What a difference one day made.
Wednesday, the former member of the Republican Congress became David Jolly was a whisper in Florida’s policy. Of course, everyone knew he could be, perhaps, think about a race for the governor. And people outside of his attachment base of the County of Pinellas knew who he was, less because of his time as a representative of the 13th district of the Florida Congress and more because of his time as an expert on MSNBC and various other points of sale where he provided, largely, anti-anti-Donald Trump comment.
Before Thursday morning Jolly was a democrat And had a political committee and a website that has enormously read a campaign page.
Thursday afternoon, he had a much clearer path to the democratic appointment for the governor in 2026 that he could not have imagined just a few days ago. At least for the moment.
While a certain level of what Will Ferrell Version of the former president George W. Bush Could call the “strategy” was undoubtedly at stake for the party exchange, the political committee and the website, the other was a gift from the political gods of partisan frustration:
Jason Pizzo.
In the decreasing days of the Florida legislative session in 2025, pizzo dropped a figurative bomb – He resigned from his role as a democratic leader of the Senate and withdrew from the Democratic Party in general, rather choosing to be registered without affiliation of the party.
Until this moment, Pizzo was, on the whole, considered to be the clear precursor of the ambitions of governor of the Democrats, and the political initiates thought that could in fact give us a representative. Byron DonaldsThe choice of the probable gop for the governor who already has the support of Trump, a race for his money.
And so like that, Jolly has no great current opposition.
To be clear, someone will emerge. Democrats with rising stars through the state could turn to Jolly and think: “Well, we have already seen this film!” And it’s true – the last Democratic candidate for the governor, Charlie CRISTwas, like Jolly, a former Republican. He lost against the governor. Ron Desantis In 2022 by 19 percentage points. But it is a low fruit to assume that Jolly’s fate would be different.
And let’s not forget, sometimes the low fruit is rotten.
Jolly has spent the last decade criticizing extremist policies, and Trump in particular. He was an ally known to the Democrats, even if he did his allegiance to the party official before this week. He was a welcome voice on MSNBC, the paradise broadcast for leftists seeking to channel their indignation.
During the past for more than six years, it has been independent political, but with a lot of bonfides on the left.
When Jolly Leaving the Republican Party In 2018, he gave a very different tone from Crist, who said that it was not he who had left the GOP, but the GOP who left him. He even wrote a book on this subject. Jolly’s reason now seems much more sincere – he and his wife, who also left the GOP, decided to make the change after discovering that they expected … a girl no less. You don’t need a political science expert to read between these lines.
It is also reckless to assume that Crist’s embarrassing loss concerned the man rather than the countryside and the timing. Crist ran in 2022, which was a cross bath crossed in Florida for the Democrats. Joe Biden The president was he and whoever knows anything about politics understands that the White House power party does not tend to get away very well. It’s already a strike. Combine it with the fact that Crist did some, say, reckless decisions in his campaign, and there is a lot of evidence to suggest that his political annihilation in this race was not mainly the result of the exchange of his party.
None of these analyzes will prevent me from jumping in the race, or even another moderate. And nothing suggests that Jolly would have an easy path to victory in a primary that will undoubtedly be competitive and expensive.
This is to say that, for the moment, it is nothing more than a road open in front of it, and it would be wise to take as many advantages and win as much land as possible.
It does not officially run – yet. But if he does, Jolly said that his hope would be “to unify the Democratic primary with the NPA”, which now includes the pizzo.
“I can say that as NPA for six years, I spent enough time in this space – and as sympathetic as I am for the cause, the candidates of the NPA, whether Jason or John Morgan Or anyone, really put the state back to Byron Donalds, “said Jolly.
And in the spirit of unity, it had nothing negative to say about the pizzo either.
“I respect anyone who follows his conscience in his policy. I suppose that bruises did it,” said Jolly. “I hope whatever it does, it’s a position of unity.”
Publication views: 0