Good morning and welcome to Tuesday.
Gubernatorial candidate DAVID JOLLY left the Republican Party in 2018 saying it had become overtaken by President DONALD TRUMP.
With the fatal shooting by a Border Patrol agent of 37-year-old American ALEX PRETTI in Minnesota, Jolly — now a Democrat — is again calling for a rejection of partisanship and leaders who are staunchly aligned with the president.
The question now: Whether the issue can give his campaign and other Democrats in Florida a way to invigorate the broad coalition he has long said they’ll need heading into the midterms.
During a stop in Port St. Lucie on Sunday, Jolly may have given his most impassioned speech yet in his bid for governor, lamenting before a gathering of the Democratic Hispanic Caucus of Florida that “there is a rot in the soul of America” and declaring that “Minnesota matters in this governor’s race.” The comments quickly circulated on social media.
Though the events in Minneapolis happened about 1,500 miles away from where Jolly was speaking, it still reverberated in Florida. Anti-ICE protests and vigils are planned throughout the state this week, reports USA Today Network — Florida. Jolly told Playbook in an interview he’s seen only a few moments of the Trump presidency like this one, citing Jan. 6 as another instance that “grabs the conscience.”
“There’s a real question how Democrats this cycle approach Minnesota as an issue,” he said. “One of the ways is you don’t lean into partisanship or politics; you lean into our national identity.”
Republican candidates for governor, he argued, should do the same. He accused GOP frontrunner Rep. BYRON DONALDS of trying to “insulate and elevate” the president instead of being committed to principles like backing police or the Second Amendment. Otherwise, Jolly argued, Donalds would have backed Capitol police on Jan. 6 and would have defended Pretti’s gun ownership.
The Donalds campaign didn’t respond to a request to comment on Jolly’s speech. When Donalds appeared on “My View” with LARA TRUMP on Fox News Channel last weekend, he accused Minneapolis Mayor JACOB FREY and Minnesota Gov. TIM WALZ of having “inflamed the situation” with their comments about ICE.
“You’re not seeing this in Florida,” he said. “You’re seeing this because you have stupid Democrats in the state of Minnesota who are trying to remain popular in their party, who are not doing the right thing. They’re not showing leadership and are not abiding by the United States Constitution.”
DeSantis made similar comments during a press conference in The Villages on Monday, boasting about the 20,000 apprehensions of undocumented immigrants in Florida and accusing Walz and Frey of “creating a toxic environment where they are really inciting people to go out and show hostility to the agents.”
Notably, Trump, though he initially blamed Democrats, has subsequently been far more guarded than his defenders and members of his administration when describing the tragedy. He told the Wall Street Journal on Sunday that the situation was being reviewed.
He appeared to back down further Monday as some Republicans were growing increasingly concerned about the killings and how the tragedy might turn public tide against them on immigration, an issue that has otherwise been a safe haven issue for their party, as POLITICO’s Jonathan Martin reported. Trump sent border czar TOM HOMAN to Minneapolis and said he had a constructive conversation with Walz and Frey.
It remains to be seen how Donalds and DeSantis will now address the situation. Regardless, Jolly said he doesn’t put much stake in what Trump said. “I don’t assign him any credibility,” he said. “His words are meaningless.”
WHERE’S RON? Gov. DeSantis is set to give remarks at 9:30 a.m. at the Florida Sheriffs’ Association 2026 Winter Conference in Ponte Vedra Beach.