Former President Bill Clinton quoted the Bible at a Hollywood, Florida, interfaith event while backing Democrat David Jolly against Republican Rep. Byron Donalds, a late push to flip the state blue as GOP registration and polling leave little room for error.
Clinton stood with Jolly, a former Republican turned Democrat, on the campaign trail in Hollywood as Jolly seeks the governor’s office being vacated by outgoing Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. The race pits Jolly against Donalds, the Florida Republican congressman already campaigning hard across the state.
Breitbart News reported Clinton’s appearance and his decision to lean on Scripture while urging Floridians to get behind Jolly and Gwen Graham. The former president framed the choice as a fight against weary politics and for everyday people trying to build better lives.
Clinton told the crowd voters need someone who will grind for them every day. He put Jolly in that category.
"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,"
He added that he is “not through trying to make things better,” and said the audience he heard that night was not finished either. Clinton also said he would have to practice never calling Jolly “Reverend Jolly,” even as he cast the candidate in moral terms.
"And from what I heard tonight, I don’t think you are either. I’m going to have to really practice now, never to refer to David Jolly as Reverend Jolly ever. But I’m here for him and for Gwen Graham because they’re in this race for what I think are the right reasons, 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,"
The pitch landed as Bill Clinton joins late Florida push for Democrat David Jolly became a familiar theme for Democrats hunting a breakthrough in a state that has drifted firmly Republican.
Clinton did not stop at campaign talk. He reached for Galatians 6 and told the room that perseverance in “doing good” is one of the Bible’s central promises. He tied that language directly to giving Jolly a shot.
"And he has the background, the willingness, the ability, and the determination to get it done. I think we ought to give David Jolly a chance. 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,"
He finished the thought with another line from the same passage.
"For in due season we will reap if we do not faint."
The full stretch of Galatians 6, as set out in the reporting, speaks to sowing and reaping, the Spirit versus the flesh, and doing good “especially to those who are of the household of faith.” It centers eternal life through the Spirit, not a partisan governor’s race. Clinton’s remarks used the endurance language while skipping that larger frame, turning a passage about spiritual harvest into a close for a far-left political ticket.
Before the verses, Clinton also lamented that he is “tired of politicians picking fights” while Americans struggle to afford the basics. The contrast was clear: cast opponents as fighters for fighting’s sake, cast Jolly as the steady helper, and wrap the whole appeal in biblical cadence.
That same former president has stayed busy on the circuit, including when Bill Clinton turns 80th birthday into a cash machine at Alex Soros' Hamptons estate and other high-dollar stops keep him in the mix.
Jolly’s path runs through a state where registered Republican voters outnumber registered Democrats by more than 1.5 million, according to Florida Division of Elections figures cited in the coverage. That is not a rounding error. It is a structural wall.
A recent Stetson University poll underscored the same reality. It showed Donalds leading Jolly by 11 points in the governor’s race. Double-digit gaps that large do not vanish because a former president quotes Galatians at an interfaith gathering.
Floridians have not elected a Democrat governor since Lawton Chiles won reelection in 1994. Charlie Crist later held the office, but he ran as a Republican at the time. The pattern is stubborn. Democrats keep searching for a vehicle. Republicans keep holding the ground DeSantis expanded by championing personal freedom over heavy-handed coronavirus mandates.
Donalds has kept the pace on his own turf, campaigning in places such as Panama City while Jolly works events like those with the Hillsborough County Democratic Hispanic Caucus. The map and the math still favor the Republican.
Democrats know the climb, which is why Florida Democrats enlist Bill Clinton for late governor push behind David Jolly and roll out familiar national names when local momentum stalls.
Jolly’s biography gets used as a bridge. He once operated as a Republican and now runs as a Democrat. Clinton’s “Reverend Jolly” aside and the Bible citations try to sand the edges and present the ticket as broad, decent, and above the usual scrap.
The substance remains a standard progressive bid for Tallahassee after years of Republican control. Clinton said Jolly and Graham are in the race “for what I think are the right reasons.” He did not have to define those reasons in policy detail. The Scripture did the emotional work.
Voters still get to weigh record and results. DeSantis leaves office after a tenure defined, in the reporting’s account, by resisting sweeping mandates and keeping Florida open relative to many blue states. Donalds campaigns as the continuation of that approach. Jolly asks for a reset with Clinton’s blessing and a selective reading of Galatians.
Clinton’s own recent calendar has mixed birthday celebration with hard politics, including coverage of how Bill Clinton turns 80th birthday into a fundraising tour, with Alex Soros hosting the Hamptons kickoff. The Hollywood stop fits the pattern: prestige, moral vocabulary, and a concrete ask to move a red state left.
The open questions are practical. The exact date and formal host of the Hollywood interfaith event were not laid out in the initial account. Full poll internals beyond the 11-point headline lead were not detailed. No direct response from Donalds to Clinton’s appearance appeared in that reporting. The voter-registration snapshot timing was likewise left general. None of those gaps change the core picture: a former Democratic president used biblical language to boost a Democrat chasing an uphill Florida governor’s race.
National fights still shadow every Clinton appearance. Separate coverage has noted how Trump says another impeachment could open criminal cases against Clinton, Obama and Biden, keeping the old rivalries live even as the former president works state races.
Florida has heard the sermons and seen the registration rolls. Scripture is not a substitute for a majority, and quoting Galatians does not erase a 1.5-million-voter gap or an 11-point deficit. Voters who want secure borders, orderly government, and freedom from mandate politics already have a clear alternative on the ballot, and they do not need a selective Bible reading to spot it.
