By Noni Haynes
(Tallahassee) At Tallahassee’s historic Bethel Missionary Baptist Church, Democratic gubernatorial candidate David Jolly launched a fiery rebuke of President Donald Trump’s racist caricature of President and Mrs. Obama before an audience of six hundred.
“It’s not enough to remember the darker chapters of our past, we must realize the darker chapters of our present. We must realize the darker chapters of now. I want to talk about this simply for a matter of us determining right now, in this moment who we are. There are five other candidates asking to lead this state, folks, and not a single other one has condemned what the president did. They lack the courage to stand up. They lack the courage to condemn it. Folks, Republican, Democrat, White, Black, not another other candidate in this race has condemned what the president did depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes. We are broken.” The failure of other candidates to condemn the post was described as “a complete moral failure,” Jolly said.
Last June, controversial Black Republican Congressman Byron Donalds, who leads the conservative field of GOP gubernatorial hopefuls was endorsed for Governor by President Trump. Donalds is known for claiming that the era of “Jim Crow” was good for Black families among numerous other positions that are suppressive to the Black community. Donalds blamed the Trump post on a staffer. While Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings, a Black Democrat vying for the nomination, was unresponsive to press inquiries. Demings recently signed an agreement that allows local corrections officers to transport detainees to federal immigration detention centers like the Everglade’s Alligator Alcatraz. Demings signed the agreement after Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier threatened to remove him and the Board of County Commissioners from office for noncompliance with state requests, he said “Yes, I signed the damn thing because we really had to.” The notorious Alligator Alcatraz is a collaboration between the Trump and DeSantis administrations. It has the highest death rate of any such facility. But it is also known for its abuse, squalid unsanitary conditions and 11 known deaths in a matter of months.
Jolly has delivered his message of change and unity to 200 town hall gatherings. The other candidates are conspicuously absent from local appearances. “We still have the highest foreclosure rate in the nation. It’s hard to rent, buy a home or pay spiraling homeowners insurance. Groceries are too expensive and our schools are in trouble. Culture wars won’t fix that. Let me assure you, I have a plan to get our quality of life back on track. I’m not afraid to get in the fight for Florida families,” Jolly said.