The Democratic Governors Association announced it will invest $1 million in David Jolly's campaign for Florida governor, marking the first time the national group has sent money to a Florida gubernatorial race since Ron DeSantis' first run in 2018. The move comes as Jolly, a Democrat, faces off against Republican Byron Donalds in a state whose registered voter rolls have grown significantly more Republican since then.
As reported by the Miami Herald, DGA spokesperson Kevin Donohue said in a statement that “the DGA is proud to support Jolly, whose aggressive grassroots campaign has given him a clear path to victory.” The Herald's Claire Heddles reports that the DGA had been watching Florida's race for months, providing logistical support to Jolly's campaign while declining to put money behind him as other battleground states showed more promise for Democrats.
That reluctance was on full display just over a week ago. On October 12, the DGA released a memo expanding its national map with at least $10 million earmarked for seven other targeted states, according to the Florida Phoenix — and Florida wasn't on it. Florida Democrats got no DGA funding when early voting started, the Herald notes, making the group's reversal a week later a late and notably modest pivot.
A Much Smaller Bet Than 2018
The scale of the new investment looks thin next to the DGA's last major push in Florida. In the 2018 governor's race, the group poured more than $8 million into Democrat Andrew Gillum's campaign, according to the same Herald report — and Gillum still lost to DeSantis by less than half a percentage point, according to Florida Politics. This year's $1 million commitment to Jolly is a fraction of that historical benchmark.
It's also arriving alongside other national Democratic money flowing into Florida's statewide ticket. The Democratic Association of Attorneys General has invested $5 million for attorney general candidate José Javier Rodríguez, while the American Bridge PAC put $2.5 million behind Senate candidate Angie Nixon, per the Herald's reporting. Those sums dwarf the DGA's contribution to the top-of-ticket governor's race, even as Jolly runs against a heavily funded Donalds campaign that had more than $7 million on hand as of August 21, 2026, compared to roughly $2 million for Jolly, according to Florida Politics.
Structural Headwinds Remain Steep
Florida's voter registration landscape has shifted substantially against Democrats since Gillum's narrow loss. For the November contest, Florida had about 13.7 million voters, with Republicans holding an approximate 1.54 million-voter edge. Republicans first overtook Democrats in total registered voters in late 2021 and have widened their advantage since.
There were small signs of movement in September, however. Florida Democrats gained 29,633 net registered voters that month compared to 29,140 for Republicans — the first month in five years that Democrats out-registered the GOP, according to Florida Politics. Combined with competitive early polling, that shift appears to have factored into the national groups' late-stage decisions to re-engage in the state.
Jolly's Path From the GOP to the Democratic Ticket
Jolly represented Florida's 13th congressional district as a Republican from 2014 to 2017 before leaving the GOP in 2018, later joining the Forward Party before officially registering as a Democrat in April 2025 alongside running mate Gwen Graham, according to Ballotpedia. He is running against Donalds, the Republican who was elected to represent Florida's 19th Congressional District in 2020 and began serving in the U.S. House in 2021, and who won the 11-way Republican primary on August 18 with 47.8% of the vote.
Jolly spoke at the Miami-Dade Democratic Party's 2026 Blue Gala at the Frost Science Museum in Miami last month, an appearance photographed by Al Diaz, according to the Herald. The DGA's late investment gives his campaign a fresh infusion of resources.
