--- title: Who Is Byron Donalds, the Trump-Backed Favorite for Florida Governor? description: The Naples-area congressman won the primary Tuesday and is largely favored to replace Gov. Ron DeSantis. canonical: https://time.com/article/2026/08/18/byron-donalds-congressman-trump-republican-governor-florida/ author: Rebecca Schneid article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2026-08-20T01:45:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T01:45:17.202Z article:section: Politics og:title: Who Is Byron Donalds, the Trump-Backed Favorite for Florida Governor? og:description: The Naples-area congressman won the primary Tuesday and is largely favored to replace Gov. Ron DeSantis. og:url: https://time.com/article/2026/08/18/byron-donalds-congressman-trump-republican-governor-florida/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf38b9c7087915ec8/6a84d6a60208b80ccd3a285f/GettyImages-2290291085.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: GettyImages-2290291085.jpg og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Who Is Byron Donalds, the Trump-Backed Favorite for Florida Governor? twitter:description: The Naples-area congressman won the primary Tuesday and is largely favored to replace Gov. Ron DeSantis. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf38b9c7087915ec8/6a84d6a60208b80ccd3a285f/GettyImages-2290291085.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Who Is Byron Donalds, the Trump-Backed Favorite for Florida Governor?  by [Rebecca Schneid](https://time.com/author/rebecca-schneid/)  ## Rebecca Schneid Reporter Aug 20, 2026 1:45 AM UTC  Representative Byron Donalds, a Republican from Florida and gubernatorial candidate, during a "Get Out The Vote" rally ahead of a primary election in Boca Raton, Florida, US, on Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026. Representative Byron Donalds, a Republican from Florida and gubernatorial candidate, during a "Get Out The Vote" rally ahead of a primary election in Boca Raton, Florida, US, on Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026.Eva Marie Uzcategui—Bloomberg  by [Rebecca Schneid](https://time.com/author/rebecca-schneid/)  ## Rebecca Schneid Reporter Aug 20, 2026 1:45 AM UTC Rep. [Byron Donalds](https://time.com/collections/time100-next-2025/7318822/byron-donalds/) has won Tuesday’s [Republican](https://time.com/article/2026/07/31/republicans-break-ranks-attempt-to-limit-trump-iran-war-powers/) primary for [Florida](https://time.com/article/2026/04/01/florida-democrat-republican-midterm-emily-gregory/) Governor, and he is largely favored to replace outgoing Gov. Ron DeSantis in the general election this November. “We have won a massive victory,” Donalds told supporters at an election night event after the Associated Press called the race, in which he trounced his opponents, as soon as the polls closed. A frontrunner, Donalds earned endorsements from [President Donald Trump](https://time.com/article/2026/07/01/young-republicans-maga-trump/) and Sen. Rick Scott, and he out-fundraised his opponents, [reporting](https://www.transparencyusa.org/fl/candidate/byron-donalds-can/) over $10 million in contributions in the most recent quarter—10 times the amount raised by any of his opponents. He has raised roughly $100 million overall. **Read More:**[_Congress Is Headed for a Massive Turnover_](https://time.com/article/2026/08/14/congress-turnover-house-senate-republican-democrat-primaries-midterm-elections/) “He got Trump's [endorsement](https://time.com/7271963/donald-trump-2026-maga-byron-donalds/) early, and that cleared the field in some ways,” Aubrey Jewett, professor of political science at University of Central Florida tells TIME. “It was a signal to all the major players—PACs, corporations, billionaires who wanted to have some influence and access to the next governor—that they should give to Byron Donalds.” Notably, however, Donalds has not received an endorsement from DeSantis. The Governor told [reporters](https://thehill.com/homenews/5161193-desantis-endorse-byron-donalds/) last year that Donalds wasn’t “part of the victories” that Republicans have had over Democrats in Florida. He did not elaborate on what those victories were or why Donalds, as a winning Republican lawmaker, would have been excluded. Donalds, who has represented Florida’s 19th District in the state’s southwest since 2021, is a staunch Trump ally who has embraced conservative positions. He was one of almost 150 Republicans who [voted](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/01/07/us/elections/electoral-college-biden-objectors.html) in 2021 to object to the election results from key swing states in 2020, when Trump lost to former President Joe Biden. His website claims that one of his top [issues](https://byrondonalds.com/issues/) is to “Enact the Trump Agenda” by fighting illegal immigration. Prior to diving into politics, the Brooklyn native worked in the banking, finance, and insurance