David Jolly, a Trump critic and former GOP congressman, to run for Florida governor as a Democrat

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A former Republican congressman and vocal critic of Donald Trump says he wants to become governor in the president’s adopted home state of Florida, and that he’s running as a Democrat.

David Jolly formally announced his bid Thursday, becoming the latest party convert hoping to wrest back control of what had been the country’s premier swing state that in recent years has made a hard shift to the right. Under state law, term-limited Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis can’t run for reelection in 2026.

Even as Florida serves as a place for the Trump administration to poach staff and test policies, Jolly says he’s confident that issues such as affordability, funding public schools, and strengthening campaign finance and ethics laws will resonate with all voters in 2026. He predicts elections next year will herald nationwide change.

“I actually think Republicans in Tallahassee have gone too far in dividing us. I think we should get politicians out of the classrooms, out of the doctor’s offices,” Jolly said.

“I think enough people in Florida, even some Republicans, now understand that. That the culture wars have gone too far,” he said.

Jolly was first elected to his Tampa Bay-area congressional seat during a 2014 special election, and was reelected for one full term. The attorney and former lobbyist underwent a political evolution that spurred him to leave the Republican Party in 2018 to become an independent and then a registered Democrat. And he has built a national profile for himself as an anti-Trump political commentator on MSNBC.

Jolly said he has considered himself “part of the Democratic coalition” for five or so years, and believes in what he sees as the party’s “fundamental values” — that government can help people, that the economy should be “fair” to all, and that immigrants should be celebrated.

“I struggled to exercise those values in the Republican Party,” Jolly said, continuing: “The actual registration as a Democrat wasn’t a pivot. It was a kind of a formality.”

Jolly has broken from his old party on immigration, as Florida lawmakers race to help Trump fulfill his promise of mass deportations. Jolly skewered Republicans who he said have ”conflated immigration and crime,” which he described as wrong and immoral.

“If you were born here or if you immigrated here, or if you’re a Tallahassee politician who steals Medicaid money, we’re going to be tough on crime,” Jolly added, referring to a probe into the use of Medicaid settlement funds by a charity associated with first lady Casey DeSantis.

Jolly’s gubernatorial run as a Democrat draws comparisons to the failed bid of former Republican congressman-turned-independent-turned-Democrat Charlie Crist, who lost to DeSantis in 2022 by 19 points. It was Crist, running as a Democrat, who ousted Jolly from his congressional seat in 2016.

Jolly joined the Florida Democratic Party at what is arguably one of its most vulnerable points in years. Florida currently has no Democrats elected to statewide office, and there are now 1.2 million more registered Republicans than Democrats, according to the state’s active voter rolls. The GOP has made significant inroads in formerly Democratic strongholds in the state, such as Miami-Dade County.

The day that Jolly announced his new affiliation, the-then top Democrat in the Florida Senate, Jason Pizzo, revealed he was leaving the party, declaring that “the Democratic Party in Florida is dead.” Pizzo, a former prosecutor, has said he’ll launch his own run for governor as a candidate with no party affiliation.

On the Republican side, Jolly will face Trump-backed Rep. Byron Donalds, who is also a frequent presence on cable news as a surrogate for the president. Among the other names floated as potential GOP candidates are former Rep. Matt Gaetz and Casey DeSantis.

___ Kate Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.