TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Congressman Byron Donalds, the leading Republican candidate for governor, said Monday he is prepared to vote for the expulsion of two of his congressional colleagues, wants Florida to rein in problematic condo and homeowners associations, and it is time for the state to opt out of daylight saving time.
Donalds spoke about a range of issues in response to audience and news reporters’ questions at a campaign appearance in Coconut Creek, the third stop on his statewide “Defending the Florida Dream” tour.
He was in Broward to announce a plan to increase state funding to train students for jobs that don’t require college degrees. And he received support from a major organization representing businesses who rely on such workers: Associated Builders and Contractors.
LaunchPad
Donalds said his LaunchPad initiative would expand tuition-free apprenticeship opportunities to train people for and place them in high-paying, high-demand careers.
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“There’s many ways to be successful,” Donalds said, pointing to many jobs that don’t require college degrees. Donalds, a Florida State University graduate who earlier attended Florida A&M University, said many of his peers aren’t working in the areas in which they hold degrees.
LaunchPad would be industry led and government funded, he said, training people in construction, space trades and skilled trades.
“Building Florida’s next generation when it comes to young people being in these important industries, whether that’s building roads or building rockets, is essential for the future of our state,” he said.
“LaunchPad is going to be driven by industry, not by government,” he said. “Employers will identify the high-demand fields, and Florida will respond by building the pathways and the partnerships to meet those needs.”
He said the goal is no tuition, but at one point said it would be implemented “hopefully with a zero-tuition outcome.”
He said he would work with Project Launchpad during his first year in office if elected and thinks it could be up and running in 18 to 24 months.
He said his education initiatives wouldn’t be focused solely on training college-age students.
He said if elected he would be “working very closely with the school districts” to ensure students can read, write and do math and to make sure that “our young people have the credentials or the apprenticeships or the ability so that when they can get that high school diploma, they can put real money on the table after high school graduation.”
He said too many high school graduates “have no pathway to put food on the table for themselves. How do you expect an 18-year-old boy to become a man, find a girl, get married and have kids if he doesn’t even have the skills to put food on the table for himself, and he’s asking his mom? That’s the stuff that we’re gonna be working on.
“Just to be clear. Boys have to be prepared to be men because male leadership, male leadership, not just in Florida but in the country is critical. If you want to continue this, this grand experiment of America for another 250 years, it starts with families, and that starts with fathers in homes being men, raising their kids, putting food on the table, being responsible.”
Other issues
Some of his congressional colleagues were considering a move to expel four members of the House, according to multiple national news reports. Donalds said that wouldn’t happen. “You can’t do that at once. What’s going to happen is it’s going to be one at a time,” he said.
He said this week could see the expulsion of U.S. Reps. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., accused of sexual assault, and Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, who has been accused of sexual misconduct. Both of have denied wrongdoing. Later Monday, Swalwell said he was resigning.
He wasn’t as definitive about timing or outcomes for two Floridians who some in Congress want to expel: U.S. Reps. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, a Broward-Palm Beach County Democrat accused of financial and ethical wrongdoing, and Cory Mills, a Republican whose district is northeast of Orlando, who is accused of sexual misconduct. Both have denied wrongdoing.
If the full Ethics Committee recommends expelling Cherfilus-McCormick in coming weeks, Donalds said he would likely vote yes. He was more cautious about Mills, saying he wants to wait for the Ethics Committee to conclude its investigation.
On daylight saving time, an audience member asked if he’d support joining Arizona as a state that doesn’t change its clocks twice a year.
And, he said, he wouldn’t wait on Congress to decide on a repeal, an idea that has repeatedly been introduced and stalled.
“Yeah, I think it’s time. We can just act on our own. We don’t really need the other guys,” Donalds said.
And he said state regulation of condominium associations and homeowners associations needs to be changed. He said the state agency that oversees HOA and condo associations “is going to have to be redone.”
He added it would be a challenge to “separate the wheat from the chaff” and deal differently with good associations that people are happy with and problematic associations.
“We’re going to have to make sure as we work on this issue to give people true relief from some of these associations,” he said.
Close to Trump
As usual, Donalds — whose campaign constantly seeks to remind Republican primary voters that he’s President Donald Trump’s endorsed candidate for governor — didn’t say anything that could indicate he is deviating in any way from the president.
On Iran, he said he supports Trump’s push to blockade the Strait of Hormuz and said Trump is right to seek to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.
“They’re crazy. That is a crazy, crazy regime. They cannot have a nuclear weapon,” he said.
On birthright citizenship, he said he supports Trump’s move to end the constitutional provision that makes someone born in the country a citizen, an issue pending before the Supreme Court.
Donalds said he agrees with a controversial analysis, disputed by many constitutional scholars, that automatic citizenship was intended only “for the children of Black slaves in order to give them citizenship in a country that had denied them and treated them — obviously, they were slaves — as slave labor.”
On Trump administration’s deportation policies, he said he supports the president. “100% I support deporting illegals,” he said.
Political environment
Donalds faces competition from other Republicans for his party’s nomination, but polling shows him far ahead of all the others.
Citing polling and special elections and local government elections since Trump took office, a team of Democratic strategists on Monday said Democrats are within striking distance of being able to win the governor’s race, the U.S. Senate race, and the attorney general’s race.
Christian Ulvert, of EDGE Communications, and Michael Worley, of MDW communications, said no party affiliation/independent voters, who are key to winning elections, have moved strongly toward Democrats.
Donalds said he isn’t concerned about the Democrats’ assessment.
“Are Democrats motivated? Yeah, because they got, you know, they, they really got beat down in the 24 elections. So they’re motivated, but our voters love our state. They’re going to be committed, they’re going to turn out, and we’re going to have a very robust ground campaign as well. We’re going to be driving turnout, making sure that Florida remains Florida,” Donalds said.
Donalds was joined Monday by multiple Republican legislators, including state Reps. Chip LaMarca and Hillary Cassel of Broward, state Rep. Meg “MAGA Meg” Weinberger of Palm Beach County, state Sen. Bryan Avila and state Reps. David Borrero, Tom Fabricio, and Juan Carlos Porras of Miami-Dade County.
Also present were former Boca Raton Mayor Scott Singer, who is running for Congress, and Michele Merrell, Broward’s state Republican committeewoman.
As he’s done before, Donalds stayed long after the event ended, giving everyone in the crowd of 150 or so people time to speak with him or take a selfie.