Democratic gubernatorial nominee David Jolly says he will not debate Republican nominee Byron Donalds ahead of the November election, potentially ending a decades-long tradition of televised debates in Florida governor’s races.
Jolly announced the decision Sunday, two days after the Donalds campaign said it had accepted invitations to three debates around the state. The campaigns had previously accepted different debate invitations but had not agreed to appear at the same event.
“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 only further stoke division, animosity, and bad will,” Jolly said. “That’s not something I wish to do for our state.”
Jolly said his campaign previously accepted several debate invitations that Donalds did not accept, including proposed events involving the Tampa Bay Tiger Bay Club and CBS Miami.
Donalds, meanwhile, announced Friday that he had accepted three debate invitations: a Sept. 29 event at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, an Oct. 13 event hosted by News4Jax and an Oct. 22 debate involving Telemundo and NBC 6 in South Florida.
The Republican criticized Jolly for declining to participate after previously calling for numerous debates.
“I said 3 debates. Jolly said 12 debates. Yesterday, Jolly said no debates,” Donalds wrote Monday on social media.
Jolly responded that Donalds had earlier rejected opportunities to debate and accused the Republican campaign of attempting to dictate the terms of the debates.
“We accepted multiple debates before this week,” Jolly said. “Byron refused them and instead set his own rules by press release.”
Donalds also declined to debate his opponents during the Republican primary. At the time, Donalds argued that it was not his responsibility to provide his opponents with a platform. Jolly has cited that position while defending his own decision.
Jolly said he plans to spend the remaining weeks before the Nov. 3 election traveling Florida and meeting directly with voters.
The absence of a debate would represent a significant departure from recent Florida political history. The Tampa Bay Times reported that Florida has not held a gubernatorial election without a debate since 1974, when Democratic Gov. Reubin Askew won reelection.
The debate dispute comes as other statewide Florida contests also may proceed without candidate debates. Republican U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody has declined to debate Democratic challenger Angie Nixon, while debates have not been scheduled in several other statewide races.
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