David Jolly took his Florida governor's campaign to Eatonville on Monday, courting voters at a get-out-the-vote rally in the historic Black town just two weeks before Election Day. The Democratic candidate's stop came as multiple statewide polls show him trailing Republican Rep. Byron Donalds overall but holding a commanding advantage among Black voters — a bloc both campaigns are scrambling to lock down before November 3.
Jolly's visit to Eatonville was part of a broader push into predominantly Black communities that has also included stops at Florida A&M University, according to WKMG. At the rally, Jolly argued the race could come down to roughly 10% of undecided Black voters statewide, a figure he has repeated elsewhere. He also pointed to what he characterized as Donalds pulling just 9% to 10% support from his own community, framing his candidacy as one meant to represent every corner of the state rather than a single base.
State Sen. Lavon Bracy, former U.S. Senator Bill Nelson and Orange County mayoral candidate Tiffany Moore Russell all appeared alongside Jolly at Monday's event, according to WKMG.
Not Everyone in Eatonville Is Sold
The rally also exposed cracks in the assumption that Eatonville is uniformly behind Jolly. Eatonville Vice Mayor Angela Thomas declined an on-camera interview but told WKMG off-camera that Donalds seemed genuine when the two met and that she liked what she had learned about his platform — an endorsement from a local official in the very town hosting Jolly's rally.
UCF political analyst Aubrey Jewett told WKMG that Black voters statewide may be weighing party loyalty against the historic possibility of electing Florida's first Black governor, since a Donalds win would make him the first Black person to hold the office, a point also noted by WUSF. That tension helps explain why both campaigns have invested so heavily in outreach to Black voters in the campaign's final stretch.
Dueling Campus Visits and Policy Pitches
Jolly's Eatonville stop followed a Monday meeting earlier this month with the Florida State University Black Student Union and Divine Nine sorority and fraternity chapter leaders at FSU and Florida A&M University, per WUSF. Donalds had visited FAMU's campus for a candidate town hall two weeks before Jolly made his own appearance there, according to WFSU. At his own FAMU town hall, Jolly told students he would suspend 287(g) agreements between local law enforcement and immigration officers and reinstate funding for diversity, equity and inclusion programs if elected, WFSU reported.
Jolly has also leaned into opposition to data centers as a wedge issue. At an Orlando news conference last Monday alongside Bill Nelson, he renewed his pledge to impose a one-year moratorium on hyperscale data centers on his first day in office, as reported by the Orlando Sentinel. The Sentinel noted a July University of North Florida poll found 68% of Florida voters disapprove of data centers being built in their area, including 84% of Democrats and 52% of Republicans surveyed.
What the Polls Actually Show
The numbers behind the race tell conflicting stories depending on the survey. A statewide poll from NBC6/Telemundo Station Group found Donalds leading Jolly 48% to 41%, with 10% undecided, while a Stetson University survey put Donalds ahead by a wider 52% to 41%. Earlier polling also showed a close race. Among Black voters, NBC6 reported Jolly leading 76% to 10%, while Stetson measured a narrower 57% to 27% split. Stetson's data also showed Donalds improving slightly among Black voters, climbing from 25% in its September poll to 27% in October, according to Florida Politics.
The Stetson poll also found women nearly evenly split, with Jolly at 46% and Donalds at 45%, while men favored Donalds 58% to 36%.
Money and Momentum Favor Donalds
Financially, the race is lopsided, with Florida Democrats remaining cash poor. Jolly opened a campaign field office in Miami Gardens in late September, part of an effort to build ground-level organizing in Black communities even without matching his opponent's spending.
Jolly trails in most surveys.
