Former President Bill Clinton campaigned for Democratic gubernatorial candidate David Jolly in Hollywood, Florida, appearing with him at an interfaith event as Jolly seeks to defeat Republican Rep. Byron Donalds in the race to succeed outgoing Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Clinton, a former Republican turned Democrat himself in Jolly’s case, told the crowd he is “tired of politicians picking fights” while Americans struggle to afford basic necessities.
“You need somebody who will get up every morning and just bust a gut trying to do something that will help you. That’s what you need, and I think that’s someone in David Jolly,” Clinton said, adding that he is “not through trying to make things better.”
Clinton also voiced support for Gwen Graham, saying both she and Jolly are running “to give every Floridian, without regard to race, politics, religion, or you name it — a chance to build a better life for themselves, their children, their state.”
He went on to invoke scripture from Galatians 6, telling the audience, “There’s a big difference between being tired and quitting. That’s why ‘let us not grow weary in doing good’ is one of the Bible’s most important promises. For in due season we will reap if we do not faint.”
The full passage from Galatians 6 reads: “Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches. Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.”
A steep climb for Florida Democrats
Jolly’s campaign faces significant headwinds in a state that has shifted from purple to reliably red over the past several years, a trend many attribute to DeSantis’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic and his emphasis on personal freedom over mandates.
Registered Republicans in Florida now outnumber registered Democrats by more than 1.5 million voters. Florida has not elected a Democratic governor since Lawton Chiles won reelection in 1994; Charlie Crist, who also served as governor during that span, held the office as a Republican at the time.
Jolly’s campaign has also made stops in Hillsborough County, where he recently appeared with the Hillsborough County Democratic Hispanic Caucus. A recent Stetson University poll found Donalds leading Jolly by 11 points in the governor’s race.
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