Florida’s Republican gubernatorial primary on August 18, 2026, is less than one year away, and Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) is dominating the potential field with the support of President Donald Trump.
Donalds is in a position of great strength in the primary, having a strong name-ID with even a national presence, and of course, Trump’s endorsement, which has proven to be the most critical factor in Republican primaries since he first emerged on the political scene. For example, in the 2022 midterms, Trump-backed candidates were a whopping 209-17 in Republican primaries as of August 18, 2022.
Donalds has pulled in at least $22 million in fundraising, according to an Axios article published on July 1. The number is surely larger nearly two months later, and he has consistently polled strongly.
For example, in a hypothetical field of four potential candidates, including Florida First Lady Casey DeSantis, Donalds holds an 8-point lead in a StPetePolls survey from July 8-10. He takes 35 percent compared to DeSantis’s 27 percent, followed by Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson — another rumored candidate — at 3 percent, and former State House Speaker Paul Renner at 2 percent.
Gov. DeSantis notably said last week that the governorship is not something his wife “has ever outwardly sought.” Yet he suggested that Lt Gov. Jay Collins (R-FL) could be a “compelling” candidate, as Politico noted, but he stopped short of a formal endorsement.
When Casey DeSantis was swapped out for Collins in the July StPetePolls’ survey, Donalds’s support increased to 44 percent while Collins garnered only 2 percent. Simpson eked out four percent in this scenario, and Renner registered plus three percent. In a hypothetical scenario where Collins has Gov. DeSantis’s endorsement and is in a one-on-one race with Donalds, he only rises to 10 percent, while Donalds cruises to 57 percent, and another 34 percent are undecided.
The poll sampled 831 likely Florida Republican primary voters and has a margin of error of ± 3.4 percent.
Indeed, Donalds is already in the driver’s seat, and Trump’s support makes his standing that much more robust. In back-to-back James Madison University polls from April and May, over 60 percent of Republicans reported “they would be much more or somewhat more likely to vote for the Trump-endorsed candidate.” Casey DeSantis had a small advantage over Donalds in those polls.
Fifty percent of Republican respondents at the time of the May poll were unaware that Trump had given his coveted endorsement to Donalds, and after learning of Trump’s support, 44 percent of all Republican primary respondents said they supported Donalds while 25 percent backed DeSantis.
In a third poll, conducted by the University of Florida, Donalds had a 15-point advantage over DeSantis among respondents who voted in the 2024 Republican primary. This survey sampled 797 registered Republicans from July 14-22. The Tallahassee Democrat did not specify the margin of error.
The post Trump-Backed Byron Donalds Leads Potential GOP Field One Year Out from Florida Gubernatorial Primary appeared first on Breitbart.
