{"id":129822,"date":"2026-01-24T00:02:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T00:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/129822\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T00:02:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T00:02:09","slug":"grady-judd-endorses-byron-donalds-for-governor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/129822\/","title":{"rendered":"Grady Judd endorses Byron Donalds for Governor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd has just endorsed Byron Donalds for Governor, touting the sitting Congressman\u2019s public safety bona fides and support for tough-on-crime policies.<\/p>\n

The endorsement adds to Donalds\u2019 growing roster of supporters as he courts GOP Primary voters.<\/p>\n

Judd, who has served as Sheriff for more than 20 straight years, said he\u2019s \u201cenergetically\u201d backing Donalds because of his steadfast allegiance to law enforcement and stronger sentencing policies, including \u201ctruth in sentencing<\/a>,\u201d mandatory minimums and opposition to early parole.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe boldly supports law enforcement and holding criminals accountable. He steadfastly believes that the public\u2019s safety comes first,\u201d Judd said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cByron totally understands that keeping citizens and visitors safe must be government\u2019s top priority. He is Florida\u2019s best choice for Governor.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Donalds called Judd \u201ca nationally respected Sheriff\u201d and framed the endorsement as validation of his pitch to be the race\u2019s \u201claw-and-order candidate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSheriff Judd knows I am \u2026 committed to backing the blue, enforcing the law, and keeping Florida families safe,\u201d he said. \u201cAs Governor, there will be no confusion about where I stand: those who break the law will be behind bars, and public safety will always come first.\u201d<\/p>\n

Judd\u2019s nod adds to endorsements from 27 other Florida Sheriffs<\/a>. Donalds also carries vocal support from President\u00a0Donald Trump, billionaire\u00a0Elon Musk, roughly 75% of the Florida House Republican Caucus, 17 members of Florida\u2019s congressional delegation, U.S. House leadership and many prominent national and state conservative figures.<\/p>\n

The endorsement follows strong fourth-quarter fundraising<\/a> in which Donalds added $13.1 million to his campaign coffers, topping $45 million since he launched his campaign last year.<\/p>\n

Multiple<\/a> polls<\/a> show Donalds remains the clear front-runner in the Republican Primary and the only GOP candidate to garner double-digit support so far.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Other notable Republican candidates include Lt. Gov. Jay Collins, former House Speaker Paul Renner and investment executive James Fishback, who has been accused of\u00a0dating a minor<\/a>\u00a0and running for Governor while being\u00a0registered to vote in two states<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Democrats running include ex-Orange County Mayor\u00a0Jerry Demings\u00a0and former U.S. Rep.\u00a0David Jolly.<\/p>\n

The winner in November will succeed term-limited Gov.\u00a0Ron DeSantis, who hasn\u2019t yet issued an endorsement in the contest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd has just endorsed Byron Donalds for Governor, touting the sitting Congressman\u2019s public safety…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129823,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7380,64038,8184,28,30,29,16660,2423],"class_list":["post-129822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-2026-governors-race","tag-byron-donads","tag-election-2026","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-governors-race","tag-grady-judd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}