Democratic candidate David Jolly is campaigning for Florida governor in places you don’t typically expect a Democrat to show up, like the community of Molino in north Escambia County.
Jolly, a former Republican and now the front-runner for the Florida Democratic Party’s nomination for governor, is visiting Molino as part of his effort to campaign everywhere in Florida with a message aimed at the political center in an era of political polarization.
Jolly will be in Molino on Oct. 27 for a town hall event at the Molino Community Center, which will be his third official campaign visit to Northwest Florida since he announced earlier this year.
“We’re doing what Lawton Chiles did in 1970,” Jolly said in a statement to the News Journal, referring to the former governor’s famous 1,000-mile walk across the state of Florida from Century to the Florida Keys that won him statewide fame and a seat in the U.S. Senate.
Chiles was the last Democrat to win a statewide election for the governor’s office when he won his final election in 1994.
“We’re going to every community across the state,” Jolly said. “Voters are turning out, and the polls are closing. And that’s why we’ll be in Molino, to listen and to learn.”
Jolly’s campaign is also occurring in a larger conversation in Democratic politics as the party has struggled to find its footing after losing the 2024 national election, and whether it should push harder on a populist progressive message or focus more on moderating on cultural issues.
Several national commentators have pointed to his campaign for Florida governor as one to watch as a possible bellwether for the future of the Democratic Party.
Jolly has focused his campaign on making Florida an affordable place to live and appealing to voters Democrats have written off in past elections. He believes that message is one that will win in 2026. So far, his campaign has said Jolly has raised $2 million.
The numbers are respectable, but he’ll have to raise a lot more to compete with the apparent Republican front-runner, U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, who has raised more than $30 million, thanks in large part to an endorsement from President Donald Trump.
On Oct. 13, Jolly was campaigning in Donald’s area of Southwest Florida, drawing a crowd of 400 people in Fort Myers and 200 in Naples.
Donalds is the Republican front-runner, and Jolly’s campaign is already trying to frame it as a contest between the two. His campaign released a poll last month showing Jolly statistically tied with a one-point advantage over Donalds, despite there being more Republicans polled than Democrats.
The conservative Tallahassee think tank, the James Madison Institute, also released a poll in late September showing Jolly four points behind Donalds. That poll also had state Sen. Jason Pizzo with 4% of support, while the Jolly campaign’s poll did not include Pizzo. Pizzo left the Democratic Party earlier this year and announced plans to run for governor as an independent.
Both polls indicate that a significant portion of Florida voters remain largely undecided nearly a year out from the general election, but both polls indicate the top concern is the cost of living in Florida.
Jolly will likely hit that message at the town hall in Molino later this month.
In the 2024 election, 84% of the Molino area voted for Trump versus 15% for former Vice President Kamala Harris. Nearby precincts in that part of Escambia County, Trump had as much as 90% of the vote. Across all of Escambia County, Trump won 59% to 39%, and that margin made Escambia County the “bluest” county between the Perdido and Apalachicola rivers.
“We have to be in communities where Democrats haven’t been, and we have to make this race bigger than the Democratic Party,” Jolly told the News Journal in June. “This has to be a race about Florida’s voters and whether or not they want change or more of the same. If that is the question, in the midst of a change environment, we win this race.”
The Molino town hall is being hosted by the Escambia County chapter of Indivisible at the Molino Community Center at 6450 Highway 95A N. from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.