th Governor from 1979 to 1987 and in the U.S. Senate from 1987 to 2005.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hear my dad\u2019s voice in David\u2019s commitment to the values that I have grown up with and lived,\u201d she said in her speech.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hear David\u2019s voice talking about what he cares about for the future of this state. So, while David knows this race will be difficult, the moment is too important. We must all stand together and do our part to define what Florida will look like as a state for the next century.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jolly deflected when asked before the event whether he was considering Graham to serve as his running mate, but did say, \u201cWe\u2019re going to name a Lieutenant Governor candidate very early. We\u2019re not going to wait until the Primary. And I hope we see Gwen Graham in office again in the state of Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n
Longtime Hillsborough County Democratic strategist Victor DiMaio served at one time as a Press Secretary for Bob Graham. Having Gwen Graham on Jolly\u2019s ticket makes sense on several levels, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cGwen would be an excellent choice if that\u2019s what (Jolly) decides to do,\u201d he said. \u201cIt didn\u2019t hurt other Governors who have selected women as Lieutenant Governors.\u201d<\/p>\n Angela Birdsong, President of the Hillsborough County Democratic Black Caucus, believes Gillum would have defeated Ron DeSantis in 2018 if he had selected Graham, instead of Chris King, to serve as his running mate.<\/p>\n \u201cShe would bring in more conservative Democrats, and independents would love her,\u201d Birdsong said of Graham\u2019s appeal in 2026. When asked if that ticket might prove to be too moderate for Florida Democrats, Birdsong disagreed. \u201cI\u2019m with Jasmine Crockett \u2014 I think that we\u2019re going to have to run some vanilla candidates for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n (Crockett. a progressive Democratic member of Congress from Texas,\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0in an interview on Sirius\/XM radio in May that, following the Democratic Party\u2019s losses to Donald Trump with Kamala Harris and Hillary Clinton, \u201cwe just want to win.\u201d<\/p>\n (She added, \u201cSo, there\u2019s a lot of people that are like, \u2018You know what? Like, let\u2019s go find the safest White boy we can find.\u2019 I mean, I\u2019m just saying.\u201d)<\/p>\n Some political consultants believe a Democratic gubernatorial ticket consisting of Jolly, a former Republican, and Graham, a political moderate, may offer a General Election appeal to a Florida electorate that has moved considerably to the political right during the past eight years.<\/p>\n But it might be a dead letter within the more progressive precincts of the Florida Democratic Party.<\/p>\n Carolina Ampudia is a former Chair of the Democratic Progressive Caucus in Florida. She sees a Jolly-Graham ticket as \u201ca pathetic retreat, not a step forward.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJolly has a Republican record and ties to Scientology. Graham voted to fast-track the Keystone pipeline and built her career on centrism. Neither of them represents the communities that have been fighting on the frontlines for labor rights, racial justice, LGBTQ+ protections, public education, or environmental survival,\u201d she said in a text message.<\/p>\n \u201cFlorida doesn\u2019t need a rebranded Republican and a legacy name,\u201d she continued. \u201cWe need leadership that reflects the courage and clarity of the people \u2014 not the fears of consultants and donors.\u201d<\/p>\n Florida\u2019s last two elected Governors, DeSantis and Rick Scott, both named women as their running mates (DeSantis selected Jeanette Nu\u00f1ez in 2018 and Scott picked Jennifer Carroll in 2010). Charlie Crist selected female running mates in his two unsuccessful bids as a Democrat for Governor in 2014 and 2022 (Annette Taddeo in \u201914 and Karla Hern\u00e1ndez-Mats in \u201922).<\/p>\n Meanwhile, discussion about a potential running mate for Jolly comes amid a challenge for the Democratic nomination by Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings, who\u00a0announced his candidacy<\/a>\u00a0a month ago. No major polls comparing the two Democrats have been published since his entry.