Byron Donalds Wins Florida Governor’s Race, Will Be State’s First Black Governor

Republican Rep. Byron Donalds won Florida’s governor’s race Tuesday, defeating Democrat David Jolly to succeed term-limited Gov. Ron DeSantis and becoming the state’s first Black governor-elect.

The Associated Press declared Donalds the winner at 9:09 p.m. ET. The race was tighter than Florida’s recent results, and the vote count was still being finalized when it was called.

Donalds led Jolly 50% to 48.7% as of 9:09 p.m., according to the Washington Examiner, which noted DeSantis won his 2022 reelection by roughly 20 points.

Donalds has represented southwest Florida in the U.S. House since 2021 and served four years in the state House before that. He won the Republican nomination with Trump’s backing.

Jolly is a former Republican congressman from Tampa who switched parties and ran as a centrist, AP reported, promising to move the state past years of culture-war fights.

Florida has not elected a Democrat as governor since Lawton Chiles in 1994. Republicans entered the race with a voter registration edge of roughly 1.5 million, according to AP.

A Closer Race Than Expected

Polls in the final weeks suggested a competitive contest, and Donalds sought to appeal to moderate voters by taking down prominent mentions of Trump’s endorsement from his campaign website.

He also courted Black voters, who have overwhelmingly backed Democrats, saying weeks before the election that he hoped to win “north of 20%” of that vote.

“They’re starting to not be as monolithically tied to the Democrat Party,” Donalds told CBS News, according to the Washington Examiner, describing Black voters looking closely at his campaign.

Only three Black people have previously been elected governor in U.S. history, the Washington Examiner reported. Donalds will be the first to hold Florida’s top office.

Money was a major advantage. By August, Donalds had raised more than $100 million compared with about $10 million for Jolly, according to the Washington Examiner.

The campaign centered on high prices and the cost of homeowners insurance, a pressing issue in a state with a long history of hurricane damage, AP reported.

Donalds will almost certainly work with Republican majorities in the Legislature. Democrats had hoped a competitive governor’s race could at least break the GOP’s supermajority, AP noted.

The win came on a mixed night for Florida Republicans. AP also reported that Sen. Ashley Moody held her seat, while Democrats won two House seats Republicans had redrawn to target.

Jolly campaigned in Democratic strongholds such as Broward County as well as traditionally Republican parts of central Florida and the Panhandle, but he could not overcome the GOP’s advantages, AP reported.

Jolly left the Republican Party to become an independent and then joined the Democrats last year, according to the Washington Examiner, which described his campaign as fairly moderate.

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