Inside Pinellas Parks’ United Methodist Church with its organ pipes, wooden pews, crosses and American flags, Democratic gubernatorial candidate David Jolly made his 124th campaign stop Nov. 21. The setting carried a personal note – his father once preached at Calvary Baptist Church in Clearwater – though Jolly opened by saying, “It’s not my role to evangelize.”

Jolly got straight to the numbers. Florida has about 1.4 million more registered Republicans than Democrats. He didn’t try to dress it up. “We’re not going to close that gap,” he said. “We don’t need to. We need to convince independents and Republicans to vote for Democrats.”

He also addressed the fundraising divide. His Republican opponent, Byron Donalds, has raised more than $30 million. Jolly is sitting at about $2 million. He downplayed it. “I’m a reformer; I never lost a race because of money,” he said. “I lost one because of redistricting.”

Jolly referenced his decade outside elected office, saying it changed how he talks about politics. “I’ve been out of politics for 10 years, and I learned how to tell the truth,” he said. He didn’t sidestep Florida’s insurance crisis either. “I think property insurance in Florida has collapsed and isn’t coming back.”

He laid out proposals he said could move the state forward: cutting homeowners insurance by 60 percent, removing hurricane coverage from the private market, and acknowledging climate change as a factor in lowering utility costs. “We can reduce the cost of utilities in this state if we acknowledge climate change and climate science is real,” he said.

Looking ahead to the general election, Jolly said he wants Democrats to offer their own ideas rather than purely reacting to Republican plans. “Let’s see what they put forward,” he said. “Instead of just opposing it, let’s put our plan forward.” He added, “This election is about change versus more of the same.”

Jolly’s background is central to how he frames his run. A fifth-generation Floridian born in Dunedin and raised in Pasco County, he represented Florida’s 13th District in Congress from 2014 to 2017 as a Republican. He left the party in 2018, later ran as an independent, and registered as a Democrat in 2025 as he launched his bid for governor.

Follow-up questions were sent to the Jolly campaign, but no response was received by the time of publication.