<\/p>\n Uphill climb<\/p>\n On the GOP side, Southwest Florida U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds is dominating in the polling. According to a survey of 800 likely Republican voters conducted by Florida pollster Ryan Tyson for the American Promise last month, Donalds, who has been endorsed by President Trump, received 43% support while a majority of the electorate (51%) remained unsure. Former House Speaker Paul Renner received 2% of the vote. Lt. Gov. Jay Collins, who has not formally entered the race, received 1%.<\/p>\n A poll <\/a>conducted by the University of North Florida\u2019s Public Opinion Research Lab of 728 likely voters between Donalds and Jolly in October (before Demings entered the contest) showed Donalds leading both Jolly and Demings by double digits.<\/p>\n The eventual Democratic nominee will be a decided underdog. Florida has not elected a Democrat to lead the state since Lawton Chiles in 1994.<\/p>\n Even before he entered the race for Governor in June, Jolly had been talking about affordability<\/a>, which has emerged as a buzzword in U.S. politics following Zohran Mamdani\u2019s victory in the New York City Mayor\u2019s race last month.<\/p>\n Thursday night, Jolly said concerns about the quality of life for everyday Floridians encompasses \u201cmore than affordability.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAffordability is, \u2018Am I going to be able to afford rent or housing this week or this month.\u2019 That is real. That\u2019s a crisis. But we\u2019re at a generational inflection point,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that if Republicans continue with their policies, we\u2019re going to lose the middle in the state of Florida and people are going to begin leaving at a quicker rate than we\u2019re already seeing.\u201d<\/p>\n Among the issues he addressed during his 50-minute-plus speech was the state\u2019s universal school choice program, which expanded significantly in 2023 and was found by\u00a0a state audit<\/a>\u00a0to feature \u201ca myriad of accountability problems.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey don\u2019t have to provide an individual education program,\u201d Jolly said of private schools that accept state tuition subsidies.<\/p>\n \u201cThey don\u2019t have to provide excellence in academics. Trigonometry in the 10th grade. Access to the trades. Access to the arts. They don\u2019t have to provide any of that because there\u2019s no standards on our choice schools. And so, just like Jeb Bush 25 years ago made the argument that he\u2019s siding with Florida\u2019s kids and families, guess what? Now we are. Because he used to say that public schools were leaving the kids behind. Now are choice schools leaving your kids behind? That\u2019s what\u2019s happening in the state of Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n A plan to add funding for public education<\/p>\n Jolly has proposed a \u201c10-year renaissance\u201d in public education, advocating for a proposed constitutional amendment that would steer a portion of tourist development tax receipts into public education to pay teachers 30% more.<\/p>\n Tourist development taxes are levied in 62 of Florida\u2019s 67 counties with rates ranging from 2% to 6% on sales.\u00a0State law\u00a0requires<\/a>\u00a0at least\u00a040% of all tourist development tax revenues collected in a county to be spent to promote and advertise tourism.<\/p>\n \u201cWe build convention centers with it. We advertise beaches on the Chicago \u2018L\u2019 in January. \u2026 But guess what? We don\u2019t have a crisis of convention centers in the state of Florida, we have a crisis in education,\u201d Jolly said.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n Reporting by Mitch Perry. Florida Phoenix 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\u00a0for questions:\u00a0[email\u00a0protected]<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Could Gwen Graham add heft to David Jolly\u2019s candidacy for Governor by becoming his running mate in Florida…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75657,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[11591,42814,445,42815,42816,28,30,29,23831,5187,7381,42817],"class_list":{"0":"post-75656","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-2026-election","9":"tag-angela-birdsong","10":"tag-byron-donalds","11":"tag-carolina-ampudia","12":"tag-david-jollys","13":"tag-florida","14":"tag-florida-headlines","15":"tag-florida-news","16":"tag-gwen-graham","17":"tag-jay-collins","18":"tag-paul-renner","19":"tag-victor-dimaio"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75656","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=75656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/20250658_FINAL_FloridaPolitics_728x90.jpg\")
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\nConsidering a Jolly-Graham ticket<\/p>\n