Byron Donalds overstates David Jolly’s offshore drilling lobbying, ignores anti-drilling record

Florida’s governor race has a new battleground: offshore drilling.

In a new ad, GOP gubernatorial nominee U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds said Democratic nominee David Jolly lobbied for more offshore drilling in Florida waters after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

“While Florida was still cleaning up, lobbyist David Jolly was already cashing in,” the ad’s narrator says. “Just months after the spill, Jolly was in Washington, pressuring Congress to expand drilling off the Florida coast, over $5 million in billings.”

Jolly, who was a lobbyist before he was elected to public office in 2014 as a Republican, says he is against drilling off Florida’s coast and as a former congressman advocated for keeping the practice away from the state. (After his stint in Congress, Jolly became an independent, then a Democrat in 2025 to run for Florida governor.)

So did he previously lobby for drilling? 

Donalds’ campaign said yes, and pointed to a 2014 PolitiFact Florida fact-check from Jolly’s successful U.S. House race. Jolly said he “never” lobbied for offshore oil drilling, which we rated Mostly False. 

Jolly’s campaign pointed to a different fact-check from his unsuccessful 2016 run against former Gov. Charlie Crist. Crist said Jolly “used money and power to try to … drill off our beaches,” which we rated Mostly False.

Here’s what’s accurate: As a lobbyist, Jolly once attended a meeting where offshore drilling legislation was a topic of discussion; experts say that’s technically lobbying. What’s misleading is that Donalds’ ad misattributes his firm’s overall billings exclusively to drilling and ignores Jolly’s efforts as a congressman to keep drilling away from Florida.

In 2014, we reported that a lobbyist disclosure form contradicted Jolly’s statement about never lobbying for offshore oil drilling. He later said that he attended the 2011 meeting but didn’t advocate for the bill. Crist in 2016 gave the impression that Jolly spent significant time and money lobbying for offshore drilling in Florida, ignoring Jolly’s efforts in Congress to block the practice off Florida’s coast.

In response to Donalds’ ad, Jolly’s campaign said that, as a lawmaker, Jolly consistently opposed drilling near Florida.

Donalds’ campaign said a failed bill that Jolly’s client, Free Enterprise Nation, supported in 2011 would have “fast-tracked” the federal offshore oil and gas leasing program and that Jolly wrote a blog post supporting it. 

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What happened in 2011?

Jolly owned a lobbying firm, Three Bridges Advisors, from 2011 to late 2013.

A lobbyist disclosure form showed that Jolly’s firm did work for Free Enterprise Nation — a pro-business, anti-regulation advocacy group — in the first quarter of 2011. (The group is now inactive.)

Free Enterprise Nation supported H.R. 909, a bill that would have expanded offshore oil and gas leasing and exploration by lifting restrictions in federal waters, including in the Atlantic, Pacific and eastern Gulf of Mexico. The legislation stalled in committee.

Jolly previously told PolitiFact that he listed H.R. 909 on his lobbyist disclosure form because he was at a meeting where Free Enterprise Nation discussed it, but said he “did not lobby on its behalf.” Jolly said he “had a practice of always overcomplying,” and that he supported offshore drilling outside the 230-mile Florida moratorium area.

Drilling off Florida’s coast was largely illegal when Jolly was a lobbyist. The federal law — the 2006 Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act — prohibited drilling within 230 miles of Tampa Bay and 125 miles from the Panhandle. It expired in 2022. In 2018, Florida voters approved a ballot amendment to ban offshore oil and gas drilling in state-controlled waters.

Lobbying experts said in 2014 they thought it was unlikely that Jolly would have listed the bill if he hadn’t discussed it, although there was no way to verify that. 

It’s not unusual for lobbyists to overreport their activity out of an abundance of caution, said Kenneth Gross, a lawyer who advises clients on how to comply with political law, including lobbying.

In an April 2011 blog post, Jolly wrote that Free Enterprise Nation supported H.R. 909 and quoted an endorsement from founder and former CEO Jim MacDougald. In 2014, MacDougald, who was serving as Jolly’s House campaign finance co-chair, said Jolly “was never employed to advocate” for the bill on behalf of the company and represented the organization on different issues. 

Federal law says lobbyists must report any issue in which they engage for their clients, including preparing information, communicating with government officials and participating in planning activities.

Donalds’ ad ignores Jolly’s efforts in Congress to block drilling in Florida

Donalds’ ad overstates Jolly’s lobbying for offshore drilling and omits that he opposed the practice near Florida.

The ad says Jolly took in over “$5 million” in billings to pressure Congress to drill off Florida’s coast. Public disclosure records show that the $5 million figure represents Three Bridges Advisors’ total billings across all clients and issues, rather than revenue tied exclusively to offshore drilling. 

Jolly’s firm in 2011 reported $30,000 in income from Free Enterprise Nation. Our search of Three Bridges Advisors’ reports did not turn up additional income from Free Enterprise Nation.

As a Republican congressman in 2014, Jolly opposed expanding exploration off Florida’s Atlantic coast using sound waves, out of concern it could be used in the Gulf of Mexico and lead to another oil spill. He signed a bipartisan letter to then-President Barack Obama opposing so-called seismic testing. (The Atlantic drilling was later called off.)

He co-sponsored bipartisan legislation in 2015 to extend the federal ban on drilling in the eastern Gulf until 2027. He also introduced an amendment that year heading off a Senate plan that would have potentially expanded drilling off Florida’s Gulf coast.  

Jolly supported drilling for oil as a practice, just not in Florida. In a 2015 op-ed, he said Florida didn’t need to risk its beaches simply to increase oil production.

He told PolitiFact in 2016 that he supported drilling in the western and central Gulf, while strengthening the ban in the eastern Gulf.

Jolly’s gubernatorial campaign told us he no longer believes new drilling leaseholds are necessary amid emerging energy technologies. “We should eventually move away from offshore drilling altogether,” Jolly said in an emailed statement. “This must be done in a commercially practicable way, but should fully be our long-term national energy goal.”

Our ruling

Donalds’ ad said that months after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, “Jolly was in Washington, pressuring Congress to expand drilling off the Florida coast, over $5 million in billings.”

As a lobbyist, Jolly attended a 2011 meeting with a client who supported a bill that could have expanded offshore drilling in Florida; he listed the bill on a lobbyist disclosure form. He later said he did not actively lobby for the bill during the meeting. We don’t know the specifics of what was said in the meeting, but lobbying experts said attending a meeting during which a bill is discussed still counts as lobbying. 

Donalds’ ad inaccurately linked Jolly’s firm’s total billings across all clients and issues exclusively to offshore drilling. The ad also ignores Jolly’s congressional efforts to keep drilling away from Florida’s shores; today he doesn’t support offshore drilling anywhere.

The statement contains an element of truth, but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression. We rate it Mostly False.

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Read all our Florida fact-checks here.