Jolly was born in Dunedin, Florida, the son of Judith and Lawson Jolly, a Baptist pastor.[6][7] He grew up in Dade City, Florida. Although he was found not to be at fault, at age 16, he was driving an automobile that struck and killed a pedestrian.[8]
Jolly worked for Republican U.S. Representative Bill Young full time from 1995 to 2006 in various positions, with a brief break for six months in 2001 when he worked at a Washington securities firm. In 2002, Jolly became Young's general counsel and held that position until he left in 2006.[10] He served as the personal attorney for Young's family as well.[11]
In 2007, Jolly joined Washington, D.C. firm Van Scoyoc Associates as a lobbyist and in 2011, he left Van Scoyoc to open his own lobbying firm, Three Bridges Advisors. During his time as a lobbyist he made political donations to both Republicans (about $36,000) and Democrats (about $30,000).[10][12] Jolly had his name removed from the Lobby Registry to run for the vacant House seat.[10] At the time, Jolly was working as vice president of the Clearwater-based investment company Boston Finance Group.[11]
Congressional career
According to Politico, Jolly was known for his centrist stances in U.S. Congress,[13] where he served one full term as a Republican. During his Congressional term, Jolly opposed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, but later he stated on an interview with MSNBC that during unemployment he had a new appreciation for its use as a "safety net".[14][15] In 2016, Jolly said that he was "pro-life".[16]
Speaking about firearms policy, Jolly said: "I do believe the Second Amendment is a fundamental right, but I don't believe it's beyond the reach of regulation, and I believe it's appropriate to look at regulations that ultimately keep the guns out of the hands of criminals."[17]
Jolly also supported sending special operations forces overseas, securing the border,[which?] increasing the vetting process for legal immigrants, and increasing surveillance of suspected domestic terrorists.[20] In February 2014, Jolly introduced the "Naval Station Guantanamo Bay Protection Act" bill.[21]
In 2015, Jolly pushed to extend the ban on oil drilling in the gulf off Florida.[22] In January 2015, Jolly announced plans to introduce a bill that would extend the reforms of the federal flood insurance program.[23] In July 2015, Jolly introduced the "Veterans Health Care Freedom Act" bill.[24] Jolly encouraged the U.S. House to extend the Treasure Island beach renourishment project.[25]
Jolly introduced the bipartisan "Stop Act" in 2016 to prohibit federally elected officials from directly soliciting campaign funds or donations on the belief that post-Citizens United fundraising was taking an excessive amount of their time away from their elected duties.[26]
On July 21, 2014, Jolly announced his support for the legality of same-sex marriage, stating: "I believe in a form of limited government that protects personal liberty. To me, that means that the sanctity of one’s marriage should be defined by their faith and by their church, not by their state." He also said "As a matter of my Christian faith, I believe in traditional marriage."[27]
In April 2016, Jolly's United States Senate campaign spokesperson Sarah Bascom confirmed that the campaign had made edits to his Wikipedia page to remove information about Jolly that included references to the Church of Scientology and to his lobbying activities, alleging that the posts presented a "public negative narrative" against him, and she accused an unnamed rival campaign of adding "propaganda" to the article.[28][29] Jolly called the removal "a careless staff mistake" and said that he stands by his record and wants the public to be fully informed.[30][31]
Since leaving his Congressional office, Jolly has participated regularly as a political commentator on cable news sources such as CNN and MSNBC; in this capacity he has been critical of President Donald Trump.[33] He considered running for lieutenant governor of Florida in 2018 on a bipartisan ticket, with former Democratic congressman Patrick Murphy as the candidate for governor.[34] They conducted a speaking tour around the state.[35] Jolly ultimately decided not to run for any public office in 2018.[36]
After being behind in the early tallies, Jolly won the 2014 election on March 11, with 48.4% of the vote. He was sworn into office on March 13.[37]
Jolly had won the Republican nomination on January 14, 2014, over Mark Bircher and Kathleen Peters, winning a plurality of 45% of the vote.[38] Jolly faced Democratic nominee Alex Sink and a Libertarian candidate, Lucas Overby, in the special election. The race received national attention as possibly forecasting the mid-term elections that were coming in November of that year and became the most expensive Congressional race in history, with approximately $11M spent, $9M of it by outside groups.[39] During the campaign there was friction between the National Republican Congressional Committee and Jolly; the RNC thought Jolly's campaign was inept and Jolly criticized the negative ads run by the RNC.[40] and voters were generally unhappy with the overwhelming number of attack ads on both sides.[39]
Jolly ran for reelection to a full term in November 2014. He was unopposed in the Republican primary and no Democrat ran against him in the general election. His only challenger was Lucas Overby, the Libertarian nominee who came in third in the special election one year prior. Jolly defeated Overby with 75% of the vote.[41]
On July 20, 2015, Jolly announced that he was giving up his seat to run for the United States Senate seat being vacated by Marco Rubio, who was not running for reelection due to his bid for the U.S. presidency.[42] As of August 2015, it appeared that Jolly would face several opponents in the August 30, 2016 Republican primary election, including U.S. Representative Ron DeSantis and Lieutenant Governor of Florida Carlos López-Cantera.[43] However, on June 17, 2016, after Rubio reversed his decision, Jolly withdrew from the Senate race to run for re-election to the House, citing "unfinished business".[44]
