David Jolly is on notice: He has three months to prove he’s built a coalition capable of winning the governor’s mansion or Jolly will face a challenge from Al Lawson Jr., the Democratic dean of North Florida politics.
Jolly, a former Republican Congressman turned Democrat, is seeking to revive a lifeless Florida Democratic Party that has lost seven consecutive gubernatorial races.
The 52-year-old from St. Petersburg seeks to unify the Democrats’ different factions. His candidacy so far helped pushed state Sen. Jason Pizzo to leave the party and mount an independent bid. It has Democratic mega-donor John Morgan waiting until next August to decide whether to run a self-financed campaign.
And, in recent weeks, two of the Democrats’ most significant voting blocs – women and Blacks – have pushed back at the Jolly campaign, revealing potential potholes for him on the campaign trail.
Lawson, 77, represented Tallahassee and North Florida at both the state Capitol and in Washington for 32 years until Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Legislature redistricted his panhandle seat out of existence in 2022.
He recently cast shade on a Jolly announcement that 60 elected and former elected Democratic officials endorsed his candidacy. Lawson said he too was asked to sign the endorsement but that he wanted to wait to see if anyone else would enter the race; the election is more than a year away.
David Jolly announces in an interview with the Tallahassee Democrat that he is running as a democratic candidate for the Governor of Florida on Tuesday, June 3, 2025.
“All these officials call me and tell me he might be our best shot, but your best shot does not mean you are going to win,” Lawson told the USA TODAY Network – Florida.
A week ago, a Lawson email surfaced indicating Lawson thinks Jolly is failing to unify the Democratic base. The former Florida Senate Democratic leader wrote that African Americans were not “happy” with the Jolly campaign. African Americans are 16% of Florida registered voters and gave more than 85% of their votes to the Democratic candidate in the last three presidential elections.
The Lawson email emerged a week after a score of female Democratic influencers and elected officials quickly patched over concerns about Jolly’s commitment to abortion rights. The Florida Women’s Freedom Coalition political committee painted Jolly as a threat to abortion access. Women are 62% of Florida voters and 56% of the total Democratic base.
Now nearly a week after his email surfaced, Lawson said he was still fielding calls from across the state, asking what was going on with the race and what his intentions are.
He did not mention racial politics or follow up on his criticism that Jolly used to be a Republican in an interview, but he now has the impression that Jolly lacks statewide name recognition, such that “nobody outside of Tampa knows who he is.”
“And that’s a steep incline to climb. Maybe we need a good primary,” Lawson said.
Lawson said he is still taking calls from supporters, talking to party officials and elected Democrats and watching the Jolly campaign. Come November, depending on what the polls indicate, he will make a decision whether to enter the race.
It could set up an interesting scenario about whether Al Lawson could force David Jolly out of the Democratic primary.
When Jolly launched his campaign earlier this year, he said he had benchmarks for polls and fundraising to meet by February 2026. Those numbers, he said, will determine his campaign’s fate.
Lawson’s entrance into the race could affect polling and fundraising. Jolly said he has “great respect” for Lawson and took the opportunity to smooth over the criticism from the veteran leader.
“My job as the candidate leading the Democratic coalition is to gain the support of Floridians across the state, including Al Lawson, to win the governorship,” Jolly said.
James Call is a member of the USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jcall@tallahassee.com and is on X as @CallTallahassee.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Al Lawson signals ’26 bid for governor if Jolly can’t unite Democrats
