Jolly and Donalds Present Starkly Different Options for Florida Voters

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. –  With just 40 days left until Election Day and several key races looking like a complete toss-up, gubernatorial candidates Bryan Donalds and David Jolly took center stage on Wednesday at WLRN’s first-ever Sunshine Economy Summit.

In back-to-back interviews with WLRN host and CEO Tom Hudson, Jolly, a former Republican turned Democrat, and Donalds, a Republican endorsed by President Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis, offered markedly different answers on issues of concern to Florida voters. Each of the two candidates, who are in a dead-heat according to the latest polls, responded to questions about taxes, education, affordability and the construction of AI data centers. But nothing sparked as much attention as their disagreement over whether to support Amendment 3.

That proposed amendment, which will be one of three measures facing Florida voters on Nov. 3, would increase Florida’s homestead tax exemption. Proponents say it will provide tax relief to homeowners, while critics say it will gut services and even bankrupt some local governments.

Jolly, a former member of Congress, said he planned to vote against the amendment, but would implement it if it’s what voters choose on Election Day. 

“I respect what voters will decide on this because I think people are begging for property tax relief,” Jolly said. “I don't think the math works, and I think we know that because even Ron DeSantis now won’t campaign for Amendment 3, and our sheriffs have come out and said, ‘Please don't do this. It's going to defund services.’ I think Miami-Dade will lose maybe $480 million, close to $500 million, by year two. That's going to defund critical services.”

He also said Florida’s renters would end up footing the bill.

Donalds, a current member of Congress who entered the national stage as a conservative affiliated with the Tea Party and later, Trump’s MAGA movement, said he was very much in favor of Amendment 3. 

“I think voters need relief. I think the property owners need relief,” Donalds said. He said he didn’t buy the argument that it would bankrupt local government.

“If you look at the last time the homestead exemption was raised meaningfully in our state, the same arguments were coming from local government: ‘This is going to be disastrous. Local governments will cease to be able to provide services.’ That did not come to pass,” he noted. “I do acknowledge that fiscally constrained counties is our problem.” 

He said if the amendment does pass, he would set up a “funding formula” for cash-strapped counties to get the money they need for basic services. 

Jolly also sought to distinguish what is good for rural counties as opposed to far more urbanized and populated counties that have a stronger tax base. Rather than Amendment 3, he floated the idea of going hyperlocal.

“It's gonna sound a little wild here: What if we considered local control of homestead exemptions?” Jolly posed. “Don't repeal the current state homestead exemption, but understand what a $250,000 homestead exemption does to Miami-Dade. [It] wreaks havoc, but can a large county survive? Sure, you're going to feel the pain, but it survives. But Levy, Lafayette, Putnam, our rural counties are bankrupt within the next few years.”

Jolly added: “What if we actually return to local control of exemptions and give the counties greater discretion to determine where to scale up exemptions? I think it's worth having that conversation.”

While Wednesday’s event provided an important window into many of the two candidates' differences on economic policies, it was no debate, and it became clear over the last 24 hours that there won’t be one. Unlike the gubernatorial debates Florida voters watched in recent election cycles – Ron DeSantis debated Charlie Crist in 2022 and Andrew Gillum in 2018 – Jolly said he is not interested in meeting Donalds on the debate stage. The reason: America’s increasingly toxic politics.

“I think there is an immense amount of bad faith and dishonesty in our politics today writ large,” Jolly said.  “Our politics are broken. We're more divided than ever before. Our politicians just seem to tell us every day if we hate each other enough, that somehow our life will get better.” Jolly indicated that debates aren’t what they used to be.

“I don't want to further devolve our conversation now that has led to this point of bad faith and toxicity,” he said, “into even further bad faith and toxicity.”

Asked for his response later, Donalds smiled and said he was still ready to debate Jolly. 

“It’s silly," Donalds told Hudson. “Literally, we were here and could have set up a third chair and done it.”

Lawton Chiles was Florida’s last Democrat to serve in the state’s top office. He was re-elected in 1994 and served until his passing in December 1998. While the state used to be considered “purple,” today Florida has approximately 1.5 million more registered Republican voters than Democrats.

But while President Trump has been pleading with his supporters to pretend he’s “on the ballot” in November, it’s becoming clear that Trump’s name may not be a help in tightly contested races like this one. Several news outlets including Forbes, NBC and The New Republic report that the Donalds campaign is scrubbing references to Trump from the candidate's website.

Many Republican voters have voiced their concern over Pres.Trump, as the 80-year-old president's approval ratings have dipped into the 20s. That concern may already be spilling into the governor’s race in Florida, causing some Republicans to consider  switching their vote. Either way, predictions have this race going down to the wire. 

Florida’s voter registration deadline is Oct. 5, and early voting begins in Miami-Dade county on Oct 19.

David Jolly and Byron Donalds speak to WLRN host and CEO Tom Hudson in Fort Lauderdale on Sept. 23. (Photos courtesy of WLRN.)