In his bid for a second full term, Jolly faced former Florida Governor and St. Petersburg resident Charlie Crist, a former Republican who had turned Democratic after a brief stint as an independent. He found himself in a district that had been made significantly more Democratic after a court threw out Florida's original congressional map. Notably, the new district absorbed a heavily Democratic portion of southern Pinellas County, including almost all of St. Petersburg;[45] some of the more Democratic portions of St. Petersburg had previously been in the Tampa-based 14th District.[citation needed]
Ultimately, Jolly lost to Crist by 51.9% to 48.1%.[46] Jolly's defeat ended a 62-year hold on this St. Petersburg-based district by the GOP. William Cramer had won the seat for the Republicans in 1954,[47] handing it to Young in 1970.[48]
Career change in 2018
In July 2018, Jolly became executive vice president and principal of Shumaker Advisors Florida, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Shumaker, Loop, and Kendrick law firm, at their Tampa office. In making the announcement, the firm said he would be working on ballot initiatives and community issues, including the effort to build a new stadium for the Tampa Bay Rays major league baseball team.[49]
In October 2018, Jolly appeared on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher and said that he and his wife, Laura, had quit the Republican party.[50] In April 2025, Jolly registered as a Democrat.[51]
Jolly frequently serves as a political commentator, most often as a contributor to MSNBC.[13]
Return to politics in 2025 and political positions
After formally joining the Democratic Party that April, in June of 2025 Jolly announced a campaign for Governor of Florida for the 2026 election.[52]
Jolly states that unlike Charlie Crist who used to say, "I didn't leave the party. The [Republican party] party left me", his experience is different as he himself left the Republican Party and changed his views. He argues that this is a strength not a weakness as opposed to what his critics because America "needs more politicians willing to admit they were wrong" and evolve to meet the moment where voters currently are. He also argues that many voters have also changed their beliefs in past few years.[53][54]
Jolly states that he is pro-choice having shifted his position on the issue after leaving the Republican party and he supports Florida restoring reproductive freedom and codification of the Roe v. Wade and Casey v. Planned Parenthood framework. He said that having grown up in an evangelical household as the son of a preacher, he had previously conflated being religious with opposing Roe. He affirmed his belief and change in perspective that abortion rights should be protected by law adding that if elected governor, he would introduce legislation to codify abortion rights. By July 2025, he was endorsed by the leaders of Florida's pro-choice movement, including Gwen Graham, who wrote that they trusted him and his change in perspective.[55][56][57]
Jolly has also revised his stance on gun control. Initially supporting a broad interpretation of the Second Amendment, he now advocates for stricter firearm regulations. He has expressed support for measures such as licensing, registration, and insurance requirements for gun ownership. He has cited the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting as a turning point, noting his participation as the only Republican joining Democrats on the House floor to call for legislative action. Jolly now supports comprehensive background checks, including for private and intra-family transfers, as well as an assault weapons ban. He has stated that he views unlimited and largely unrestricted access to firearms as a primary contributor to gun violence. He said that Republicans are lying when they say that gun owners, not a lack of gun control, are the problem in cases of gun violence and mass shootings.[55][58]
Jolly says that he wants the votes of gun owners because he respects their rights and believes that they are not the problem, Florida's lack of gun violence prevention laws are. He argues that no law-abiding gun-owning voters will be hurt by his proposals which will "protect their children".[58]
Jolly said that believes that the "Democratic Party's values are absolutely right and don't need to be changed" unlike what some prominent Democrats have proposed after the 2024 Presidential election loss.[59]
In 2005, Jolly and his first wife, Carrie, bought a condo in Indian Shores, Florida. In 2007, they bought a house in Washington, D.C..[11] Their divorce was finalized on January 16, 2014.
Jolly married Laura Donahoe on July 3, 2015.[61] Donahoe is a native of Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania. While Jolly was her boss at the lobbying firm Van Scoyoc Associates in Washington, D.C., Donahoe was rated second on the 2010 annual "50 Most Beautiful People list" published by The Hill.[62] They have two children.[63]
Electoral history
Florida's 13th Congressional District special election Republican primary results, 2014[38]
1 2 "David Jolly registers as a Democrat, making moves toward Florida governor bid". POLITICO. April 24, 2025. Retrieved April 24, 2025. Jolly served only one full term in Congress, where he became known for his centrist stances, but is a well-known figure in Florida and nationally because he's been an MSNBC political contributor for years.
↑ Isenstadt, Alex (March 7, 2014). "National GOP turns on Florida candidate". Politico.com. Archived from the original on March 9, 2014. Retrieved March 10, 2014. Over the past week, a half-dozen Washington Republicans have described Jolly's campaign against Democrat Alex Sink as a Keystone Cops operation, marked by inept fundraising, top advisers stationed hundreds of miles away from the district in the state capital and the poor optics of a just-divorced, 41-year-old candidate accompanied on the campaign trail by a girlfriend 14 years his junior. The sources would speak only on condition of anonymity.
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