Byron Donalds to Face Former Republican in Florida’s Gubernatorial Election

Three-term U.S. House Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) and Republican-turned-Democrat David Jolly will face off in Florida’s governor election in November after winning their Aug. 18 primaries.

Donalds, endorsed by President Donald Trump in February 2025—even before the former state lawmaker formally announced he was running to succeed term-limited Gov. Ron DeSantis—was declared the winner by The Associated Press not long after polls closed statewide at 7 p.m.

Buoyed by the president’s nod and $111 million in campaign contributions, Donalds was the clear front-runner in an 11-candidate field of Republican rivals that included Lt. Gov. Jay Collins, former Florida House Speaker Paul Renner, and hedge fund investor James Fishback.

DeSantis has not formally backed any of the GOP gubernatorial candidates seeking to succeed him. He initially floated his wife, Casey DeSantis, as a potential candidate, even after the president endorsed Donalds. He has praised Collins, calling him “the Chuck Norris of Florida politics” with the “ingredients” needed to lead the nation’s third most-populous state, but otherwise has not issued a formal endorsement.

Donalds, who endorsed Trump in his 2024 GOP presidential primary against DeSantis, represented a conservative southwest Florida House legislative district 2016-20 before winning his 19th Congressional District seat in 2020. His wife, Erika Donalds, is a nationally prominent education reform advocate.

In collecting $111 million in contributions for his campaign, Donalds set a record for the most money ever raised by a non-incumbent in a Florida election, eclipsed only by DeSantis who raised $213 million in his 2022 reelection campaign.

Nearly $100 million was generated by the Friends of Byron Donalds PAC. Among large donors was $10 million from billionaire hedge fund manager Ken Griffin, $1 million from the Sports Betting Alliance, and donations from high-tech developers.

Donalds campaigned on his association with the president, pledging to implement “President Trump’s agenda to Make America Great Again” and his record as a state lawmaker in supporting, among other conservative causes, School Choice.

His campaign cache and support for data center development were among issues raised by his GOP primary rivals, most notably Fishback, and will likely be raised by Jolly in their general election race.

But Donalds enters the 76-day campaign to the Nov. 3 election as the prohibitive favorite. According to the Florida Division of Elections, of the state’s 13.5 million registered voters, the GOP holds a 1.6 million advantage over Democrats in a former battleground state that has become a Republican stronghold in the last decade.

To win, Jolly would need to capture virtually all the state’s 3.3 million non-affiliated voters as well as a motivated 4 million base of registered Democrats to overcome the 5.6 million enrolled as Republicans.

Jolly was the front-runner in the six-candidate Democratic primary for months and easily outpolled state Rep. Dotie Joseph and former educator Dayna Marie Foster, and Thomas Fernandez. Orange County Mayor Jerry Deming, regarded as Jolly’s most viable challenger, withdrew from the race in June.

Jolly, who was Rep. Bill Young’s (R-Fla.) family attorney and served on his staff in Washington, won a March 2014 special election to succeed Young, who passed away in October 2013. Jolly won reelection in the 2014 general election, serving three years representing the Tampa Bay area’s 13th Congressional District in the House as a Republican.

He opted not to run for reelection in the House in 2016 and was among early GOP candidates for the U.S. Senate seat won by now-Secretary of State Marco Rubio. 

Jolly left the Republican Party in 2018 and identified as an independent until registering as a Democrat in April 2025. He is seeking to be the first Democrat since 1999 to occupy the Governor’s Mansion in Tallahassee.

The Donalds-Jolly race will be among 36 gubernatorial elections on November ballots nationwide. There are 26 Republican governors and 24 Democratic governors heading into the 2026 election cycle. Those 36 governor’s offices on November ballots are now occupied by 18 Democrats and 18 Republicans, including the term-limited DeSantis.