AMERICA FIRST: Trump-Backed Byron Donalds Wins…

Rep. Byron Donalds cruised to victory in Florida’s Republican gubernatorial primary Tuesday night, securing the nomination to succeed term-limited Gov. Ron DeSantis and setting up a November general election showdown against Democrat David Jolly.

With 99 percent of the expected vote counted, Donalds captured roughly 48 percent of the Republican primary vote, comfortably outdistancing a crowded field that included Lt. Gov. Jay Collins, conservative investor James Fishback, and former Florida House Speaker Paul Renner.

The result validates President Trump’s early and aggressive intervention in the race. Trump endorsed Donalds well before the congressman formally entered the contest, declaring him a “TOTAL WINNER” and predicting his backing would carry Donalds to the nomination, a prediction that proved accurate.

Donalds, a Brooklyn-born Republican who moved to Florida as a teenager and built his political career from the Naples area, has long been one of Trump’s most reliable allies in Congress. He represented Florida’s 19th Congressional District and built a reputation as a disciplined, media-savvy defender of the America First agenda.

House Speaker Mike Johnson threw his support behind Donalds early in the race as well, calling him a “principled conservative leader” that Floridians can trust, a description that resonated with grassroots Republican voters across the state throughout the primary campaign.

The primary was not without intrigue. Gov. DeSantis notably withheld his own endorsement from Donalds and was seen as more sympathetic to Lt. Gov. Collins, whom he had elevated to the number two post last year, a decision widely viewed at the time as a possible springboard for a future gubernatorial run.

DeSantis’s wife, Casey DeSantis, was also floated for months as a potential candidate and briefly polled competitively against Donalds before ultimately staying out of the race, clearing the way for a Trump-Donalds alliance that party insiders viewed as increasingly hard to beat.

Internal polling from Trump’s own 2024 pollster, Tony Fabrizio, previewed exactly how decisive the president’s endorsement would prove. Before Trump’s backing was factored in, Donalds polled around 47 percent in a multi-candidate field. Once voters were told of Trump’s support, that number jumped to roughly 76 percent.

Similar dynamics held even in hypothetical matchups against Casey DeSantis and Jay Collins, with Donalds’ lead expanding dramatically once Trump’s endorsement was mentioned to respondents, underscoring just how dominant the president’s influence remains within the Florida Republican electorate.

Despite the size of his win, some in Donalds’ own camp are already studying why he fell short of an outright majority against a field of largely lesser-known challengers. CNN reported that at least one Republican fundraiser flagged the sub-50-percent finish as worth a closer look heading into the general election.

Donalds brushed off the concern on primary night, telling CNN’s Laura Coates that vote splitting among nine total candidates was the simple explanation, and that Republicans, independents, and even some Democrats would rally behind his message of “common sense conservatism” once the general election campaign begins in earnest.

On the Democratic side, former Republican-turned-Democrat David Jolly easily secured his party’s nomination, taking roughly 61 percent of the vote in a five-candidate field that included Dayna Marie Foster and Dotie Joseph. Jolly’s path to the nomination was far less contested than the bruising Republican primary.

The general election now sets up a genuine ideological contrast for Florida voters. Donalds enters as the clear favorite in a state that has trended decisively Republican over the past several election cycles, powered by Trump’s continued dominance of Florida politics and a GOP registration advantage that has only grown since DeSantis first took office.

Tuesday’s primary results extended beyond the governor’s race. Florida’s newly redrawn congressional map, a product of Republicans’ aggressive mid-decade redistricting push, is being tested for the first time and has already put several Democratic incumbents, including Reps. Darren Soto and Jared Moskowitz, in tougher political positions heading into November.

Rep. Cory Mills, who had faced a House Ethics Committee investigation over sexual misconduct and campaign finance allegations, lost his own Republican primary in Florida’s 7th District, a result Republicans framed as the party holding its own members accountable rather than protecting them at any cost.

Elsewhere on the ballot, Republican Ashley Moody and Democrat Angie Nixon advanced to compete for the remainder of Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s unexpired U.S. Senate term, a race that will now draw national attention as both parties look toward the broader battle for Senate control.

In South Florida, incumbent Republican Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar won her primary outright in District 27, while Democrat Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Republican Brent Andersen both advanced in the redrawn 20th District, setting up another closely watched general election contest in a historically competitive region.

For Florida Republicans, Tuesday’s results represent both a validation of Trump’s continued grip on the party and a clear signal that the DeSantis era, while influential, no longer guarantees automatic support for candidates the outgoing governor might have preferred to see succeed him.