{"id":261330,"date":"2026-05-06T23:37:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T23:37:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/261330\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T23:37:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T23:37:09","slug":"in-orlando-gop-governor-candidate-donalds-criticizes-demings-supports-redistricting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/261330\/","title":{"rendered":"In Orlando, GOP governor candidate Donalds criticizes Demings, supports redistricting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 U.S. Congressman Byron Donalds on Wednesday sharply criticized Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings, his possible rival for governor, whom he said represented a brand of politics that caused many newly arrived Floridians to leave their home state.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Donalds also said he supported the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.orlandosentinel.com\/2026\/04\/29\/republican-led-florida-legislature-approves-desantis-redistricting-map\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:controversial new congressional maps signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;controversial new congressional maps signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis&quot;}\" class=\"link \">controversial new congressional maps signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis<\/a>, saying past racial discrimination in elections against Black and Hispanic voters no longer exists.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Donalds, a Republican representing Fort Myers and Naples who has been endorsed by President Donald Trump, was making an appearance on Demings\u2019 home turf in Orlando. Both Donalds and Demings, who is seeking the Democratic nomination, have the potential to become Florida\u2019s first Black governor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The congressman said Demings wouldn\u2019t fare well in November because he supports policies that would turn off people who have moved to Florida from Democratic-led states over the past several years. He also said that Demings\u2019 tenure as county mayor was wasteful.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cWhy would we have somebody lead our state who agrees with a Kathy Hochul in New York \u2026 or agrees with a Gavin Newsom of California\u2026,\u201d he said of those states\u2019 Democratic governors. \u201c(Orange County officials) have been a very wasteful government. Why would we want that in Tallahassee?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Donalds also said he backs the new congressional map that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.orlandosentinel.com\/2026\/04\/29\/clearly-deliberate-desantis-cuts-floridas-sole-hispanic-congressional-seat\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:breaks up a majority-Hispanic district in Central Florida;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;breaks up a majority-Hispanic district in Central Florida&quot;}\" class=\"link \">breaks up a majority-Hispanic district in Central Florida<\/a>, including Kissimmee and St. Cloud, represented by Democratic U.S. Rep. Darren Soto.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Asked about the new district and criticisms it waters down Florida\u2019s Hispanic vote, Donalds referenced the U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s recent decision to strike down part of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The court ruled race can\u2019t be taken into account when designing political districts unless there already was racial discrimination in those areas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cWhether it\u2019s Congressman Soto or anybody else, I think they don\u2019t have a leg to stand on except that they\u2019re upset that now they can\u2019t racially gerrymander in order to maintain Democratic political power,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">At the event, about a dozen protesters across the street held a banner saying \u201cNo Trumper 4 Governor.\u201d A man also began yelling at Donalds before he began speaking, shouting \u201cByron Donalds is not welcome in Orlando, hate will never make America great.\u201d He was asked to leave by police.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">On policy, Donalds said he would improve housing affordability, especially for young people first entering the market and seniors on fixed incomes, as well as push insurance costs down by eliminating government costs, improve government efficiency and look at ways to adjust state regulations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">He also said he\u2019d work with businesses to create more internships, apprenticeships and other educational opportunities to teach employable skills to high school students so they can find a job when they graduate in case they don\u2019t intend to go to college.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Donalds vowed to lead the most transparent state government in the country. He said he would set up a website that would allow residents to see how the state and local governments spent their tax dollars instead of having them file records requests or search across multiple websites and databases.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Donalds has held large leads over his rivals for the GOP nomination. Demings is battling former U.S. Rep. David Jolly, a former Republican congressman from St. Petersburg, for the Democratic nomination. The state primary will be held Aug. 18.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">_____<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 U.S. Congressman Byron Donalds on Wednesday sharply criticized Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings, his possible&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261331,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[445,147,6698,23833,5324,8134,1335,139,141,140,6688],"class_list":["post-261330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-byron-donalds","tag-central-florida","tag-darren-soto","tag-democratic-nomination","tag-gavin-newsom","tag-jerry-demings","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-president-donald-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261330","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=261330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}