Florida’s Democrat gubernatorial hopeful David Jolly fled Florida in fear during the coronavirus pandemic as the administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) stuck to actual science and reopened the state and championed individual choice. And Jolly made sure to disparage his state as he hid in restriction-heavy Pennsylvania, asserting that rules were “greater than the calling of personal freedom.”
Jolly, a Republican turned Democrat, wants millions of Floridians to elect him to lead the state that he spent so much time bashing over the years, once telling a group of people that he and his wife ask themselves every single day, “Should we raise our children in this state?”
In fact, he has described DeSantis’s handling of public health during the pandemic — a handling that prompted millions to flock to the state of Florida to get a taste of freedom and escape from draconian policies — an “abject failure.”
“Look at Florida. There is no other way to evaluate Ron DeSantis’s record in Florida than an abject failure when it comes to the public health of the citizenry. Over 20 million people in the state of Florida. It’s an abject failure by Ron DeSantis to be the custodian of the state’s public health, and you’re seeing that,” he said during an interview on MSNBC at the time.
“Look, we knew the inevitability of schools opening last week, and Ron DeSantis saying, ‘I am not going to let school boards say you must wear a mask.’ Nicole, you well know our children are not of school age, but if they were, I would not put my kids in a school in the state of Florida today, and that is because of the leadership of one person, Ron DeSantis, who has also been enabled and elevated and protected by Republican leaders around the state,” Jolly continued, raging at the thought of children not being forced to cover their faces with masks, which did not stop the transmission of the virus anyway, as later admitted by public health officials.
Jolly then went as far as asserting that “personal freedom” be damned.
“He has created a public health crisis in the state of Florida, Ron DeSantis has, by his failure to recognize this is a moment for something greater than the calling of selfishness, greater than the calling of personal freedom. This is a moment where we do good for the collective, for society, and for the country,” Jolly said.
Jolly also asserted DeSantis was engaging in “racist xenophobia” for pointing out that illegal immigrants flooding over the border during the Biden administration’s open border era were spreading the virus. Once again, he expressed anger toward DeSantis for championing personal freedom when it came to vaccines as well.
“I think we’ve lost the war on COVID, Lindsey. I think this notion that somehow we are going to convince the unvaccinated to become vaccinated — I don’t believe there’s any persuadables left,” he said at the time, dramatically adding, “I think the only persuadables left among the unvaccinated are already in hospital beds.”
“If you drive through Florida, you listen to drive time radio, you meet with local community groups. This now is a cause of freedom, and it’s a cause of freedom because Ron DeSantis and leading Republicans have framed it as freedom, and they can never pivot off of that because their political careers will be over,” Jolly said, mocking the administration’s championing of personal choice. “So they have pitted this notion of personal freedom against public health.”
Despite his fearmongering, it is now well-known that the coronavirus vaccine did not stop the transmission of the virus, nor did it stop the vaccinated from contracting it, either.
It gets worse. Jolly continued to express disdain for Florida’s freedom throughout the pandemic. He openly stated that he favored mandates in all schools — both mask mandates and vaccine mandates for children.
“Do you favor a mandate in all schools? Do you favor vaccination mandates, mask wearing, and so forth? The answer is yes. I do believe that vaccination should be required for schools,” he said, once going as far as stating that Jesus would wear a mask and get vaccinated as well.
“What would Jesus do in a pandemic if you have a contagion?” he asked. “You would protect yourself and your fellow American and your fellow traveler from that contagion.”
Further, while Jolly wants to lead the state he has spent years bashing, he has ties to Pennsylvania — which had some of the worst lockdowns and restrictions and threats from leaders at that time — owning a home there since 2020 and residing there for a short time as he was “waiting out” the pandemic.
Despite Jolly’s hysteria, Florida thrived during the pandemic and thereafter, experiencing massive growth economically. Inflation-adjusted GDP per resident increased 16.9 percent in Florida, compared with 5.5 percent in Pennsylvania from 2019 through 2025. Florida also recovered payroll jobs much sooner than Pennsylvania. And it was during this time that Florida served as a live test for the country, as people flocked to the state to get away from restrictions. As a result, for the first time in November 2021, registered Republicans outnumbered Democrats in the Sunshine State, and that figure has only continued to explode. Registered Republicans now outnumber registered Democrats by over 1.5 million voters.
Jolly’s position as someone who continues to apologize to the world on behalf of Florida is contrasted deeply with the GOP’s leading Trump-endorsed gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds, who has consistently said he wants to take the successes of the DeSantis administration and build upon them.
“Some good news for David Jolly: In just 78 days, he can take his Fauci prayer candles back to Pennsylvania and leave the governing to real leaders who want to continue Florida’s success under conservative leadership,” Byron Donalds for Governor Communications Director Gates McGavick said in a statement obtained by Breitbart News. “Once Byron wins in November, there will be even more winning in Florida and Jolly won’t be able to stand it!”
Florida’s primary race ends on August 18.
