Rep. Byron Donalds won Florida’s Republican primary for governor on Tuesday, securing the GOP nomination in the race to succeed term-limited Gov. Ron DeSantis.

The win marks the latest step in a rapid political rise for Donalds, a three-term congressman who has become a prominent Trump ally and conservative voice on Capitol Hill.  

Donalds, 47, entered the race as the clear front-runner with President Donald Trump’s endorsement and defeated 10 other Republicans seeking the nomination, including Lt. Gov. Jay Collins, former Florida House Speaker Paul Renner and business executive James Fishback.

Donalds will face Democratic nominee David Jolly in the general election in a state that has moved sharply toward Republicans over the past several election cycles. Trump carried Florida three times, while DeSantis won re-election by nearly 20 percentage points in 2022.

A late July Quantus Insights poll showed Donalds at 50%, well ahead of Collins at 16%, Fishback at 12% and Renner at 4%. Donalds declined to debate his opponents, arguing there was little reason to participate because his rivals remained far behind him in the polls.

Donalds, who represents Florida’s 19th Congressional District in southwest Florida, was first elected to Congress in 2020. Before arriving in Washington, he served in the Florida House of Representatives, in which he focused on school choice, education and financial policy and chaired the Insurance and Banking Subcommittee. Before entering politics, Donalds worked in banking, finance and insurance.

Trump endorsed Donalds before he formally launched his gubernatorial campaign, immediately giving the congressman a significant boost in the race. Donalds also served as a prominent surrogate for Trump during the 2024 presidential campaign and has remained closely aligned with the president and his agenda.

Donalds campaigned as a staunch conservative, pledging to continue Florida’s rightward political trajectory with a focus on lowering taxes and costs, supporting law enforcement and gun rights and taking a hard line on illegal immigration. He has also called for reducing government spending and regulation, speeding up permitting for businesses and expanding state cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.

His campaign also amassed a major financial advantage. Donalds and his allied political operation raised tens of millions of dollars, giving him substantially more resources than his primary opponents and allowing him to build a statewide campaign well before voters headed to the polls.

If elected in November, Donalds would become Florida’s first Black governor.

DeSantis notably declined to endorse a candidate in the primary despite Collins serving as his lieutenant governor. The outgoing governor had criticized Donalds at points during the campaign, underscoring divisions among Florida Republicans even as Donalds consolidated support from Trump and much of the state’s GOP establishment.

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