Just Like Ron: Byron Donalds Thinks He Could Replace The ‘best Governor In The Country’

HOMESTEAD, Florida — Gov. Ron DeSantis has made it clear he doesn’t want Rep. Byron Donalds to succeed him in Florida. In the earliest days of the gubernatorial campaign, however, Donalds is opting to play nice back, praising the governor’s record and siding with him in policy fights.

Donalds, so far the lone candidate in the 2026 governor’s race, has key ingredients to jump-start his campaign: a very-early endorsement from President Donald Trump, a powerful staff with ties to Trump; and interviews with the conservative media circuit. Donalds appears to be moving quickly to consolidate support, having received the backing of a handful of state lawmakers.

But he still has to contend with DeSantis, a fellow Republican whose wife is considering a run of her own for the governorship. Rather than ignore their disagreements or cast his own candidacy as a referendum on the governor, Donalds has talked about running for the state’s top job to continue what DeSantis, and former Gov. Rick Scott before him, accomplished.

To Anthony Pedicini, a longtime Republican campaign consultant from Florida, Donalds’ “high road” approach is a “smart tactic,” rather than trying to “start a range war with a beloved governor in the state.”

“If you're Byron Donalds, you have nothing to hide from right now,” he said. “You have no one running against you. You're not running against Ron DeSantis — he can't run anymore. And so, why not? There's no Republican on Earth right now who doesn't think DeSantis is doing a great job. Trump's doing a great job. Kumbaya.”

The two politicians used to be close, with Donalds helping DeSantis in both his gubernatorial elections. In an interview this week with conservative commentator Benny Johnson, Donalds attributed his endorsement of Trump over DeSantis in the 2024 presidential primary as the cause of the “parting of the ways.”

“It’s something that’s got to be worked on,” Donalds acknowledged, before calling DeSantis the “best governor in the country” and saying he hoped for opportunities to “mend that fence.”

“My interests are in making sure that we have a great relationship. … I want to be able to work with him, be able to learn from him,” Donalds said.

The lawmaker has also been rolling out his policy stances, which look similar to those of the current governor. Donalds backed a push by DeSantis to abolish property taxes in Florida — as long as the details are properly worked out — and in January, he took the governor’s side in a dispute over immigration enforcement with the Florida Legislature. He also said he looked forward to clashing with California Gov. Gavin Newsom as DeSantis has done (though the Democratic governor, like DeSantis, will be term-limited in 2026).

DeSantis has not returned the favor. As recently as Monday, he criticized Donalds’ policy record, suggesting he was insufficiently conservative and should be focused on his job in Congress. On Wednesday in Homestead, Florida, he dodged a question about the 2026 gubernatorial race, saying his focus was on “vindicating the ‘24 election” by helping the Trump administration succeed in its illegal immigration policies.

On Thursday, during a press conference in Starke, Florida, he reiterated it was too early to discuss the election and said officials should be “focusing on getting the job done that they were elected to do.” When DeSantis was in the House, he waited until the January of the election year to launch his campaign — meaning Donalds launched roughly 11 months before DeSantis did at the same point in the 2018 election.

DeSantis has instead talked up the credentials and political force of his wife, first lady Casey DeSantis, as the best person to succeed him. “I think there’s a lot of possibilities,” DeSantis said Thursday morning at the Starke press conference when asked whether his wife was still considering running for governor.

“The way each man is approaching this speaks volumes about their character,” said a person familiar with Donalds’ campaign, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly.

Neither man appears to have publicly discussed another clash, over state teaching standards on African American history. Donalds, who would be Florida’s first Black governor if elected, called the language in the standard “wrong,” which read that enslaved people “developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.” He said he supported most of the curriculum but that section would “need to be adjusted.”

Though DeSantis appears to think Donalds is launching his race too soon, calling it a “lifetime away,” an early rollout by Donalds could help him lock up donors quickly and help him define who he is — making it harder for the governor to tear apart his record and for new entrants to jump in, said a statewide Republican consultant, granted anonymity to relay private conversations.

“They did the shrewd thing by launching when they did, how they did,” the person said.

But Pedicini, who supports both DeSantis and Trump, said there could also be disadvantages from 20 months of scrutiny from opponents and the press. Still, he said, it was too early to prognosticate, and Donalds had already taken “the biggest prize you can take in the race in the primary” with the Trump endorsement.

DeSantis allies, such as New Hampshire state House Rep. Jason Osborne, say Casey DeSantis would be an “obvious choice to be the next captain if she were willing and interested” because she has been a “critical player on Team DeSantis.” Osborne, who was state House speaker when he endorsed DeSantis for president, pointed to the governor’s policy successes and said voters will want to hear who he’d recommend.

“When you are experiencing that kind of success, you don't just ignore that and bring in an outsider to shake everything up,” he said. “You want someone intimately involved who can keep driving the agenda forward.”

Alex Bruesewitz, a former Trump campaign media adviser who now advises Trump’s leadership PAC, Never Surrender, said it would be “very foolish” and “ill-advised” for DeSantis and Casey DeSantis to challenge Donalds. He said the MAGA base would show up for Donalds and that he hoped instead that the DeSantises would rally behind Donalds.

“President Trump said Byron is his guy,” Bruesewitz said. “Anybody going against Byron goes against the president.”