The Republican Party of Florida is blasting former Rep. David Jolly — a Republican turned Democrat — as he considers a gubernatorial run in an attempt to flip Florida blue.
Jolly has been toying with the idea of a gubernatorial run in the Sunshine State and is expected to make a decision this week.
“I expect a decision this week,” he said over the weekend. “I’ll make a final decision and make it public this week.”
Jolly has an interesting past, as he served in the U.S. House of Representatives as a Republican from 2014-2017, only to switch to independent in 2018. Then, this past April, he made the move to formally register as a Democrat and is now considering running for governor of the state for that party.
“No matter the issue, David Jolly has been on all sides of it,” Florida GOP Chairman Evan Power said in a statement as Jolly weighs a gubernatorial bid, expressing confidence that Floridians “won’t be swayed.”
“Under Republican leadership, Florida enjoys low inflation, fiscal responsibility, and a thriving economy. School choice and parental rights are prioritized, and support for the rule of law is unmatched. We aren’t going backward with a flip-flopping political relic,” he continued.
“David Jolly has lost before, and he will lose again,” Power added. “Floridians won’t trust a slick opportunist who simply can’t be trusted. Jolly has no platform, no base, and no chance in Florida.”
The GOP press release also highlighted the reality that Florida now boasts 1.3 million more registered Republicans than Democrats — a trend that officially began in November 2021, as Breitbart News has documented:
From that moment on, Republicans have only continued to expand their lead, topping Democrats by more than 100,000 mere months later, in March 2022. That figure doubled to 200,000 in July, and in December 2022, the figure stood around 350,000. In February 2023, Republicans outnumbered Democrats by 400,000 registered voters, and that figure swelled to 680,030 as of October 31, 2023, with Republicans having 5,153,695 voters to the Democrat party’s 4,473,665.
In August 2024 — months ahead of the pivotal 2024 election — officials announced that Republicans had a one million registered voter advantage over Democrats in the Sunshine State.
And the progress goes far beyond that. Deep blue areas such as Miami-Dade not only flipped for Republicans in the 2024 election for the first time in 30 years, but last month, officials announced that Miami-Dade officially flipped red, as registered Republicans outnumbered Democrats in the county.
As Breitbart News detailed on May 20:
Officials announced the big news Monday morning. As of that time, registered Republican voters in the county numbered 464,370, compared to 440,790 registered Democrats. That results in a +23,580 voter advantage for Republicans in the traditionally blue county.
Additionally, independents and third-party voters add up to 429,099 in the county. Republicans lead on both fronts.
“Miami-Dade just flipped RED. From Rubio to DeSantis to Trump, this victory is a testament to the strength of Republican leadership and grassroots power,” the Florida GOP said in a social media post celebrating the feat.
It remains unclear how Jolly, if he chooses to run, will deal with the massive change in south Florida, which Democrats heavily rely on.
“In many ways the governorship runs through Broward County. If we have (robust) turnout numbers among Broward Democrats but also among Black voters here in Broward and in South Florida, we win the governorship,” Jolly said, according to Yahoo News.
“And so I think what you’re seeing here is a coalition emerging that realizes we can win statewide in ’26, but we’ve got to do our work to turn voters out and to persuade voters who maybe haven’t been with us before to be with us,” he added.
