In October, David Jolly’s campaign put out an upbeat statement about the candidate’s fundraising efforts in the 2026 governor’s race.
The $2 million he’d raised since June was an indication of Jolly’s “continued momentum” and of “strong grassroots enthusiasm,” his campaign said.
But that’s not how some in the Florida politics community saw it.
“To run for governor of Florida, one needs to be able to raise several million dollars per month,” Barry Edwards, a political consultant and commentator who’s worked with both parties, wrote in a text message. “David is not showing the proclivity, dedication or skill to do this.”
Jolly, a former Republican congressman who is running as a Democrat, has essentially had the primary field to himself since he entered the race in June. His team says he’s working hard on fundraising, his numbers are fine and that internal polling shows he’s running neck-and-neck with top Republicans in the race.
But on paper at least, Jolly’s campaign does not look ready to slay Florida’s Republican giants.
After raising less than $1 million between July and September, Jolly is sitting on a six-figure sum between a campaign account and a political committee he controls. The Republican front-runner, U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, controls more than $28 million.
According to a survey of 728 likely midterm voters conducted by the University of North Florida in October, Jolly trails Donalds in a hypothetical matchup by double digits. (A top official for Jolly’s campaign said this poll is unreliable.)
These unwelcome signs might herald more bad news for Jolly: He’s likely to get a credible primary challenger. Jerry Demings, the Democratic mayor and former sheriff of Orange County, is teasing an “announcement rally” slated for early November, according to a copy of the invitation obtained by the Tampa Bay Times.
Jolly’s campaign says the fundraising disparity can be explained by two factors. One: Jolly, a longtime Republican and then independent, is still introducing himself to Democratic power brokers around the state. Two: Jolly’s campaign has been more about meeting voters than working the phones.
“I think too often the playbook is, hop on the phone, dial for dollars, ignore the voters,” said Mark Riddle, Jolly’s senior campaign adviser. “We needed to build a campaign across the state, not another Democratic consultant slush fund.”
In his five months on the trail, Jolly has held more than 100 events around the state, his campaign says. It says they were well attended, indicative of an energized Democratic base.
But those who’ve worked with Jolly on his past campaigns say the politician has a history of putting fundraising on the back burner.
When he ran as a Republican for a Tampa Bay congressional seat in 2014 and 2016, Jolly struggled to raise cash, said Rob Simms, who was instrumental in the nationwide GOP congressional victory efforts those cycles.
In the 2014 race, Jolly narrowly beat Democrat Alex Sink in a hotly contested special election for the seat formerly held by Republican C.W. Bill Young. Sink raised more than $3.2 million to Jolly’s $2.1 million, campaign finance records show.
National Republicans and outside groups had to come to the candidate’s rescue, Simms said.
“He was a terrible fundraiser in that race,” Simms said.
Jolly’s team says Simms’ perspective is skewed by an acrimonious split Jolly had with national Republicans in Congress over fundraising. The national party stopped helping Jolly after a 2016 spat over a Jolly appearance on the national news magazine program “60 Minutes.” On the show, he touted a bill he was sponsoring to stop members of Congress from soliciting donations to their reelection campaigns.
As part of the story, “60 Minutes” journalists with a hidden camera infiltrated the D.C. offices from which congressional Republicans make their fundraising calls.
Simms says Jolly almost certainly helped the undercover camera into the building.
A Jolly campaign spokesperson denied this in a statement, saying, “Republican consultants have been comically obsessed with this falsehood for a decade.”
No matter whom Democrats pick as their nominee to succeed the term-limited Gov. Ron DeSantis, they will have a difficult time fundraising. During DeSantis’ tenure, Florida has become a solid red state, and the Republican Party has solidified its alliance with the state’s business community.
The Republican Party of Florida raised more than $6 million last quarter — more than 10 times the Florida Democratic Party’s haul.
The 2026 Democratic nominee has to convince the national party that Florida is not a lost cause. Liberal donors have poured tens of millions of dollars into Florida campaigns in recent cycles only to see the candidates flame out. Demings’ wife, former U.S. Rep. Val Demings, lost to Marco Rubio by double digits despite out-fundraising him in the 2022 U.S. Senate race.
But Jolly’s campaign bosses say it’s their job to convince donors that their campaign is viable.
“We live in Trumpistan from a donation point of view,” said Jolly campaign chairperson Mitchell Berger. “The major money in the state pays heed because of its financial and other interests to those in power. That doesn’t mean that those in power remain in power.”
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