On August 24, 2026, Byron Donalds shared a new ad against David Jolly, the Democrat running against him for governor of Florida.

The ad was paid for by Friends of Byron Donalds, a political committee supporting his campaign. The Floridian printed the script:

"Wait tables to make ends meet, and David Jolly wants to tax you more for it. You work overtime, and David Jolly wants to tax you more for it. You finally retire on Social Security, and David Jolly wants to tax you more for it. David Jolly wants more taxes on tips, overtime, and Social Security. Florida just can't afford more of him."

On September 11, PolitiFact rated that claim False. There are two problems with it, and either one would be enough.

Problem one: a Florida governor can't raise those taxes

Florida has no state income tax.

That means nobody in Florida pays the state a dime on their tips, their overtime or their Social Security check. The only income taxes Floridians pay on that money go to the federal government, and only Congress can change them.

PolitiFact put it plainly: "Jolly wouldn't have the power as governor to raise taxes on tips, overtime or Social Security since Floridians pay those taxes only to the federal government."

So the ad asks Florida voters to pick a governor based on taxes that governor can't touch — and Donalds is running for that same job.

Problem two: Jolly never said he wants those taxes

The ad is built on Jolly's opposition to Trump's 2025 budget bill, the law that included the temporary tax breaks on tips, overtime and income for many seniors.

Jolly wasn't in Congress when that bill passed. He served in the House from 2014 to 2017. He couldn't have voted on it.

He did say he opposed it. PolitiFact contacted Donalds' campaign for comment and got no reply. The PAC's press release about the ad pointed to a July 2025 MSNBC appearance as evidence that Jolly opposed "tax cuts for working families and seniors."

Here's what Jolly actually said in that interview, according to PolitiFact:

"What Republicans just said is, listen: if you need lower utilities, sorry, we're going to disrupt that. If you need access to food security, sorry, we're going to disrupt that. If you get your healthcare through Medicaid or the ACA, sorry, we're about to disrupt that."

That's a complaint about power bills, food assistance and health care. PolitiFact found he "didn't mention the provisions that cut taxes for older Americans, tips or overtime."

And on the day the ad came out, Jolly answered it directly. He wrote:

"I don't support taxing social security. And I think its fair to tax wages however they're earned, but would support relief for tips above the standard wage rate."

He said he "probably wouldn't have supported the Donalds-Trump tax bill because of the amount of grift, graft and raw corruption in it."

That is a candidate who says he doesn't want to tax Social Security and would support some tax relief on tips. The ad tells voters he wants more taxes on both.

What Donalds says he voted for

Donalds posted his own message with the ad:

"I voted for no tax on tips. I voted for no tax on overtime. I voted for no tax on social security. We delivered real relief. David Jolly opposed that legislation because he's a classic high-tax Democrat."

He did vote for the budget bill. But "no tax on social security" isn't what it did.

The law didn't stop the federal government from taxing Social Security. Instead, it added an extra tax deduction of up to $6,000 for people 65 and older, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center. That break:

• Shrinks for single people making more than $75,000 and married couples making more than $150,000.
• Ends after 2028.
• Does nothing for seniors who already pay no federal income tax.

The Peter G. Peterson Foundation says the same: "The lowest-income seniors receive no benefit because their taxable income is typically less than the standard deduction," and the break "was originally conceived of as 'no taxes on Social Security' during the 2024 presidential campaign," it explains.

The tip and overtime breaks are temporary too. PolitiFact notes they "are set to expire in 2028 unless renewed by Congress." We've written before about how the tip break works — it's a deduction, not an end to taxes on tips, and it only helps workers who owe federal income tax to begin with.

Meanwhile, the same law cut an estimated $187 billion from food assistance, which is one of the things Jolly said he objected to.

Not the first time

This is at least the second ad from Donalds' PAC that PolitiFact has rated False in less than a month.

In August, the same committee ran an ad that cut a Jolly sentence in half to make it look like he supports gender surgery for children. He was repeating a grandfather's words about his own family.

Before Florida's primary, Donalds told a rally the American Medical Association had "finally realized that this is insanity." The AMA told a reporter that isn't what it said.

And PolitiFact rated Half True his promise that Florida's new data center law will keep your electric bill from going up, because the law doesn't say that.

What the record shows

On August 24, Byron Donalds shared a PAC ad claiming David Jolly "wants more taxes on tips, overtime and Social Security." PolitiFact rated it False. Jolly says he doesn't support taxing Social Security and would support some tax relief on tips, and as governor he would have no power over any of those taxes, because Florida has no state income tax. The law Donalds says ended taxes on Social Security actually created a temporary deduction of up to $6,000 that expires after 2028 and gives the lowest-income seniors nothing.

Source

Samantha Putterman, "David Jolly wants to raise taxes? Donalds' ad distorts facts", PolitiFact, September 11, 2026 (republished by Central Florida Public Media, September 14, 2026). Photo: David Jolly at a town hall in Leesburg, Fla., August 8, 2026 (AP, via PolitiFact).