industries. Now, Donalds is on a promising path toward becoming Florida's first Black governor. ## Who did Byron Donalds beat in the primary? Donalds enters with an advantage in November. Republican registration has surged to a 1.5 million voter lead in the last five years over Democrats in Florida. “Florida is now a red state,” Jewett says. “For years, we were a purple state. We were the most competitive battleground swing state in presidential elections, many other statewide elections, but in the last five years, we have seen a big influx of Republicans.” Donalds’s challengers included Lt. Gov. Jay Collins, former Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives Paul Renner, and investment firm CEO James Fishback, along with eight other hopefuls. Collins positioned himself as a foregone successor to the office, running on a campaign that vowed to preserve the “DeSantis legacy.” But friction within the Office of the Governor painted a different picture, according to [_Politico_](https://www.politico.com/news/2026/07/07/florida-primary-looming-desantis-collins-00989456), and it grew noticeable when Collins failed to secure his boss’s endorsement. Renner took a similar approach, attempting to bolster his relationship with the current Governor and align with his agenda. At first, DeSantis characterized the run as “ill advised,” but he later said Renner would be a “good” Governor and that his earlier comments were more about strategy, per [_Politico_](https://www.politico.com/news/2026/08/18/florida-gop-unity-tough-primary-season-01039714). Fishback gained momentum during his campaign with a following from the alt-right "Groyper" movement online, and he garnered support from [white nationalist Nick Fuentes](https://time.com/7334690/trump-defends-carlson-fuentes-interview/) and conservative commentator [Tucker Carlson](https://time.com/article/2026/08/06/tucker-carlson-manifesto-third-party-speculation/). Polls before the election [showed](https://jamesmadison.org/new-poll-florida-voters-back-property-tax-relief-health-care-price-transparency-and-school-choice-while-wary-of-data-centers/) Donalds (44%) leading, followed by Collins (18%), Renner (8%), and Fishback (4%). Even with Donalds’s sweeping win yesterday, Jewett says that a Democratic upset is still possible. ## Who will Byron Donalds face in November? David Jolly won the Democratic gubernatorial primary yesterday, meaning that he and seven other named candidates will face off against Donalds in November, along with five who are eligible for write-in votes. Candidates on the ballot who are not registered with either major party include Libertarian Scott Eckhard Jewett and Independents like Dean Ocean Abrams and Charles Burkett. Jolly served as the U.S. representative for Florida's 13th District from 2014 to 2017 as a Republican. After leaving office, Jolly became a political pundit and a prominent critic of Trump. He registered as a Democrat in 2025. His current platform centers on affordability. He argues that Tallahassee has ignored the rising costs of groceries and other living expenses for Floridians. He has emphasized the fact that Democrats in Florida need extra support. He has said the party will need to win over both Independents and disillusioned Republicans in order to succeed. “Let’s not fool ourselves. As Democrats, we need to lead a coalition strong enough to bring in Independents and Republicans in a moment when people are screaming for change and begging for change,” Jolly said at one event in Tampa in [April](https://floridapolitics.com/archives/789032-david-jolly-says-fl-dems-cant-presume-theyve-won-hearts-and-minds-after-recent-wins/). Donalds has “ignored” Republican competitors and instead spent much of his campaign money on ads against Jolly, Jewett says. “He’s already been running attack ads about the transgender issue, sort of taking a playbook out of the Trump campaign—accusing David Jolly of being too liberal, too progressive,” he says. While Donalds has significantly out-fundraised Jolly, and is the likely frontrunner, Jewett adds that all hope is not lost for Democrats in Florida. “An upset is possible,” he says. “Jolly’s got to hope that Democratic turnout is really high. He's got to hope that Republican turnout is somewhat low. And he's got to, of course, hope that swing voters, independent voters in Florida, really swing hard to the Democrats.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/08/18/byron-donalds-congressman-trump-republican-governor-florida/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/08/18/byron-donalds-congressman-trump-republican-governor-florida/"},"headline":"Who Is Byron Donalds, the Trump-Backed Favorite for Florida Governor?","datePublished":"2026-08-20T01:45:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T01:45:17.202Z","description":"The Naples-area congressman won the primary Tuesday and is largely favored to replace Gov. 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