Republican Rep. Byron Donalds has won Florida's gubernatorial election, defeating Democrat David Jolly in a close race and becoming the first Black politician to win the governorship in the Sunshine State. Fox News Decision Desk projected the result on Tuesday. Donalds is also the first Black Republican elected governor in the nation's history.
Donalds, a three-term congressman from southwest Florida, will succeed term-limited Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis in leading the nation's third most populous state. He is a top House ally of President Donald Trump, who endorsed him in February of last year, before Donalds formally launched his campaign. Donalds declared his candidacy during an appearance on Fox News' "Hannity."
In a victory statement posted to X, Donalds said he was "humbled and grateful beyond measure." He pledged to make life in Florida more affordable, keep the state's streets safe and invest in young people so they can achieve what he called the Florida Dream. "Florida is the envy of the nation," he said. "I will fight day and night to keep it that way and to lift our state to even greater heights."
Continuing and building on DeSantis' conservative agenda was a central part of Donalds' campaign. Backed by Trump, he won nearly half the vote in Florida's August Republican gubernatorial primary, topping a crowded field that included Lt. Gov. Jay Collins, former Florida House Speaker Paul Renner and business executive James Fishback. In late September, Donalds drew headlines when some references to Trump, whose approval ratings have continued to decline, were removed from his campaign website.
Donalds was born in New York City and moved to Florida to attend college. He worked in the finance, insurance and banking fields before entering politics. He was once a Democrat and became a Republican in 2010, amid the Tea Party movement. He was elected to the Florida House in 2016, serving two terms before winning a seat in Congress.
His opponent, Jolly, is a Florida native who served as a top adviser to then-Rep. Bill Young. He also worked as a lawyer and lobbyist before winning a special congressional election in March 2014 and a full two-year term later that year. He lost re-election in 2016. After leaving office, he became a vocal Trump critic and a cable news political commentator. Jolly left the Republican Party in 2018, became a Democrat last year and then launched his gubernatorial campaign.
The campaign grew heated over ideology. Donalds repeatedly claimed that Jolly embraced "radical socialism," a message he used throughout the race. Jolly rejected the charge two weeks before the election, telling Fox News, "Byron Donalds is a liar. I've condemned socialism in the DSA [Democratic Socialists of America] hundreds of times, and he knows that."
The result underscores Florida's rightward shift over the past decade. Florida was once the largest of the general election battlegrounds, but DeSantis won his 2022 re-election by nearly 20 points, and Trump carried the state by 13 points in his 2024 victory. Republicans hold a roughly 1.5 million registered voter advantage over Democrats in the state. Still, Democrats have become competitive again in Florida amid a difficult political climate for the GOP.
NBC News also projected Donalds' win, with its reporting describing the result as narrow and pointing to what it characterized as Democrats' lack of investment in the state. The same election cycle brought other results: Republican Sen. Ashley Moody was projected to win the Florida Senate race, and in Illinois Democrat Juliana Stratton won a U.S. Senate seat, succeeding retiring Sen. Dick Durbin.