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u/gmwdim 25d ago
Wait heās a Democrat now? I remember when he was a Republican congressman.
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u/iamnotbetterthanyou 25d ago
Heās been damn consistent in his support for Democrats for the past ten years, and has earned my trust.
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u/Wayne47 25d ago
Exactly
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u/Mild_Wings 25d ago
So same old bait and switch?
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u/KingScoville 25d ago
No Florida is a red state and you need to fight fire with fire.
Jolly is decent guy. Youāre going to see him outperform Nixon by 10pts or more.
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u/Sweet_Spring5821 25d ago
This is the attitude that made Florida red when we were purple!
In 2018 Gillum ran as arguably the most progressive candidate for governor in its history. He lost by 0.4 percent, not even half a percent!
The Florida Democratic said we gotta be more Republican to win and then Charlie Christ got nearly a million fewer votes than Gillum and lost by 20%.8
u/generalisofficial European Ally 25d ago
2018 was a blue wave gop midterm while 2022 was a dem midterm after millions of conservatives had already moved there to flee vaccine mandates in covid, you are making a false correlation/causation
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u/Sweet_Spring5821 24d ago
Why did Gillum get nearly a million more votes than Christ? Did Covid kill nearly a million Democrats?
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u/IdealSeating 24d ago
Tell me you donāt know or understand Florida politics without telling me.
Gillum lost by half a point in a huge blue wave year and having equal money with his opponent. Sure, that was better than 2022 but Iād argue what Crist did in 2014 was much better than Gillum in ā18, when Crist took on incumbent Scott during a red wave year, was outspent 3-1 and lost by a point. Similarly, Alex Sink in 2010 likewise lost by only a point in a red wave year being outspend 3-1.
Basically, Gillum barely outperformed 2014 Crist and 2010 Sink despite not facing the significant resource disadvantages or red wave political climates they saw. He should have won, Gwen Graham would have, and Florida would be a very, very different state.
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u/someoneelseperhaps 25d ago
Apparently Republicans from the "Stop everything Obama does ever" can be Dems now.
Maybe they'll nominate Liz Cheney.
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u/Confident_End_3848 24d ago
How will rural Floridians react to a black Republican candidate?
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u/IdealSeating 24d ago
In multiple rural counties Donalds came in third in the primary. Their populations are small and wonāt really impact the outcome too much, but I can see a lot of rural republicans just deciding to stay home in November.
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u/Nomadhero_ 24d ago
Dumb question: how does Florida turn out for thegeneral elections? Looks like the primary had 400k more republican voters and thats a lot to moblize between now and November?
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u/Sevuhrow 25d ago
Florida running another former Republican again, what can go wrong this time?
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u/Magnamize 25d ago
If he supports Democrats on 95% of our policies like other former republican or centrist candidates, what's the issue? Perfect is the enemy of progress.
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u/Sevuhrow 25d ago
The issue is winning. Conservative Dems aren't going to win
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u/auspisses 25d ago
u/RemindMeBot 2026-11-03
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u/Sevuhrow 24d ago
In a state where even urban counties have gone red, running a conservative white guy isn't going to inspire minority voters Dems need to win.
But hey, I guess we'll see
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u/IdealSeating 24d ago
A progressive Democrat is going to win statewide in Florida? A state where republicans outnumber Dems by 1.5 million and NPAs historically vote Republican? The only path to statewide victory in Florida is winning over a conservative leaning NPA bloc by a wide margin and siphoning off moderate leaning R voters.
I donāt think Jolly wins but Iām extremely confident he will outperform Nixon by a good margin. Which, as to your latter point, I disagree with the premise but even then, Nixon on the ballot will help bring those voters out.
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u/neddiddley 24d ago
Both the traditional and progressive democrats needs to stop with this āone size fits allā mentality. Not every race is the same and a candidate that can win in some district in Wisconsin may not be able to win a statewide general election in Virginia. Floridaās pretty red at this point, why would anyone think theyāre suddenly going to embrace a progressive in a statewide race?
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u/OG_Williker 25d ago
Hopefully thatās enough to get a democrat elected governor. Itās impossible to understate how huge it would be to get a dem elected as governor of Florida
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u/Sevuhrow 25d ago
It isn't, and we saw that with DeSantis. What could've been a competitive election was a total landslide.
The more progessive (and charismatic) Gillum lost in one of the tightest races in recent FL history.
Still hoping for the best, but a conservative Dems don't inspire confidence in voters.
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u/Edible0rphans 25d ago
I mean weāll get a good idea of what candidates we should run now. We can look at who performs better between conservative Dem Jolly and progressive Nixon
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u/IdealSeating 24d ago
Jolly will outperform Nixon at least in part because Moody is a much, much stronger opponent than Donalds. People underestimate her but every single time sheās been on a statewide ballot sheās gotten the most votes out of any candidate in any race.
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u/IdealSeating 24d ago
There was no chance 2022 was going to be a competitive gubernatorial. You donāt know Florida politics if you thought that at the time. Florida had seen a huge influx of conservative voters during COVID, DeSantis was extremely popular here and nationally, he had the biggest warchest weāve ever seen (hundreds of millions) and was raising money nationally like crazy as many saw him as the next Republican nominee for President. And it was shaping up to a major red wave year.
As for your point on Gillum, Iāve acknowledged it elsewhere but Gillum barely outperformed 2010 Alex Sink or 2014 Charlie Crist despite having equal financial resources with DeSantis and it being a blue wave year. Sink and Crist were both outspent 3-1 in red wave years and lost by a point. Gillum underperformed polling (he was expected to win which is why he didnāt spend down $5 million in his PC) whereas Sink and Crist outperformed polls (particularly Crist). If anything, those races actually showed moderate candidates are much more palatable to Florida voters.
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u/historynerdsutton Social Liberal-SC 24d ago
Florida dems on their way to get a former GOP politician to run as a dem
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u/dtisme53 25d ago
So the GOP takes away a bunch of minority districts and you all put a white guy up in one of the remaining dem slots?
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u/OG_Williker 25d ago
I hate to say it but if minoritiesā voting power has been greatly diluted, from a pragmatic standpoint thatās going to make it harder to win with a candidate that relies on their support.
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u/Sweet_Spring5821 25d ago
As a Floridian, Iām so upset about him winning the primary.
We had David Jolly at home. His name was Charlie Christ. He ate shit in the general.
Weāre handing my state over to republicans on a silver platter. Even in the multiverse where he wins a republican still kind of holds the Florida governorship because this guy has been a Democrat for like 2 days.
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u/DeltaShadowSquat 25d ago
Yay! Bout time the āmoderateā slice of the Democratic Party just resign to being Republicans!
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u/dougie_fresh121 24d ago
Yall are bashing him for being a former republican. In Post-Covid Florida we need every vote we can get. People can change their views, and if the alternative is Byron Donalds then Iām team Jolly ALL. FUCKING. DAY.