Democratic Icon, 80, to Boost Bid to Flip Deep Red State
The Comeback Kid is coming back again.
Jeenah Moon/REUTERS
The Democratic Party is sending a veteran to the front lines.
Former President Bill Clinton, 80, will join Democratic gubernatorial candidate David Jolly at an evening interfaith event in Hollywood, Florida, next week, according to MS NOW.
Jolly, a former Republican congressman, easily won the Democratic nomination in April and is facing a heated matchup against Republican Rep. Byron Donalds to succeed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Clinton is making his first public campaign appearance only two weeks before the midterm elections, similar to how he campaigned in 2022. In the days leading up to the 2022 midterms, Clinton rallied Democrats in New York, New Jersey, and South Texas.
Former President Bill Clinton and former first lady Hillary Clinton both testified before the House Oversight committee in late February regarding their ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
Pool/Getty Images
However, the 42nd POTUS was much busier in 2024, making dozens of appearances to support then-Vice President Kamala Harris and campaigning for multiple down-ballot Democrats.
Earlier this week, he appeared alongside Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries at a fundraiser in New York to support Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz. The Florida congressman is running in a newly remapped district after DeSantis signed a new congressional map into law in May.
Clinton campaigned for Gavin Newsom ahead of his mayoral election in San Francisco in 2003.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Similar to President Donald Trump, Clinton has faced scrutiny over his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
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In February, he was brought in for a closed-door deposition by the House Oversight Committee as part of a probe into the Epstein files, which included photos of the former president alongside Epstein, his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, and numerous unidentified women.
This photo illustration taken in Washington, DC, on December 19, 2025 shows photographs, including of former US president Bill Clinton, Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger, Virgin Group chairman Richard Branson and Ghislaine Maxwell, after the US Justice Department began releasing the long-awaited records from the investigation into the politically explosive case of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images
Clinton insisted he did nothing wrong and had “no idea” about any of the crimes Epstein committed. He added that he saw nothing that “ever gave me pause.”
“As someone who grew up in a home with domestic abuse, not only would I not have flown on his plane if I had any inkling of what he was doing—I would have turned him in myself and led the call for justice for his crimes, not sweetheart deals,” he said in a statement shared on X at the time.
Bill Clinton in a photo released as part of the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
Department of Justice
Government-released documents revealed Clinton traveled on Epstein’s private jet, nicknamed the Lolita Express, 16 times.
However, even Trump, 80, felt sympathy for his Democratic adversary.
“I don’t like seeing him deposed,” Trump said of Clinton at the time. “But they certainly went after me a lot more than that.”
Trump did not extend the same sympathy to Clinton’s wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was also deposed the day before her husband.
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