ST PETERSBURG — Could Gwen Graham add heft to David Jolly’s candidacy for governor by becoming his running mate in Florida next year?
That question occurred when the former Tallahassee-based U.S. representative appeared with Jolly last week during a political rally in Pinellas County that drew 400-plus attendees.
Jolly has been crisscrossing the Sunshine State since entering the Democratic race for governor in June, and the event at 535 Nova — a wedding venue — was his 130th public gathering since he entered the contest, but the first time he appeared with Graham, the closest thing to Florida Democratic Party royalty. She’s a daughter of Bob Graham, the former Florida governor and U.S. senator who died last year at 87.
In an interview before the Thursday event, Gwen Graham, who served in Congress with Jolly from 2015-2017, said it was a “no-brainer” that she would support the former Republican for governor.
“I would not be standing here if I didn’t know he could win,” she said. “This election is too important. We’ve got to have a candidate in November who can win so we can start reversing the damage that has been done to the state that I love and my father loved, and David can win. So, I’m going to do whatever I can to help him do that.”
Many political analysts considered Graham the favorite to capture the Democratic nomination for governor in 2018, but she ended up losing to then Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum by three percentage points in that year’s primary election. She went on to serve in President Joe Biden’s administration as assistant secretary for legislation and congressional affairs at the U.S. Department of Education from 2021 to 2025.
In introducing Jolly to the audience in St. Petersburg last week, Graham said she was nervous because it was her first public appearance since the death of her father, who served as Florida’s 38th governor from 1979 to 1987 and in the U.S. Senate from 1987 to 2005.
“I hear my dad’s voice in David’s commitment to the values that I have grown up with and lived,” she said in her speech.
“I hear David’s voice talking about what he cares about for the future of this state. So, while David knows this race will be difficult, the moment is too important. We must all stand together and do our part to define what Florida will look like as a state for the next century.”
Jolly deflected when asked before the event whether he was considering Graham to serve as his running mate, but did say, “We’re going to name a lieutenant governor candidate very early. We’re not going to wait until the primary. And I hope we see Gwen Graham in office again in the state of Florida.”
Considering a Jolly-Graham ticket
Longtime Hillsborough County Democratic strategist Victor DiMaio served at one time as a press secretary for Bob Graham. Having Gwen Graham on Jolly’s ticket makes sense on several levels, he said.
“Gwen would be an excellent choice if that’s what [Jolly] decides to do,” he said. “It didn’t hurt other governors who have selected women as lieutenant governors.”
Angela Birdsong, president of the Hillsborough County Democratic Black Caucus, believes Gillum would have defeated Ron DeSantis in 2018 if he had selected Graham, instead of Chris King, to serve as his running mate.
“She would bring in more conservative Democrats, and independents would love her,” Birdsong said of Graham’s appeal in 2026. When asked if that ticket might prove to be too moderate for Florida Democrats, Birdsong disagreed. “I’m with Jasmine Crockett — I think that we’re going to have to run some vanilla candidates for a while.”
(Crockett. a progressive Democratic member of Congress from Texas, said in an interview on Sirius/XM radio in May that, following the Democratic Party’s losses to Donald Trump with Kamala Harris and Hillary Clinton, “we just want to win.”
(She added, “So, there’s a lot of people that are like, ‘You know what? Like, let’s go find the safest white boy we can find.’ I mean, I’m just saying.”)
Some political consultants believe a Democratic gubernatorial ticket consisting of Jolly, a former Republican, and Graham, a political moderate, may offer a general election appeal to a Florida electorate that has moved considerably to the political right during the past eight years.
But it might be a dead letter within the more progressive precincts of the Florida Democratic Party.
Carolina Ampudia is a former chair of the Democratic Progressive Caucus in Florida. She sees a Jolly-Graham ticket as “a pathetic retreat, not a step forward.”
“Jolly has a Republican record and ties to Scientology. Graham voted to fast-track the Keystone pipeline and built her career on centrism. Neither of them represents the communities that have been fighting on the frontlines for labor rights, racial justice, LGBTQ+ protections, public education, or environmental survival,” she said in a text message.
“Florida doesn’t need a rebranded Republican and a legacy name,” she continued. “We need leadership that reflects the courage and clarity of the people — not the fears of consultants and donors.”
Florida’s last two elected governors, Ron DeSantis and Rick Scott, both named women as their running mates (DeSantis selected Jeanette Nuñez in 2018 and Scott picked Jennifer Carroll in 2010). Charlie Crist selected female running mates in his two unsuccessful bids as a Democrat for governor in 2014 and 2022 (Annette Taddeo in ’14 and Karla Hernández-Mats in ’22).
Meanwhile, discussion about a potential running mate for Jolly comes amid a challenge for the Democratic nomination by Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings, who announced his candidacy a month ago. No major polls comparing the two Democrats have been published since his entry.
Uphill climb
On the GOP side, southwest Florida U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds is dominating in the polling. According to a survey of 800 likely Republican voters conducted by Florida pollster Ryan Tyson for the American Promise last month, Donalds, who has been endorsed by President Trump, received 43% support while a majority of the electorate (51%) remained unsure. Former House Speaker Paul Renner received 2% of the vote. Lt. Gov. Jay Collins, who has not formally entered the race, received 1%.
A poll conducted by the University of North Florida’s Public Opinion Research Lab of 728 likely voters between Donalds and Jolly in October (before Demings entered the contest) showed Donalds leading both Jolly and Demings by double digits.
The eventual Democratic nominee will be a decided underdog. Florida has not elected a Democrat to lead the state since Lawton Chiles in 1994.
Even before he entered the race for governor in June, Jolly had been talking about affordability, which has emerged as a buzzword in U.S. politics following Zohran Mamdani’s victory in the New York City mayor’s race last month.
Thursday night, Jolly said concerns about the quality of life for everyday Floridians encompasses “more than affordability.”
“Affordability is, ‘Am I going to be able to afford rent or housing this week or this month.’ That is real. That’s a crisis. But we’re at a generational inflection point,” he said.
“I think that if Republicans continue with their policies, we’re going to lose the middle in the state of Florida and people are going to begin leaving at a quicker rate than we’re already seeing.”
Among the issues he addressed during his 50-minute-plus speech was the state’s universal school choice program, which expanded significantly in 2023 and was found by a state audit to feature “a myriad of accountability problems.”
“They don’t have to provide an individual education program,” Jolly said of private schools that accept state tuition subsidies.
“They don’t have to provide excellence in academics. Trigonometry in the 10th grade. Access to the trades. Access to the arts. They don’t have to provide any of that because there’s no standards on our choice schools. And so, just like Jeb Bush 25 years ago made the argument that he’s siding with Florida’s kids and families, guess what? Now we are. Because he used to say that public schools were leaving the kids behind. Now are choice schools leaving your kids behind? That’s what’s happening in the state of Florida.”
A plan to add funding for public education
Jolly has proposed a “10-year renaissance” in public education, advocating for a proposed constitutional amendment that would steer a portion of tourist development tax receipts into public education to pay teachers 30% more.
Tourist development taxes are levied in 62 of Florida’s 67 counties with rates ranging from 2% to 6% on sales. State law requires at least 40% of all tourist development tax revenues collected in a county to be spent to promote and advertise tourism.
“We build convention centers with it. We advertise beaches on the Chicago ‘L’ in January. … But guess what? We don’t have a crisis of convention centers in the state of Florida, we have a crisis in education,” Jolly said.
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This article appears in Dec. 04 – 10, 2025.