President Obama has endorsed former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, who held office as a Republican but switched parties after losing the 2010 Senate race, in a bid to pick off a GOP-held congressional seat.
“Gov. Charlie Crist has always put people above politics — and we need more of that in Washington,” Obama said in a statement released by the Crist campaign. “I know he’ll bring the people’s voice to Congress, and I’ve got his back.” The Democratic National Committee confirmed the endorsement to the Washington Examiner.
Crist will face off against Republican Rep. David Jolly, a matchup that required some twists on both sides for the candidates to go head-to-head. Crist was a Republican governor, but he left the GOP after losing a race for Senate against Marco Rubio in 2010.
He ran for governor as a Democrat in 2014, compensating for his party change by embracing Obamacare and backing gay marriage, but lost to incumbent Republican Gov. Rick Scott.
Jolly won his House seat in a 2014 special election, but redistricting made his chances at re-election significantly more difficult. Crist won the region by 16 points in his 2014 gubernatorial campaign.
The redistricting contributed to Jolly’s decision to run to replace outgoing Sen. Marco Rubio, who had pledged to abandon the seat in order to run for president.
Rubio now seems increasingly likely to reverse course and run for re-election to the Senate, which has caused Jolly to change his mind and try to stay in the House. Jolly has a tense relationship with the campaign arm of the House Republicans, because he participated in a CBS “60 Minutes” expose about party fundraising that infuriated many of his colleagues.
He also seems frustrated with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., for waging a public campaign to induce Rubio — who offers the GOP their best shot of winning the seat in November — to return to the Senate.
But Jolly still praises Rubio and supports his bid for Senate, while also trying to unite the party around his own campaign. “As a Republican, I have a significant uphill battle, but one that I believe we will ultimately win in November,” Jolly said last week. “This is now one of the, probably, most challenging districts in the country for an incumbent Republican.”
Nicole Duran contributed to this report.
