Jolly's Gainesville Rally Puts Amendment 3, Governor's Race Before Nature Coast Voters
Days before Election Day, the Democratic nominee's stop in Gainesville raised a preemption fight that could reach every county budget in Florida, including Levy's.
A statewide race, a local stake
Cedar Key and Levy County voters won’t decide Tuesday’s governor’s race in Gainesville, but they’ll mark the same ballot. Democratic nominee David Jolly brought his “Believe in Better Tour” to the Gainesville Woman’s Club on Wednesday, drawing about 150 supporters five days before Florida’s Nov. 3 general election, according to WUFT News. He faces Republican Byron Donalds in a contest that will set budget, health and education policy for every county in the state, including this one.
Jolly was joined by U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Orlando, and running mate Gwen Graham. The crowd, mostly older Alachua County Democrats, is not the Nature Coast’s electorate, but the issues Jolly raised have direct bearing here.
What Amendment 3 would do
Jolly called Amendment 3 “the ultimate preemption: taking away the ability of a local community to tax and to budget,” per WUFT’s report. The article does not spell out the amendment’s specific text or scope beyond that characterization, but the framing matters for a coastal municipality like Cedar Key, where local budget decisions hinge on tourism-related revenue and limited local taxing options. Any statewide measure that narrows a city’s or county’s authority to set its own tax and budget policy would reach Levy County commissioners and Cedar Key’s city commission the same way it would reach Gainesville’s.
Readers should watch for the amendment’s actual ballot language and fiscal-impact statement before Tuesday; WUFT’s account summarizes Jolly’s political argument against it, not the measure’s full legal text.
Education funding and the surgeon general
Jolly spent much of his roughly 30-minute speech on teacher pay, telling the crowd Florida teachers “are paid last in the nation.” He also said that if elected, one of his first actions would be replacing State Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo, who has worked with Gov. Ron DeSantis to roll back school vaccine mandates and has compared those requirements to “slavery.” A change in surgeon general would affect state health guidance that reaches school districts statewide, including Levy County’s.
Ezekiel Baker, 18, told WUFT his own underfunded school shaped his support for Jolly’s education platform, a reminder that school funding formulas set in Tallahassee land unevenly across rural and coastal districts alike.
The numbers behind the race
The contest remains close by recent historical standards. An Oct. 21 University of North Florida poll of 1,471 voters put Donalds at 49% and Jolly at 47%, with a 2.8% margin of error, within the margin, per WUFT. That’s a sharp contrast with 2022, when DeSantis won by 20 percentage points. Statewide, registered Republicans outnumber Democrats by about 1.5 million, though Alachua County itself leans Democratic by roughly 26,000 registered voters.
Frost pointed to Florida’s 2018 governor’s race, decided by less than one percentage point, to argue that voter contact, “a canvas… a phone bank”, can shift outcomes precinct by precinct.
Dates that matter here
Election Day is Nov. 3 statewide. Early voting periods vary by county; WUFT notes Alachua County’s early voting ends Nov. 1. Levy County voters should confirm their own county’s early voting hours and locations with the Levy County Supervisor of Elections office, since early voting windows are set locally and are not uniform across Florida’s 67 counties.