Rep. David Jolly, R-Fla., thinks that black voters will back his re-election in a battleground race that would represent one of the most unexpected defeats for national Democrats.
Jolly won his seat in 2014, but redistricting left him representing a Democratic-leaning district that President Obama carried by double digits. Former Gov. Charlie Crist, who left the GOP after losing a Senate bid against Marco Rubio, gave the Democrats a top recruit to challenge Jolly. But the first term lawmaker thinks GOP nominee Donald Trump holds the keys to victory — and not for any reason Trump would like.
“The only candidate in my race with a relationship with Donald Trump is Charlie Crist and he’s hiding from it because she knows it will hurt him in the African-American community — a community by which we’re going to win this on Tuesday,” Jolly told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Thursday.
Jolly told the Washington Examiner that his campaign is drawing far greater support among black voters than previous Republicans. “Rick Scott got 4 [percent of the black vote], I believe,” Jolly explained in a text message. He said Romney got 5 percent, but said he expects to get up to five or six times that amount in his re-election bid.
All parties in that race agree that Trump is damaging, as their campaign tactics show. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee ran an ad tying Jolly to Trump that the House Republican said was Photoshopped. Jolly called for Trump to drop out of the race when the GOP nominee called for a ban on Muslim immigration to the United States until policy makers “figure out what is going on” with terrorism.
Jolly also appealed to Trump’s voters while criticizing the nominee. “I understand millions of Americans inspired by Trump who say he wants to change Washington,” he said. “I’ve only been there two years. I’m the guy that pulled the curtain back on the fundraising scandal and said members of Congress shouldn’t be allowed to raise money on official time.”
But Jolly made clear that reaching out to black voters who oppose Trump by tying “chain gang Charlie” to the GOP standard-bearer is essential to his re-election.
