Byron Donalds speaks at UCF Turning Point USA chapter 1 year after killing of Charlie Kirk
ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. —
The Turning Point USA chapter at the University of Central Florida hosted a Q&A with Congressman Byron Donalds on Thursday, marking one year since the assassination of political activist Charlie Kirk.
“For most, it’s really how do we make Florida a state for young people and not a retirement home,” the UCF TPUSA chapter president Kyle Christy told WESH 2 about what matters to young voters.
Christy said young conservatives on the UCF campus care about a variety of issues.
“For some it’s the data centers, environmental concerns, Flock cameras and privacy concerns,” he said. “For others, it’s taxation and the normal conservative menagerie.”
One student stepped to the microphone to ask the Republican candidate for governor about artificial intelligence and data centers. He cited a new law regulating them that was signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
“What the law does, it keeps local governments with the final approval whether a data center will be built,” Donalds said. “That’s state law today, we’re going to keep that law in place.”
For UCF junior Jasmine Stewart, affordability is not top of mind because she still lives with her parents.
“But I know that I’m young, I’m in a very good relationship and I’m hoping to get married at some point and so being able to buy that first home is a big issue for me,” Stewart said. “So I hope Byron Donalds would be somebody that can help do that and help drive down the cost of homes.”
Stewart said she did not support Donalds in the GOP primary because the issue she’s concerned about the most is abortion.
“Donalds was definitely not the strongest pro-life candidate that we had so I didn’t support him in the primaries,” she said, “but given the choice between him and his Democratic candidate I know that he’s going do the best job for that.”
She got to ask Donalds whether he’d further restrict the abortion pill in Florida.
“What I’m saying is, I am pro-life,” Donalds said. “I’m very happy that we have a heartbeat-protection act on the books. We want to keep that bill on the books, keep that law on the books, but we also now want to do the hard work of continuing to educate mothers about what all their options are.”
Donalds will face Democratic nominee for governor David Jolly in the November general election.
Jolly made a campaign stop Thursday afternoon in South Florida. He met with customers and employees at a family-owned restaurant in Broward County.