{"id":298463,"date":"2026-06-06T16:04:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T16:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/298463\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T16:04:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T16:04:14","slug":"byron-donalds-calls-for-gop-to-unite-as-primary-opponents-call-for-debates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/298463\/","title":{"rendered":"Byron Donalds calls for GOP to ‘unite’ as primary opponents call for debates"},"content":{"rendered":"

Byron Donalds<\/a> says he\u2019s the front-runner in the race for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, and that the party should coalesce behind him more than two months before the August 18 Primary.<\/p>\n

He made this call for party unity Friday, hours after one of two major candidates announced he was ending his campaign because of a prostate cancer diagnosis<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the announcement of Jerry Demings<\/a> dropping out of the Democrat primary for Governor, the general election starts today,\u201d the Naples Republican said.<\/p>\n

Donalds, who has raised $81 million so far, makes it clear he would rather deploy those resources in the General Election than in the Primary given that Democrats have a presumptive nominee in the wake of Demings\u2019 departure from the campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe differences between David Jolly<\/a> and myself could not be more stark. Mr. Jolly would end the Florida Dream and transform our state into another Virginia, Illinois, California, or New York. Millions of people have come to Florida to escape the craziness of blue state governance and they are not going back. Based upon these developments it is time for the Republican party to unite and focus on defending the successes of Governor DeSantis and keeping Florida free!\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Donalds cites his \u201cCOMPLETE and TOTAL endorsement\u201d from President\u00a0Donald Trump and notes that he is up by more than 40 points in multiple public polls as proof of his viability. He goes on to suggest that opponents haven\u2019t proven strength that measures up and that he will communicate with potential voters, but not on a debate stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll other candidates are in single digits. At this point, fighting amongst Republicans only helps the Democrats end the Florida Dream we all love and cherish. I will continue to travel the state and engage the voters directly. My campaign is committed to town halls, community meetings, business roundtables, and door knocking to take our message of conservatism and common sense directly to the people of Florida,\u201d Donalds said.<\/p>\n

Lt. Gov. Jay Collins and former House Speaker\u00a0Paul Renner both insist that debates are necessary, meanwhile.<\/p>\n

\u201cJay Collins is calling out Byron Donalds. Any stage. Any moderator. Any time. The callout is on the table \u2014 the only question left is whether Byron answers the bell, or keeps running,\u201d reads the copy on The Collins Callout<\/a> website, which was launched Friday.<\/p>\n

The language on the site concedes that Donalds is the prohibitive front-runner, contrasting \u201cno-show\u201d Donalds with \u201cchallenger\u201d Collins.<\/p>\n

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

Renner goes farther, saying neither Collins nor Donalds is willing to debate him.<\/p>\n

\u201cFloridians deserve to see the differences between the candidates. Stop ducking and let\u2019s get on stage,\u201d Renner implored in a video posted to social media Friday.<\/p>\n

Fundraising reports for Collins and Renner covering activity through May are due June 10, and those will give an indication of how much strength their campaigns have going into the stretch run. Through the last report that covered activity through the end of March, Renner had raised more than $6 million and Collins roughly $1.75 million.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Byron Donalds says he\u2019s the front-runner in the race for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, and that the party…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298464,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[445,28,30,29,5187,7381],"class_list":["post-298463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-byron-donalds","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-jay-collins","tag-paul-renner"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298463","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=298463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}