David Jolly may be close to selecting Gwen Graham as his running mate in the 2026 Florida gubernatorial election, according to a report from Axios. Jolly is poised as the likely Democratic nominee for governor following the exit of Jerry Demings due to a cancer diagnosis.
Gwen Graham previously ran for Florida governor in the 2018 gubernatorial election. Widely viewed as a favorite in the Democratic primary, she lost to progressive Andrew Gillum in an upset. Later that year Gillum lost the general election to Ron DeSantis by just 0.4% of the vote.
Prior to her first campaign for state office, Graham served one two-year term in the U.S. House of Representatives serving Florida’s 2nd district. She later served from 2021 to 2025 as Assistant Secretary of Education for Legislation and Congressional Affairs in the administration of President Joe Biden.
Graham’s father, the late Bob Graham, served as Florida governor from 1979 to 1987. He then successfully ran for U.S. Senate, serving from 1987 to 2005. Bob Graham passed away on April 16, 2024 following a stroke at his Gainesville retirement home.
David Jolly’s current campaign for Florida governor is his first run for political office since joining the Democratic Party in 2025. He served from 2014 to 2017 in the U.S. House as a Republican, frequently labeled one of the most moderate and bipartisan legislators in Congress. Jolly identified as an Independent from 2018 to 2022, and then spent three years working with Andrew Yang on the Forward Party, a startup centrist third party.
In Democratic primary polls over the last few months Jolly has maintained a healthy lead over Jerry Demings, positioning him as the front-runner for the nomination. This became all but solidified last week when Demings gave up his bid. Congressman Byron Donalds is the current polling leader in the Republican primary.
