David Jolly accuses Byron Donalds of ‘bad faith,’ declines debates

Florida Democratic gubernatorial candidate David Jolly said Sept. 20 he won’t debate Republican Byron Donalds, accusing the Republican of trying to dictate the terms of the forums and acting in bad faith.

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“It is clear, given the tenor of the current campaign environment, including Byron’s repeated lies and bad faith, that debates this cycle would not create constructive, honest conversation and would only further stoke division, animosity and bad will. That’s not something I wish to do for our state,” Jolly said in a statement.

Both candidates accepted different debates at different times. Jolly said he would appear in front of the Tiger Bay Club with Donalds in a moderated forum and at a roundtable with journalist Jim Defede at CBS Miami.

A board member with the Tampa Tiger Bay Club told the publication the Phoenix on Sept. 8 that the Donalds campaign had initially agreed to appear jointly with Jolly.

The Republican then told the bipartisan forum that he wanted to appear separately, then not at all, and then that he would send his running mate, Miami-Dade County state Sen. Bryan Avila.

The Jolly campaign started trolling Donalds on social media, noting that the congressman had said in July he would debate the Democrat three times.

That’s when, on Sept. 18, the Donalds campaign said it had agreed to three debates without consulting the Jolly campaign at all.

Donalds said he would debate Jolly at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee on Sept. 29, in North Florida on Oct. 13 on News4Jax and in Miami on Oct. 22 on Telemundo and NBC 6. None of the debates would be in front of an audience or in a town hall format where voters would be able to ask the questions.

The Donalds campaign did not issue a statement regarding Jolly’s announcement that he would not participate in debates.

Jolly, in an interview with the USA TODAY Network-Florida on Friday, said he was suspicious of Donalds’ three-debate announcement and had already ruled out FAMU.

“I have no interest in participating in something that is a setup to just continue to devolve our politics into fighting,” he said.

Will refusing to debate Byron Donalds hurt David Jolly in the governor race?

It remains to be seen whether Jolly’s refusal to debate will hurt his chances of getting in front of voters statewide. He is being outspent 11-to-1 by Donalds.

Donalds, though, did not debate during the Republican primary, with the state GOP backing him, claiming other candidates in the field failed to qualify. It drew the rebuke of Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has served two terms and can’t run again.

Read more Florida voters won’t see a debate between Jolly and Donalds — or other top races

Republican U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody, who has refused to answer reporters’ questions about the $10 million Florida Hope scandal, has also refused to debate her Democratic opponent, state Rep. Angie Nixon. Moody said it is because she won’t platform a “self-proclaimed socialist.” Nixon has dubbed Moody “Runaway Ashley.”

The clear losers in all of this are the Florida voters, who are facing skyrocketing costs across the board and won’t be able to see the candidates to be the next governor in a moderated debate on the issues.

“This is a pattern we are seeing across the country. Frontrunners are refusing to debate their opponents, and it’s Democrats and Republicans alike,” political analyst Susan MacManus said Sunday.

A new St. Pete Polls survey conducted for Florida Politics found that Donalds and Jolly are in a dead heat, with support for Donalds at 44% and support for Jolly at 43% among likely general election voters.

Debates are increasingly seen as risky endeavors for candidates, MacManus said, because snippets are used out of context on social media and can reframe the whole event for voters who didn’t tune in.

“With the rise of social media as the primary news source for a lot of voters, there’s the ability for someone who wants to do damage to the other candidate and blast something out that may not be true at all – get a good meme with it,” she said. “That becomes a baked-in view of the debate and the candidates.”

Vanessa Brito, a political data analyst, said Jolly made a mistake, comparing the decision to a similar one on debates made by Alex Vindman’s campaign, which refused to debate Nixon in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate.

“He walked into Donalds’ trap and by doing so (expletive) off voters, turned away moderate Republicans and neutralized Angie’s argument about Moody not wanting to debate,” Brito said.

Jolly appeared to have gotten fed up after Donalds has run ads for weeks misrepresenting his positions on everything from home insurance to the participation of trans athletes in women’s sports.

“We accepted multiple debates before this week. Byron refused them and instead set his own rules by press release,” Jolly’s statement read. “His ads and allegations have repeatedly been found to be false, and it is clear he is simply looking for avenues to continue misleading Florida’s voters.”

John Pacenti is the Government Impact Reporter for The USA TODAY NETWORK-FLORIDA. You can get all of Florida’s best content directly in your inbox each weekday by signing up for the free newsletter, Florida TODAY, at https://palmbeachpost.com/newsletters.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: David Jolly accuses Byron Donalds of ‘bad faith,’ declines debates

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Reporting by John Pacenti, Palm Beach Post / Tallahassee Democrat

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

Copyright Reuters or USA Today Network via Reuters Connect

This story was originally published September 20, 2026 at 6:03 PM.