DGA sends $1 million to Jolly's Florida governor bid

Jolly campaign says Clinton’s Miami fundraiser drew more than $3 million

The Democratic Governors Association said Tuesday it is sending $1 million to David Jolly’s campaign for Florida governor. Former President Bill Clinton campaigned with Jolly in South Florida on Tuesday and headlined a Tuesday-morning Miami fundraiser that Jolly’s campaign said raised more than $3 million. The contribution comes as national Democrats seek to put Florida back in play after recent election losses and a period in which they had largely abandoned the state.

Jolly, the Democratic nominee for governor, is facing Republican Rep. Byron Donalds to succeed term-limited Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. Polls show Donalds with a lead, but the race has shaped up to be more competitive than Republicans previously anticipated. Earlier this month, the nonpartisan Cook Political Report shifted its Florida governor’s race rating from likely Republican to lean Republican.

The Democratic Governors Association’s contribution comes as Jolly has urged national Democrats to spend more aggressively in his face-off with Donalds. Florida campaign finance filings show donors funneled more than $148 million to boost Donalds in his race, while Jolly raised close to $22 million.

Democratic Governors Association spokesperson Kevin Donohoe said in a statement: “David Jolly has the clear momentum in this race because unlike Byron Donalds, he’s focused on what Floridians care about: making the state affordable to working families,” “DGA is proud to support Jolly who has run an aggressive, grassroots campaign that has given him a clear path to victory.”

Donalds’s campaign has counted on its significant cash advantage to offset political headwinds facing Republicans, including President Trump’s falling approval ratings, the economy, the administration’s immigration enforcement and the war in Iran. Some people close to the campaign said that if Jolly had more money, Donalds would be in trouble.

“The DGA money is important because it affirms what we know and what national donors should know—that Florida is a race that we can win,” Jolly’s campaign chair Mitchell Berger said. Berger said the campaign needs more money in the final stretch for voter-turnout efforts and for responding to some of the negative ads coming from Republicans.

Former President Bill Clinton was in South Florida on Tuesday to campaign with Jolly. Clinton won the state in his 1996 re-election campaign after losing it in 1992. Clinton headlined a Tuesday-morning Miami fundraiser that the Jolly campaign said brought in more than $3 million.

Jolly, a former Republican congressman who became a Democrat in the Trump era, has focused his campaign on affordability, including the high cost of housing, gas, groceries and healthcare. He has also opposed the rapid expansion of data centers.

Florida lost its battleground-state status after bruising losses in recent election cycles. National Democrats had largely abandoned the state because of those trends and the high cost of advertising in the Sunshine State. A Democrat has not won a statewide election in Florida since 2018.

Democrats see reasons for optimism amid broader political headwinds for Republicans, pointing to local and special-election victories as signs of potential momentum in the state. Those results include Miami’s election of a Democratic mayor late last year and a pair of Democrats flipping two Republican-held seats in the state legislature earlier this year.

Jolly is not the only Florida statewide candidate to receive late-stage national investment. Earlier this month, the Democratic Attorneys General Association announced it was investing $5 million to boost Democrat José Javier Rodríguez in his effort to unseat Republican Attorney General James Uthmeier.