Democratic Governors Association expands its map, but not yet to Florida

The Democratic Governors Association (DGA) is “aggressively going on offense” and expanding its financial contributions governor’s races, but none of that money is going to boost David Jolly’s efforts to win Florida’s Governor’s Mansion.

DGA executive director Meghan Meehan-Draper says in a memo (first published in Politico) that the organization has invested at least $10 million each in Arizona, Georgia, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, Ohio, and Wisconsin.

And Florida?

The only mention of the Sunshine State in the memo is that “[t]here are increasingly competitive races in states like Texas, Florida, Oklahoma, and Nebraska.”

After this story was published, an official with the DGA reached out to the Phoenix.

“David Jolly is  a great candidate and Florida is a state we are watching closely to see if there is an opportunity to make a real difference in the final stretch,” DGA spokesperson Kevin Donohoe said. 

DGA officials also told the Phoenix that they have already “made investments” in the Jolly campaign and the Florida Democratic Party to help hire staff and conduct research and continue to partner with them “on everything from communications to donor research.”

The DGA’s announcement comes more than two weeks after Jolly said he needed the national party “to come into Florida and start spending money.” No Democrat has won Florida’s governorship in 27 years.

Speaking at the Tampa Tiger Bay Club on Sept. 26, Jolly quoted someone he described as a top Tallahassee-based Republican consultant who said the only way he could lose is “if the national Democrats choose to take a pass on Florida like they have in the past 10 years.”

A series of public opinion polls have been released recently in the governor’s race. The RealClearPolitics average shows Donalds ahead of Jolly by 5 percentage points. Some polls show the race in a statistical tie.

Jolly has raised around $20 million in his two campaign accounts. That pales in comparison to the more than $140 million that Republican gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds has raised to date.

“In terms of the national party, they’ll continue to rack and stack their races. … Everybody understands what’s happening in Florida and they’ll have to make some decisions,” Jolly told reporters in Tallahassee on Monday. He added that he had seen his fundraising “improve dramatically” in recent weeks through small donors.

Jolly did receive $241,431 in public financing in the week ending Oct. 9. Donalds took in $38,888.

Florida’s public campaign financing matching funds program provides state taxpayer dollars to match individual campaign contributions of $250 or less for statewide candidates.

Jolly said he might have roughly $15 million to spend in the final three weeks of the campaign for communications and field operations, while Donalds may have between $30 million and $35 million.

Other Florida Democrats running statewide have recently received financial boosts from national groups.

The Democratic Attorneys General Association last week announced a $5 million investment in José Javier Rodríguez in his bid to defeat Republican James Uthmeier in the race for Florida attorney general.

And the Florida Democratic Party said in a press release this week that the Democratic super PAC American Bridge has spent $2.5 million in Florida’s U.S. Senate race on behalf of Angie Nixon.

With additional reporting by Jay Waagmeester.