Leesburg voter asks if he will ‘become another John Fetterman’
David Jolly — the Republican-turned-independent who is now running for Florida governor as a Democrat — stopped this week in Leesburg, a central Florida town the AP described as dotted by lakes and Spanish moss, at a manufactured-home community for seniors.
Among the voters gathered in the community clubhouse was Cyn Doyle, a 71-year-old who described herself as a political cynic.
“How can you assure us,” Doyle asked, “that you won’t become another John Fetterman?”
The mention of Fetterman — a Pennsylvania Democratic senator the AP dispatch characterized as “contrarian” — drew jeers from the crowd.
Jolly, once a Republican and then an independent before running as a Democrat and previously a pundit on MSNBC who critiqued politicians, responded by describing his party-switching past as part of a longer political evolution.
“Change is part of my journey,” Jolly said. “What I can tell you is that the values I speak of — that the economy should work, that government can do a little bit to improve our lives and that everyone should have the right to be protected — those are the guideposts for how I’ll serve as governor.”
The Leesburg stop is part of Jolly’s continuing Florida gubernatorial campaign on a Democratic ballot line — the latest turn in a political career that has moved from the Republican Party through independent registration to the Democratic Party.