{"id":221220,"date":"2026-08-19T16:40:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T16:40:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-backed-byron-donalds-to-face-democrat-david-jolly-in-race-to-succeed-florida-governor-desantis-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T16:40:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T16:40:19","slug":"trump-backed-byron-donalds-to-face-democrat-david-jolly-in-race-to-succeed-florida-governor-desantis-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-backed-byron-donalds-to-face-democrat-david-jolly-in-race-to-succeed-florida-governor-desantis-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump-backed Byron Donalds to face Democrat David Jolly in race to succeed Florida governor DeSantis – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Congressman had pledged to implement president\u2019s agenda if he gained governor\u2019s seat
Democratic socialist Angie Nixon clinches surprise primary win in Florida US Senate race<\/a>
Byron Donalds, a congressman backed by Donald Trump<\/a>, won the Republican nomination for governor on Tuesday in the race to succeed Ron DeSantis<\/a>.
Donalds, who has represented south-west Florida<\/a> since 2021, trounced three reasonably prominent Republican rivals, including Jay Collins, DeSantis\u2019s handpicked lieutenant governor.
If he wins the November election, as he is expected to do in the conservative stronghold, Donalds would become only the second elected Black governor in any southern US state.
So confident was Donalds of victory that his television advertisements in the weeks leading to the primary ignored his Republican challengers and focused on former Republican congressman David Jolly, who secured the Democratic party\u2019s nomination on Tuesday.
He continued that message on Tuesday evening. \u201cI am grateful to my family, my team, my volunteers, and every Floridian who powered us to this victory,\u201d he wrote on X. \u201cMy Democrat opponent would raise taxes, make life more expensive, and bring the Democrats\u2019 radical left agenda to the Sunshine State \u2013 Florida cannot afford Liberal David Jolly. David Jolly has lost before, and he will lose again on November 3. United, we will win the Governor\u2019s mansion in 77 days and ensure that Florida remains the best state in this great country.\u201d
In his victory speech, Jolly addressed political division and the economy before placing blame on Donalds for the state\u2019s rising costs. \u201cTo my Democratic friends, thank you for welcoming me into the party. We have built friendships, we have found common ground,\u201d he said.
He added: \u201cByron Donalds has sold the governor\u2019s mansion to the highest bidder and the special interests across the state have been happy to play ball.\u201d
DeSantis did not make an endorsement in the race, but Trump did, backing Donalds and his conservative credentials,<\/strong> with support that could prove decisive in Florida, arguably the arguably the heart of Trump\u2019s Make America Great Again movement, and home to his Mar-a-Lago Palm Beach estate.
DeSantis was largely considered dead in the water in his own campaign to become governor in 2018,<\/strong> before Trump\u2019s endorsement turned things around.
Republican voters roundly rejected the credentials of Collins, an army special forces veteran who called Donalds a Washington elite; Paul Renner, the former Florida house speaker; and extremist James Fishback.
Instead, they favored Donalds, who at times polled close to 50% and is, according to his campaign website, \u201ccommitted to implementing President Trump\u2019s agenda to Make America Great Again\u201d.
A vocal Trump ally who was reportedly considered for the 2024 vice-president pick that ultimately went to JD Vance, Donalds made affordability and reducing property taxes and insurance costs a central plank of his campaign, which some have seen as a dig at DeSantis\u2019s obsession with culture war issues during his eight-year tenure.
Jolly, a former Republican congressman and lawyer, became an independent, then switched parties last year.
He ran a much more moderate campaign<\/a> than the ones that worked well for progressive Democrats in other states\u2019 primaries this summer, although that did not stop Donalds assailing him as \u201ca radical liberal\u201d who he claimed was an advocate for gender-reassignment surgery who supports transgender males in girls\u2019 and women\u2019s sports.
Jolly easily fended off a challenge from five other Democrats, including state representative Dotie Joseph and Dayna Marie Foster, a former high school educator who was endorsed by the Florida Democratic Progressive caucus.
Jolly faces an uphill battle in November, however. No Democrat has won a Florida governor\u2019s election since Lawton Chiles in 1994; and no Democrat has won a statewide election in Florida since Nikki Fried, the current chair of the Florida Democratic party, was elected agriculture commissioner in 2018.
<\/span> This article was amended on 19 August 2026. Owing to an editing error, an earlier version incorrectly said Byron Donalds would become, if elected, the first Black governor of any southern US state.<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Congressman had pledged to implement president\u2019s agenda if he gained governor\u2019s seatDemocratic socialist Angie Nixon clinches surprise primary win in Florida US Senate raceByron Donalds, a congressman backed by Donald Trump, won the Republican nomination for governor on Tuesday in the race to succeed Ron DeSantis.Donalds, who has represented south-west Florida since 2021, trounced three […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":221221,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-221220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}