David Sholtz (6 October 1891-21 March 1953) was the Democratic Governor of Florida from 3 January 1933 to 5 January 1937, succeeding Doyle E. Carlton and preceding Fred P. Cone.
Biography[]
David Sholtz was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1891 to Russian-Jewish immigrant parents. He became a lawyer in Daytona Beach, Florida in 1914 and served in the State House in 1917, as Attorney for Florida's 7th Judicial Circuit Court from 1919 to 1921, as city judge, and as Governor from 1933 to 1937. Sholtz was a New Deal liberal who supported increasing government services, free school textbooks, 9-month school terms, back pay for teachers, workers compensation, increasing banking regulations, and more funding for the public welfare, and he was compared to Huey Long. He established the Florida Park Service and Florida Citrus Commission, passed a workers' compensation law, mandated free textbooks in public schools, and funded salaries for public school teachers as Governor, and he died in 1953.