HOLLYWOOD, Fla. \u2014 Florida Republicans billed their party\u2019s June 27 gathering in South Florida as the “Sunshine State Showdown.” But for U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, the event\u2019s headliner and GOP frontrunner for governor, it was less of a confrontation and more like a friendly chat.<\/p>\n
No other gubernatorial candidates met the party\u2019s fundraising and polling criteria<\/a> for a debate, and Donalds didn\u2019t call for one.<\/p>\n Donalds took the stage at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino after a video clip of Charlie Kirk, the assassinated Turning Point USA founder, endorsing Donalds\u2019 bid for governor. Donalds didn\u2019t mention his opponents in his speech and took audience questions about the Second Amendment and his plans to lower homeowner\u2019s insurance and protect the state\u2019s water supply. His broad replies didn\u2019t offer much opportunity for fact-checking.<\/p>\n Of the gubernatorial candidates who attended, Florida Lt. Gov. Jay Collins took direct swipes at Donalds\u2019 vulnerabilities, including his decades-old drug charge<\/a> and campaign donations from a pro-AI super PAC.<\/a> Former Florida House Speaker Paul Renner touted his actions shaping state law, including 2023 legislation<\/a> he supported that restricted citizens from China and other “countries of concern” from owning or buying land in Florida.<\/p>\n The Aug. 18 primary winner will likely face Democratic candidate David Jolly, a former congressman, in the general election.<\/p>\n Speakers said little about the party\u2019s withdrawn invitation to controversial governor candidate James Fishback, who held his own event<\/a> nearby.<\/p>\n They focused more on what unites them: personal freedom and disdain for New York politics. U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody didn\u2019t mention her leading Democratic opponent Alexander Vindman but described New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani-backed congressional race winners as “anarchist psychos that want to destroy this country.”<\/p>\n Here, we fact-checked some of the speakers\u2019 remarks.<\/p>\n Collins: Donalds voted “against military pay raises.”<\/p>\n Collins cherry-picked some of Donalds\u2019 votes against defense spending packages that authorized military pay raises, ignoring that Donalds voted for other measures that included them. PolitiFact rated a similar Collins statement Mostly False.<\/a><\/p>\n The National Defense Authorization Act is a sweeping annual package that sets funding and policy for the U.S. Defense Department. While it includes military pay increases, the legislation is typically thousands of pages and authorizes billions in funding for a variety of military operations, and often has unrelated provisions tacked on.<\/p>\n Donalds voted against the legislation in 2022, 2023 and 2025, saying he disagreed with provisions such as Ukraine funding and climate change initiatives. He supported the package with raises in 2021 and in 2024.<\/p>\n Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia: Florida is “No. 1 in arresting and deporting criminal aliens in our communities.”<\/p>\n Florida is near the top for arrests, but it\u2019s not No. 1. (We don\u2019t have similar data for deportations.)<\/p>\n The state trails only Texas in arrests<\/a>, according to Deportation Data Project<\/a> records analyzed by The Associated Press.<\/p>\n Through “Operation Tidal Wave” \u2014 the partnership between Florida\u2019s state and local law enforcement agencies and federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement \u2014 agencies arrested more than 10,400 immigrants in the country illegally in Florida in 2025, according to state data<\/a>.<\/p>\n DeSantis said<\/a> in January that another 9,600 arrests were made through 287g agreements<\/a>, which allow state and local law enforcement to enforce certain federal immigration laws. Around 347 state and local agencies<\/a> in Florida have signed these agreements, the most of any state.<\/p>\n A Miami Herald<\/a> analysis found that more than 4,800 of the approximately 20,000 people had only immigration violations, and no criminal charges or convictions. A quarter of those arrested had criminal convictions, and the rest had pending criminal charges that included nonviolent crimes.<\/p>\n Data shows that ICE agents in Florida have made more immigration arrests so far in 2026 than in any other part of the U.S. As of March 10, the ICE field office in Miami \u2014 which covers Florida, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands \u2014 recorded about 120 arrests per day from Dec. 19, 2025, through March 10, or 9,880 arrests in total, The New York Times report<\/a>ed.<\/p>\n U.S. Rep. Kat Cammack: “You should have to show an ID and you should have to be a citizen in order to vote.”<\/p>\n Voters already have to be U.S. citizens to cast ballots in federal elections. Cases of noncitizens voting are extremely rare<\/a>.<\/p>\n