All posts tagged "Byron Donalds"

Florida Republicans are nervous about how Rep. Byron Donalds’ campaign for governor is shaping up two days before Election Day, according to a new report. His Democratic rival’s camp is gloating.

Axios reported Sunday that Florida Republicans “aren’t panicking about sluggish turnout” for the midterms, but quoted one GOP elder as saying, “We’re white-knuckled.”

“The early voting data sent a chill through Republican ranks in Tallahassee last week: What if the polling assumptions about stronger Republican turnout were wrong?” Axios’ Marc Caputo and Andrew Pantazi wrote....

James Fishback, who challenged Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) in Florida’s Republican primary for governor, says Donalds’ campaign kicked him out of a public event on Saturday and threatened to have him arrested.

“Byron Donalds just denied me entry to his public event in St. Pete, and threatened to arrest me if we didn’t leave,” Fishback wrote on X.

He compared it with his experience at a campaign event for Democrat Angie Nixon....

One of President Donald Trump's closest advisers privately gave GOP donors a grim assessment of the president, and his former supporters seem to agree.

On Saturday's episode of "The Focus Group Podcast," Politico reporter Kimberly Leonard told host Sarah Longwell that Tony Fabrizio, Trump's longtime pollster, recently warned Florida donors that the president has become a liability for Republicans beyond his base.

Leonard said Fabrizio made the remarks at a fundraiser at Miami Beach's Fontainebleau for Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL), the Trump-endorsed candidate running for governor of Florida....

Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), Trump's pick for Florida governor, ran into an awkward moment at a Florida Republican Party dinner on Saturday. A muted welcome led him to ask for help getting the room going.

A video posted by the account DeSantis Appreciation Society, which backs Gov. Ron DeSantis, shows Donalds at the podium at the party's "Victory Dinner." Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia is then called upon to get the crowd to cheer. At one point, Donalds said, "that wasn't good enough."

"AWKWARD," the account wrote. "At tonight's Florida GOP event, Byron Donalds comes out to a cold gruel-like reception, then asks CFO Blaise Ingoglia to play hype man so he can get a bigger pop from the crowd."...

The Tampa Tiger Bay Club had hoped to hold a forum this month between the two major party candidates for governor, Republican Byron Donalds and Democrat David Jolly. After the Donalds campaign cited a scheduling conflict, aides offered his running mate, former Miami-Dade County state Sen. Bryan Avila, to speak in his stead.

That became a bit awkward on Friday when audience members asked Avila on several occasions whether he or Donalds disagreed at all with any of President Donald Trump’s policies, such as his mass deportations of undocumented immigrants that fellow Florida Republican U.S. Rep. Maria Salazar declared in a new campaign ad on Thursday had “gone too far.”

Speaking on behalf of Donalds, Avila seemed intent on not saying anything remotely controversial....

A MAGA candidate is doomed by a 'uniquely poisonous' issue that will bite him in an upcoming election, an ex-GOP strategist warned.

In Florida, Republican gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds has the endorsement of President Donald Trump and three-quarters of the Republican caucus in the state House, Rick Wilson noted in a recent Substack piece. However, he'll likely suffer from his reputation as "the data center guy," Wilson predicted.

"The data center issue is uniquely poisonous here, in a way that transcends the usual red-blue map," Wilson wrote. "That's what makes it so dangerous."...