David Jolly returns to St. Petersburg on Thursday for a town hall at NOVA 535 with former Congresswoman Gwen Graham. The campaign says the event is oversold and expects more than 250 attendees. Staff and volunteers arrive at 4 PM, doors open at 6 PM and the program runs from 6:30–7:30 PM.
Jolly has made 140 campaign stops across Florida this year, including 22 in Pinellas County. One of those came Nov. 21 at Pinellas Park’s United Methodist Church with its organ pipes, wooden pews, crosses and American flags. Jolly noted then that his father once preached at Calvary Baptist Church in Clearwater but said, “It’s not my role to evangelize.”
Instead, ahead of his imminent event, Jolly responded to several campaign questions about what he has been hearing at his stops. “The affordability crisis is real,” he stated. “It impacts Republicans, Independents and Democrats. It doesn’t matter if you voted for Trump or not. This is a question about the future direction of Florida. Florida’s voters want to go in a different direction.”
Jolly has been visiting communities democrats often skip, and has been drawing on the example of Lawton Chiles in 1970. Jolly told Poliverse, “We’re going to every community across the state. I will speak to every Democratic voter across the state, but I’m also speaking to every Independent and Republican voter, because I’m not just trying to be a governor for Democrats, I will be a governor for every Floridian.”
“Florida’s voters are screaming for change,” he said. “This cycle, we’re already seeing voters outperform in favor of Democrats by more than 15 points, right here in the State of Florida. In New Jersey, voters swung by double digits towards Democrats. In Virginia, they had a Republican governor, and the voters swung in double digits towards Virginia Democrats.”
“The affordability crisis is taking everybody on right now,” he said, “and people are just desperate for new solutions, and they’re not seeing that in Tallahassee.”