Republican Byron Donalds is elected Florida’s first Black governor

Republican Rep. Byron Donalds was elected Florida’s first Black governor on Tuesday, defeating Democrat David Jolly in an unexpectedly competitive race that tested the GOP’s grip on President Donald Trump ‘s adopted home state.

Donalds, a staunch Trump ally, will succeed outgoing Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who used the office to fan presidential ambitions and steer the nation’s third-most populous state further to the right.

Donalds, who will become the nation’s first elected Black Republican governor, fended off Jolly, a former Republican congressman who switched parties and ran a centrist campaign. Donalds thanked Trump in his victory speech to supporters in South Florida.

“I want you to hear from Florida that we are still red,” Donalds told the crowd. “Mr. President, I also want to tell you thank you for your support and thank you for being in my corner.”

The race presented a test of whether Trump’s unpopularity, which has dragged down Republicans across the U.S., would extend to his backyard and endanger an office in Florida that a Democrat hasn’t won in more than 30 years.

Donalds had sought to define Jolly as an out-of-touch liberal, and he reached out to Black voters who traditionally side with Democrats.

Beyond the national political environment, the race centered on issues including high prices and the cost of homeowners insurance, a particularly salient issue in a state with a history of being ravaged by hurricanes.

Florida spent a generation as America’s prized political battleground, where the interests of big cities, agricultural towns, freshly arrived retirees and diverse Latino communities collided in elections often decided by fractions of a percentage point.

That reputation faded under DeSantis, who won his first race in 2018 by less than half a percentage point. But once he was in office, he leaned into culture wars centered on race and gender — signing, for instance, legislation often labeled by critics as “ Don’t Say Gay ” that bars instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through the third grade. By the time he ran for reelection in 2022, DeSantis won in a nearly 20-point landslide that left the state’s Democrats in shambles.

Jolly faced steep hurdles in his effort to lead the party’s rebound. Republicans have a roughly 1.5 million voter registration advantage, and Donalds dominated Jolly in fundraising.

Seeking to overcome those challenges, Jolly campaigned in Florida’s Democratic strongholds, like Broward County, along with traditionally Republican parts of central Florida and the state’s Panhandle.

Donalds maintained a steady confidence throughout the campaign, balancing his support for Trump with efforts to create some distance, including minimizing references to the president on his website.

Steven Sloan, The Associated Press