From town halls in Apopka county and Tampa Bay to caucus powwows in Tallahassee, it looks like David Jolly — a former Republican congressman who fled the party due to Donald Trump and has been a commentator on MSNBC for several years — was already campaigning earlier this month for the Florida governor’s seat in 2026.
Then he announced Thursday that he changed his voter registration from no party affiliation to Democrat, which is a necessary step in that direction.
Meanwhile, State Sen. Jason Pizzo, the now former Senate minority leader who has also toyed with a gubernatorial run, announced that he had changed his registration from Democrat to no party affiliation, saying the blue party “is dead.”
Is this setting Florida voters up for a gubernatorial race between Jolly and Pizzo and whoever is the Republican nominee?
Jolly still says he is only “seriously considering” a run for the state’s top job. “Exploring,” is another word he uses a lot.
“It’s clear to me there is a coalition of Floridians that want change,” he was quoted as saying last month in POLITICO. But some 
who know him say his mind is pretty made up. And now he has a political action committee, curiously called Florida 2026, so he can start to raise campaign dough to “engage in voter outreach and research work focused on key issues in the Sunshine State,” according to the website, which is found at Florida2026.com or DavidJolly.com. Either takes you to the same page.
Sure, there are already the inevitable comparisons to Charlie “Turncoat” Crist, another former congressman who ran for governor and lost in 2022 against Ron DeSantis. Sure, there are about 1.2 million more Republican voters in Florida than Dem voters. Sure, there isn’t a single Democrat elected statewide. Sure, Trump has won Florida three times. Sure, Florida hasn’t elected a Democratic governor since Lawton Chiles in 1994.
That’s more than 30 years.
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But if there’s someone who can bridge that gap, who can reach out to the middle and get the desilucionado Trump voters, it might just be David Jolly. Everybody says, like a broken record, that the only way to beat a Republican candidate for governor is to get all the Dems, most of the NPAs and, say, 1 out of 10 Republicans. Who can do that better than a desilucionado Republican himself?
“I’ve considered myself a proud member of the Democratic Coalition for years now,” Jolly told Florida Politics in March. “The coalition I would need is essentially the same. You need Democrats, independents and kind of mainstream Republicans to build a coalition. If you do it as an NPA (no party affiliation candidate) or as a Democrat, you are still asking if you can change the state.”
That seems to have been foreshadowing.
Jolly, an attorney and former lobbyist, is a fifth generation Floridian who grew up, by the way, in South Florida. So he 
understands our rhythms and strengths and issues, despite now living in the St. Petersburg area, where he served as the U.S. representative for Florida’s 13th congressional district from 2014 to 2017 — as a Republican who won a Democrat-leaning district. He was unseated by Crist. After leaving office, Jolly became a outspoken and prominent critic of President Donald Trump and a political pundit on MSNBC, where he did things like deconstruct the GOP’s approach to the Trump indictment.
In September 2018, Jolly left the Republican Party and registered as an independent.
“I’ve had the pleasure of knowing him for years and I’ve known him to be a brilliant, ethical, good-faith individual who is truly concerned about the state and the country,” said Fernand Amandi, a well-known Democratic strategist who helped Barack Obama win Florida in 2008 and 2012. “He’s always had a congenial willingness to solve problems. He reminds me of the great Florida leaders of the past. People like Ruben Askew, Bob Graham, Lawton Chiles.
“When people hear Jolly speak, they are shocked at how personable and knowledgable he is,” Amandi told Political Cortadito. “When people are exposed to David Jolly, they see someone they like and who they trust is telling the truth. That is something rare in U.S politics and completely lost in Florida.”
Jolly has been described by many as an extremely talented communicator with an analytical mind who doesn’t speak in insider language. “He connects very quickly with the concerns of the people,” Amandi said. “Not only is he aware of the problem, he has a way to solve it.”
It certainly speaks to his appeal that all he has to do is suggest he’s seeking the Democratic nomination for governor and that scrambles the ambitions that Pizzo may have had, switching to NPA rather than face a potential primary with him. “If David Jolly had not announced his potential run as a Democratic nominee,” Amandi said, “I don’t think Jason Pizzo would have left the party last Thursday.”
The timing certainly seems sus.
But a potential Pizzo candidacy as an independent — and about 26% of Florida’s registered voters are NPAs — could actually help
whoever the Republican nominee ends up being, most likely Republican Congressman Byron Donalds of Naples, a financial analyst and onetime contender for VP for Donald Trump. Daniels has the POTUS endorsement. Casey DeSantis, the current governor’s wife, is still flirting with a potential run, but we know that spouses of electeds traditionally don’t win elections. And she has that Hope Florida scandal now blemishing that pipe dream.
Democrats have blasted Pizzo, a former Miami-Dade assistant state attorney first elected in 2018, for abandoning the party, saying, basically, “good riddance.” Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried said he was useless, anyway.
“Jason Pizzo is one of the most ineffective and unpopular Democratic leaders in recent memory, and his resignation is one of the best things to happen to the party in years,” Fried said in a statement Thursday. “His legacy as leader includes continually disparaging the party base, starting fights with other members, and chasing his own personal ambitions at the expense of Democratic values.”
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If the party is dead, as Pizzo claims, isn’t it also to blame?
Pizzo did not return calls and texts to his cellphone.
Fried, too, believes that Jolly possibly entering the guv’s race as a Democrat was the last straw.
“Jason’s failure to build support within our party for a gubernatorial run has led to this final embarrassing temper tantrum,” Fried said. “I’d be lying if I said I’m sad to see him go, but I wish him the best of luck in the political wilderness he’s created for himself.
“The Florida Democratic Party is more united without him.”
Ouch.
Still, many Dems are concerned that if Pizzo runs, he could hurt any chances that Jolly — or whoever ends up being the Democratic nominee — may have to win.
“Jason Pizzo has a decision to make, and I hope and trust he makes the right one,” Amandi told Political Cortadito. “But if he decides to barrel forward anyway and run as an independent, he’s only going to guarantee that the Republican wins. And if he does that, he should probably change his name to Jason Spoiler.”
David Jolly, Jason Pizzo switch parties to possibly run for Florida guv in ’26 added by Ladra on
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