Byron Donalds enjoyed a relatively stress-free night Tuesday in defeating 10 opponents to capture the Republican nomination for governor and goes into November\u2019s general election as the favorite against Democrat David Jolly.<\/p>\n
Donalds defeated Lt. Gov. Jay Collins, 48%-25%. Investment firm CEO James Fishback came in third place at 10% and former Florida House Speaker Paul Renner was at 9%.<\/p>\n
Collins showed significant strength in the Panhandle. The decorated Army Special Forces combat veteran defeated Donalds in 14 counties in North Florida. He also took Hardee County in Central Florida.<\/p>\n
In Dixie and Liberty counties, Donalds finished in third place behind Collins and Bobby Williams, founder of a disaster relief and food distribution organization who finished in fifth place with 4% of the vote.<\/p>\n
What explains Collins\u2019 strong support in North Florida?<\/p>\n
A spokesperson said Wednesday that Collins understands the needs of the region.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe grew up on a farm, was raised to understand the value of hard work, and he defended our nation in battle,\u201d said Meghan Van Joosten with the Collins campaign.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat matters to the people of Northern Florida when they\u2019re choosing a leader. Winning 14 counties in that region wasn\u2019t an accident, it reflects the time Jay spent on the ground there, the relationships built with local leaders, and a message that clearly resonated with voters who care about conservative values.\u201d<\/p>\n
Military record<\/p>\n
Also, his military record put him in tune with a region home to six major military installations. The Florida Panhandle is considered one of the most military- and veteran-supportive regions in the state, if not the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a veteran who was wounded, that might have been a strong attraction for an electorate that is pretty supportive of the military in the Panhandle,\u201d said University of Central Florida political science professor Aubrey Jewett.<\/p>\n
Collins served for 23 years in the U.S. Army, with deployments as a Special Forces medic to Afghanistan, Iraq, and twice to South America.<\/p>\n
During his 2007 Afghanistan deployment, he was shot in the arm and helped perform surgery on himself in the field. A few months later, he sustained additional injuries that would eventually lead to the amputation of his left leg in 2012. Following that amputation, Collins re-qualified as a fully deployable special forces operator, going on to serve for five more years on active duty.<\/p>\n
Those incidents were what led Ron DeSantis to label him<\/a> \u201cthe Chuck Norris of Florida politics\u201d when he appointed Collins to serve as lieutenant governor in August 2025. <\/p>\n Although the governor never endorsed him (nor anyone else in the race to succeed him), Collins was telling reporters as recently as last week<\/a> that his appointment was a clear indication DeSantis believed that he was \u201cready to lead the state of Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n Donalds criminal record<\/p>\n Tampa Bay-area political strategist Barry Edwards also believes some of Collins\u2019 success over Donalds in North Florida was that he leaned hard on Donalds\u2019 criminal arrest record. \u201cThat resonated with older, very conservative white people. They were exploiting that.\u201d<\/p>\n Collins released a 13-page report<\/a> on Donalds\u2019 alleged \u201cliabilities\u201d to reporters in April. That document included references to Donalds\u2019 record and other previously reported issues regarding stock trades and his family\u2019s involvement in charter schools. <\/p>\n In an interview with CBS Miami<\/a> in March, Donalds acknowledged he made \u201cterrible decisions\u201d during his youth regarding a marijuana charge and a charge of bribery.<\/p>\n \u201cThese issues get talked about now or they get talked about in October, where we cannot risk this state falling and having [David] Jolly as our next governor,\u201d Collins said at the time. \u201cThis is not a risk that we can afford to take here in Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n Edwards said Jolly \u201cneeds to be very careful\u201d if he intends to make that aspect of Donalds past part of his campaign. \u201cThat\u2019s already been done.\u201d<\/p>\n Steve Vancore, a longtime Tallahassee consultant and pollster, wrote in Florida Politics<\/a> that \u201cDonalds\u2019 performance in rural North Florida could be a problem down the stretch. We can\u2019t know why he underperformed there. But if a lack of enthusiasm translates into voters staying home, whatever the reason, this thing could come down to the wire.\u201d<\/p>\n So many candidates<\/p>\n Speaking Thursday night in Tampa, Donalds attributed his loss in 17 counties to \u201cjust what happens when you have a multi-candidacy primary. Jay worked incredibly hard. So did Paul (Renner).\u201d<\/p>\n He also praised the success of little-covered Republican candidate Bobby Williams, who received double-digit support in several northern rural Florida counties.<\/p>\n \u201cBut it\u2019s about just winning,\u201d Donalds added to the Phoenix. \u201cThere\u2019s no substitute for that. Win, and then you adjust your strategy. I just think for rural counties in our state, we want them to know that we\u2019re not leaving them behind. We want to make sure that rural Florida is protected. Just as much as we are in some of the more urban counties in Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n Florida Phoenix<\/a> is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Byron Donalds enjoyed a relatively stress-free night Tuesday in defeating 10 opponents to capture the Republican nomination for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378210,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-378209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378209","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=378209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}