Why does David Jolly want to fire Florida's Surgeon General?
David Jolly has said that on his first day as governor he would fire Florida's Surgeon General and replace them with a public health leader who believes in vaccines and science, arguing that the state's top health official should keep ideologues out of public health decisions.[1]
The short version
A day-one commitment
Jolly says firing the Surgeon General is something he would do immediately upon taking office, and it draws the loudest applause at his events across Florida.[1]
Science, not ideology
The stated goal is to keep ideologues out of Florida's public health science and install a Surgeon General who believes in public health, vaccines, and evidence.[1]
Bigger than party
Jolly frames this as a universal issue that lands the same whether he is speaking to ten people or 500, not a left-versus-right fight.[1]
David Jolly on why Florida's next governor should fire the Surgeon General.
What David Jolly actually said
The line is direct. Across the state, David Jolly tells crowds that the loudest applause he gets comes when he says that as governor he would fire Florida's Surgeon General on day one.[1] His reason is just as direct. Keep the ideologues out of the science. Bring in someone who believes in public health and vaccines and evidence.[1]
This isn't a throwaway applause line. It's a statement about what the job is supposed to be. Florida's Surgeon General runs the Florida Department of Health, which operates 67 County Health Departments across 255 sites, providing prenatal care, family planning, well-child services, school-based health care, and disease control for communities in every county.[2] That is public health infrastructure that touches millions of Floridians. The question Jolly raises is simple: who should be trusted to lead it.
Why it matters to Floridians
For some, this reads as a personnel decision. But for many families, it goes deeper than that. It's about whether the person setting Florida's health guidance believes in the science that guidance rests on. Florida already carries one of the highest uninsured rates in the country, with 15.5 percent of working-age adults uninsured in 2024, well above the national rate of 11.3 percent.[3] Florida's maternal mortality rate sits at 24.1 deaths per 100,000 live births, above the national rate of 17.9.[4] These are not abstractions. They are the outcomes that public health leadership is supposed to move.
Jolly's framing is that public health leadership should be about public health. Not politics. Not culture wars. He has argued more broadly that Florida has slid backwards over the last decade, and that people across the state are going without health care.[5] A Surgeon General who follows the science rather than an ideology is, in his telling, the baseline. Not the whole plan, but the starting point.
How it fits the larger health care plan
Firing and replacing the Surgeon General is one move. It is not the plan. Jolly's full health care agenda is broader. He has said that as governor he would send the Legislature two major packages: one to expand Medicaid, and one to scale up the direct delivery of primary care through Federally Qualified Health Centers and county health clinics, with the goal of reaching all 67 counties.[6] Florida is one of only 10 states that have not expanded Medicaid, leaving roughly 266,000 Floridians in a coverage gap.[7]
Leadership at the top and access at the ground level are meant to work together. A Surgeon General who believes in the science. A network of clinics that delivers care regardless of ability to pay. To see the full plan on health care, visit the David Jolly on Health Care hub. This page answers one question. The hub answers the rest.
Frequently asked questions
Q. Can a Florida governor actually fire the Surgeon General?
The Florida Surgeon General leads the Florida Department of Health, a state executive agency. David Jolly has stated plainly that firing the Surgeon General is something he would do on his first day as governor, describing it as an immediate action available to the office.[1]
Q. What kind of Surgeon General does Jolly want instead?
Jolly says he wants to keep ideologues out of Florida's science and bring in a Surgeon General who believes in public health, vaccines, and science.[1]
Q. Is this a partisan attack?
Jolly frames it as a universal issue rather than a party fight, noting the same message lands the same way whether he is speaking to ten people or 500 across the state.[1] His broader position is that diversity and public trust are strengths, and that using health and science as topics of division represents a moral failing.
Q. What does the Surgeon General actually oversee in Florida?
The Surgeon General leads the Florida Department of Health, which operates 67 County Health Departments across 255 sites statewide. Those departments provide acute and preventive care, women and infant clinical care, prenatal care, family planning, well-child services, school-based health care, and dental care, alongside disease control and environmental public health functions.[2]
Q. How does this connect to Jolly's larger health care plan?
Jolly has said that as governor he would send the Legislature two major packages: one to expand Medicaid and one to scale up direct delivery of primary care through Federally Qualified Health Centers and county health clinics, with the goal of reaching all 67 counties.[6] New leadership at the Department of Health is part of resetting the system that delivers that care.
Q. How does Florida rank for health care nationally?
Poorly across most measures. Florida has one of the highest uninsured rates in the country (15.5 percent for adults 19 to 64 versus 11.3 percent nationally in 2024). Florida ranks among the worst states for maternal mortality. Florida has one of the largest coverage gaps in the nation, with about 266,000 adults shut out of both Medicaid and ACA subsidies. Florida is one of 10 non-expansion states.[3][4][7]
Q. How many people are uninsured in Florida?
About 1 in 7 Florida adults (ages 19 to 64) lacked health insurance in 2024, an uninsured rate of 15.5 percent compared to 11.3 percent nationally. The overall Florida rate of 10.9 percent is one of the highest in the country and rose in 2024 from 10.7 percent in 2023. Florida's rate of uninsured children under 19 also climbed to 8.5 percent, well above the 6.0 percent national rate.[3]
Q. Has Florida expanded Medicaid?
No. Florida is one of 10 states that have not expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. As of May 2026, 41 states (including DC) have expanded; the holdouts are Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. The federal government pays 90 percent of the cost of the expansion population in perpetuity, but Florida has declined. David Jolly says Florida should commit to expanding Medicaid.[7]
Sources
- David Jolly, "Why Florida's Next Governor Will Fire the Surgeon General" (video), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbwjqzerOek · 2026-05-21
- Florida Department of Health, About Us, https://www.floridahealth.gov/about-us/ · 2026-04-24
- U.S. Census Bureau, Health Insurance Coverage by State 2023 and 2024, https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/2025/demo/acsbr-024.pdf · 2025-09-01
- March of Dimes PeriStats, https://www.marchofdimes.org/peristats/data · 2024-11-01
- David Jolly, "The Florida I Remember" (video), https://davidjolly.com/videos/florida-i-remember · 2026-05-21
- David Jolly, Healthcare position, https://davidjolly.com/healthcare · 2024-01-01
- Kaiser Family Foundation, Status of State Medicaid Expansion Decisions, https://www.kff.org/medicaid/status-of-state-medicaid-expansion-decisions/ · 2026-05-06
Public health should be about public health.
This isn't about party. It's about whether the people leading Florida's health agencies believe in the science. Have a question for David? Visit the Town Hall and ask.