GOP's Byron Donalds bucks national trend, wins Florida governor race

• Polls have closed in the Florida gubernatorial race between Republican Byron Donalds and Democrat David Jolly.
• Donalds significantly outspent Jolly, raising $176 million and focusing on culture war issues and painting Jolly as a socialist.
• Jolly's campaign centered on Florida's affordability crisis, promising to lower living costs and protect reproductive rights.
• Both candidates offered different solutions to the state's property insurance crisis, with Donalds favoring deregulation and Jolly proposing a state fund.

HOLLYWOOD, FL — Florida voters elected U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds as the nation's first Black Republican governor, defeating Democrat David Jolly. Donalds has promised to continue Gov. Ron DeSantis's policies on education, deregulation and immigration.

His victory showed Florida as a Republican bulkhead, bucking Democratic wins elsewhere in the country.

With 99% of precincts reporting, Donalds captured 50.1% of the Florida vote to Jolly’s 48.7%. He overcame a slight deficit in early voting tallies by relying on the Republican faithful on Election Day, which outvoted Democrats by 600,000 votes.

It has been nearly 30 years since Floridians voted to put a Democrat in the governor’s mansion. 

Donalds’ victory also showed that the Republican 1.5-million voter registration firewall held in a cycle when Democrats felt they could capitalize on President Donald Trump’s record-low approval rating and when the cost of living in the Sunshine State has skyrocketed across the board: groceries, gas, rent and homeownership. 

"The truth is, in our state, we have people who are struggling," Donalds said in his victory speech. "We have people who are looking at their insurance bills. We have people who are looking at their bank accounts, not month in, mouth out, but day in, day out, trying to make how they are going to make ends meet."

Donalds amassed $176 million in campaign donations fueled by billionaires and the state’s most powerful industries: energy, private prisons, and real estate interests. He blanked the airwaves with ads that cast Jolly as too liberal for Floridians and said the Democrat would assess every Florida household a $1,000 hurricane tax under the Democrat's property insurance plan.

President Donald Trump, who carried Florida by more than 13 points in 2024, endorsed Donalds early. He held two late-October rallies in Florida for the GOP Florida ticket. Donalds said he received a call from Jolly conceding the race and a call from Trump. "We are still red, Mr. President," he said.

He told voters he and Republicans could solve the affordability crisis by streamlining government approvals, cutting regulation, and speeding up home construction. He has called for market deregulation, tort reform, and an expanded state transportation budget.

Echoing his wife, Donalds has advocated for expanding Florida’s school voucher programs so state education dollars follow students to private or charter schools. On health care, he has proposed a “Your doctor, your price” solution aimed at forcing upfront pricing transparency. Erika Donalds owns charter school companies that received $30 million in state funding.

Byron Donalds tells voters he won't tolerate racism in Florida

Jolly came under fire for some political ads that critics said played on racial stereotypes by bringing up Donalds' previous arrests for drug possession and theft when he was 18 and 21 respectively. Jolly, who has also called Donalds "anti-Black," maintained that the critique of his opponent was centered on political hypocrisy and policy records rather than race.

Donalds told the crowd at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino that he would not tolerate racism of any kind. "Even if you didn't vote for me, you have my word, I will be your governor too," he said.

Jolly, a former Republican, focused his campaign on ending the culture wars, reproductive freedom, improving teacher pay, and creating a state fund to address home insurance rates.

The former congressman and news pundit gambled and chose not to debate Donalds, who he said was trying to dictate the format and location. But for a campaign outspent 7-to-1, it may have been a missed opportunity for Jolly to make his case to Floridians.

Jolly has said that Democrats are laying the foundation to win in Florida for the future. "A coalition has been built," he told supporters at the Tampa Convention Center. "We got to end this race believing, and there is possibly a coalition in American politics that can emerge. It can bring us out of the vitriol, the rancor, out of the ugliness."

Donalds painted Jolly as a socialist, messaging aimed at the the important Cuban-American electorate in the state. They tied him to U.S. Senate candidate Angie Nixon, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.

What were the key elements that led to Byron Donalds' victory?

Democratic consultant and data analyst Vanessa Brito said she thought Nixon's candidacy hurt other Democrats on the ticket. "The Republicans were staying home, but they amplified the socialism narrative and it worked," she said. "They used the extreme left narrative to push out the extreme right — and those are the ones who will never cross over."

"I said, 'Governor-elect, I only ask that you consider one thing,'" Jolly told supporters. "'The people that emerged in our coalition, who have voted for Gwen Graham and David Jolly, please, no, they are not radical, communists, socialist. They are now your constituents.'"

At the Donalds campaign watch party, Linda Gonzalez and Beth Mulinari of Palm Beach County were in attendance.

"I think a lot of people want to continue the policies of Gov. Ron DeSantis and Donalds has said he would do that," Gonzalez said.

She said she also trusts Donalds over Jolly with state financial matters because Donalds had worked in banking. "Jolly is too much of a flip-flopper," she said of the one-time Republican turned political commentator. "Jolly doesn't have a real job as far as I can tell."

David Jolly supporters say Democrats made strides, but came up short

At the Jolly watch party at the Tampa Bay Convention Center, Melissa Bried of Pasco County said she was voting for Democrats since she wants these candidates to combat a "fascist" regime in the Trump administration, and she said she's especially excited to vote for Jolly because of his opposition to data centers. 

The Florida Democrats may not have another opportunity to reclaim Florida as the 2026 midterm with an incumbent president at record-low approval.

Former St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman said Jolly's campaign "has provided us with the best chance in years for the state of Florida to climb out from under this constant culture wars, from the rhetoric that pits us against each other."

Democratic activist Dr. Fergie Reid Jr., who recruited candidates to run in Florida, said the Democrats made strides and noted that the party got out of the superminority in the Florida Legislature. "Candidates got 48% and 49% That's a foundation you can can build on," he said.

John Pacenti is the Government Impact Reporter for The USA TODAY NETWORK-FLORIDA. You can get all of Florida’s best content directly in your inbox each weekday by signing up for the free newsletter, Florida TODAY, at https://palmbeachpost.com/newsletters. 

USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida reporter Stephanie Matat contributed to this story.