{"id":306222,"date":"2026-06-13T09:57:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T09:57:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/306222\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T09:57:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T09:57:18","slug":"florida-gop-primary-heats-up-with-scrapped-debate-criticism-among-candidates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/306222\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida GOP primary heats up with scrapped debate, criticism among candidates"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WFLA) \u2014 Florida\u2019s race for governor is now officially set, and the Republican primary is heating up with a scrapped debate and new criticism among candidates.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The race to take over the governor\u2019s mansion is jam-packed with household names:<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">U.S. Representative Byron Donalds<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Former Congressman David Jolly<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Former House Speaker Paul Renner<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">State Representative Dottie Joseph<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">And newcomer James Fishback<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Fishback held a press conference in Tallahassee Friday unveiling what he calls a \u201cContract with Florida,\u201d a set of seven pledges focused on issues like AI data centers, health freedom, free speech, gun rights, and abortion.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">He says if he breaks those promises, the agreement will bar him from seeking reelection as governor.<\/p>\n<p>The rollout comes as tensions rise within the GOP primary.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Renner, Fishback, Collins and Donalds were all supposed to debate at the Republican Party of Florida\u2019s \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/florida.gop\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:Sunshine State Showdown;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;Sunshine State Showdown&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Sunshine State Showdown<\/a>,\u201d but that\u2019s now off the table.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">That decision is drawing criticism, including from Governor Ron DeSantis.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere should be a debate, they said they were going to do a debate,\u201d said DeSantis Friday at a press conference. \u201cIt\u2019s counterproductive when you try to engineer an outcome, because you need a coalition of voters to do well and this may be a tough cycle for Republicans.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Fishback is also accusing Donalds of trying to block debates.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cByron Donalds is trying to steal this election. He is trying to block debates. He is trying to rig the entire process with big, out-of-state money, and we cannot let him get away with that,\u201d Fishback said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Minutes before 8 On Your Side\u2019s interview with Congressman Byron Donalds, the Republican Party of Florida <a href=\"https:\/\/florida.gop\/republican-party-of-florida-rescinds-james-fishbacks-invitation-to-sunshine-state-showdown\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:pulled Fishback\u2019s invitation;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;pulled Fishback\u2019s invitation&quot;}\" class=\"link \">pulled Fishback\u2019s invitation<\/a> to the event.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cAfter conversations with numerous Republican leaders, grassroots activists, and stakeholders from across Florida, it has become clear that entertaining Mr. Fishback\u2019s overtures to participate in official Republican Party activities was a mistake,\u201d said RPOF Chairman Evan Power. \u201cRather than participate in the Party\u2019s official process, Mr. Fishback immediately chose to promote and participate in a rival, unsanctioned event in violation of Party rules. He has also continued his antisemitic and racist attacks on members of our party.\u00a0As a result, the Republican Party of Florida is rescinding his invitation to participate in the Sunshine State Showdown and other official gubernatorial primary activities. We want to be clear; racism and antisemitism have no place in our party.\u00a0We must hold ourselves to a higher standard and we will continue to do so at the Republican Party of Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Donalds says what happens next is up to the party chair and he plans to remain focused on his vision for the state.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cIf what you\u2019re going to do, in order to get attention, is trade in bigotry and antisemitism to try and get attention for your campaign, that\u2019s not what the Republican party is about,\u201d Donalds said. \u201cYou\u2019re free to say whatever you want. That\u2019s all well and good. But if you\u2019re going to trade in that kind of nastiness and disgusting language and tropes and all that stuff, don\u2019t expect to be platformed by the Republican Party. Our party was founded for the abolishment of slavery. That is the basis of why the Republican Party was created. So, that\u2019s up to the chairman of the party. He obviously made a decision and we move on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wfla.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA.;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;For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA.&quot;}\" class=\"link \"> For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WFLA) \u2014 Florida\u2019s race for governor is now officially set, and the Republican primary is heating&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":306223,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[445,1618,28,30,29,14135,28912,32373],"class_list":["post-306222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-byron-donalds","tag-fla","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-gop","tag-james-fishback","tag-republican-party-of-florida"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306222","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=306222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/306223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}