Rep. David Jolly (R-FL) joins the ReFormers Caucus

Issue One welcomes former Florida Republican Representative David Jolly to the ReFormers Caucus, our bipartisan group of more than 175 former lawmakers assembled to restore our government to the American people.

Rep. Jolly represented Florida’s 13th District from 2014 to 2017, and served on the House Appropriations Committee.

Rep. Jolly explained the disillusionment he went through as a freshman in the House. “You think you get elected to represent 700,000 people,” he said to the Washington Post. “But you actually got elected to be one more marble on our side of the aisle to keep the majority, and to do that you’ve got to go raise $2 million — and that makes members angry.”

After about eighteen months in Congress, Rep. Jolly introduced H.R. 457, pushing a change in House Rules that would require the House to be in session a minimum of forty hours per week while in Washington. “In any other profession, if you spent half your week doing something other than you were hired to do, you’d be fired,” Jolly told CBS News.

In February of the next year, Rep. Jolly sponsored the Stop Act (H.R. 443), a resolution that sought to ban federal elected officials from personally soliciting contributions for any federal election activity. At the time, he acknowledged that this act was not in lieu of substantive reform but rather a wake-up call. “[The act] very simply says, ‘Members of Congress spend too much time raising money and not enough time doing their job,’” Rep. Jolly explained in a 60 Minutes segment. “‘Get back to work. And do your job.’”

Soon after his appearance on 60 Minutes, it was noteworthy that party leaders and the NRCC refused to help Rep. Jolly in his contentious re-election bid against Democrat Charlie Crist. Earlier this month, Rep. Jolly announced the launch of a new Florida-based nonprofit, initially funded by leftover campaign funds. “With Brighter Future, I also hope to demonstrate a commitment to real campaign finance reform,” Rep. Jolly said to Roll Call. “Instead of using unspent money on endless campaign cycles for other candidates, I felt the right thing to do was pour the money back into the community.”

Issue One is delighted that Rep. Jolly brings his unique insight to the movement and welcomes his commitment to restoring trust in our democratic institutions.

To learn more about the ReFormers, check out our latest blog posts, or visit issueone.org/reformers.