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A supporter of Florida Congressman and gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds hands out campaign posters during the Republican Party of Florida Sunshine State Showdown event, at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, June 27, 2026.<\/p>\n
Pedro Portal<\/p>\n
pportal@miamiherald.com<\/p>\n
Campaign money can buy television ads, consultants and voter data. But it can\u2019t buy the kind of enthusiasm I saw at a small restaurant in Doral last week.<\/p>\n
Last week, I attended an event hosted by gubernatorial candidate James Fishback at Manjay Restaurant, a Caribbean restaurant in Doral. I wasn\u2019t sure what to expect. The minute I stepped inside, I was surprised. The place was packed \u2014 roughly 90 people squeezed inside, most of them Gen Z men, ages 18-30, with a handful of people over 30.<\/p>\n
When Fishback, a Republican who lives in Florida\u2019s Panhandle, finished speaking, he announced the selfie line would form outside and that he\u2019d be autographing yard signs. People spilled outside, grabbing signs, and waited in the South Florida summer heat. Some lingered afterward instead of heading home.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t a massive rally. But the enthusiasm felt authentic \u2014 the kind campaigns spend millions trying to manufacture.<\/p>\n
Two days later, I attended gubernatorial candidate U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds\u2019 \u201cDefending the Florida Dream\u201d event at Allen & Son Moving & Storage in Hialeah.<\/p>\n
The atmosphere felt different. Attendees registered online beforehand. Donalds, a Republican with President Trump\u2019s endorsement and over $90 million in the bank, spoke from a podium inside a warehouse, campaign signs arranged into a makeshift wall behind him. The audience was noticeably older, included more women and skewed mid-30s to 50s.<\/p>\n
After speaking and taking a handful of questions, Donalds encouraged attendees to sign up with campaign staffers to knock on doors on Saturday. Some did. Others lingered briefly before leaving.<\/p>\n
Two events by two candidates but vastly different: Fishback\u2019s restaurant meet-and-greet was designed to feel spontaneous and it did. Donalds\u2019 meet-and-greet in the warehouse was the opposite: a little stiff and kind of staged. Format, along with day and time, can explain some of the enthusiasm gap I saw. But it doesn\u2019t explain the demographics of who showed up.<\/p>\n
By traditional measures, the Donalds event was a success \u2014 but the absence of young voters was hard to miss.<\/p>\n
These were just snapshots in time \u2014 a young crowd in Doral, an older one in Hialeah \u2014 and two events don\u2019t create a trend. But the contrast does raise a question worth asking as the primary draws near: Why did the long shot draw young Republicans, but the frontrunner didn\u2019t?<\/p>\n
I asked Fishback why he thought younger Republicans were gravitating toward his campaign. He offered a simple explanation. \u201cI\u2019m young, and I think they can see themselves in me,\u201d he said. He said his campaign speaks to issues affecting younger Floridians, including housing costs, college affordability and property taxes.<\/p>\n
The Donalds campaign says their candidate is getting plenty of interest. \u201cThe enthusiasm for his campaign is surging,\u201d Communications Director Gates McGavick told me, pointing to Donalds\u2019 commanding polling lead and more than 40,000 donors. He said Donalds is focused on fixing Florida\u2019s insurance market, lowering costs and making homeownership more attainable for young Floridians.<\/p>\n
Money and polling often are legitimate indicators of strength, mattering more than the vibe at a single campaign event. Donalds will most likely win the nomination.<\/p>\n
But a packed room and a lot of enthusiasm shouldn\u2019t be ignored. Sometimes a surge can be predicted by whether young people will wait outside a restaurant on a humid July evening for a selfie. I\u2019m not a Fishback supporter nor do I think he should be Florida\u2019s next governor, but the enthusiasm surrounding his candidacy is hard to overlook.<\/p>\n
The young voters lining up in Doral were there because Fishback excited them \u2014 not because of a sophisticated turnout operation asked them to be. But this should be a warning sign for Republicans. Whichever candidate wins the GOP nomination will inherit a difficult problem of getting the younger generation to show up in November.<\/p>\n
Mary Anna Mancuso is a member of the Miami Herald Editorial Board. Her email: mmancuso@miamiherald.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A supporter of Florida Congressman and gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds hands out campaign posters during the Republican Party…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":344046,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-344045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344045","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=344045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}