Ron DeSantis asked Byron Donalds to chair the Florida Republican Party.
That was 2018 – before the endorsement, before the feud, and before DeSantis started questioning whether Donalds was conservative enough.
Now Donalds is running for governor, but the man who once trusted him to lead the state party won't say his name at a campaign rally.
The Story DeSantis Didn't Want Him to Tell
Donalds laid it all out last week in an interview with podcaster Katie Miller.
When DeSantis won the governorship in 2018, he called Donalds personally.
He wanted him to chair the Republican Party of Florida.
The catch: Donalds had to first win his local county executive committee chairmanship to be eligible for the state job.
He lost that race.
Joe Gruters stepped in, served as RPOF chair from 2019 to 2023, and eventually moved up to chair the RNC.
Donalds called the whole episode a "humbling" experience.
Here's what makes the story worth telling: Gruters, the man who got the job Donalds couldn't, is a Trump loyalist – the same kind of Republican DeSantis now can't seem to stand.
DeSantis went looking for Trump people in 2018.
He just can't seem to stand them anymore.
What Changed
The relationship didn't fray over policy.
It frayed over loyalty.
Donalds endorsed Trump for president.
DeSantis had staked everything on being the conservative alternative – the disciplined, ideologically pure version of what Trump represented without the chaos.
Donalds looked at that argument and chose Trump anyway.
DeSantis has not forgiven him.
Last February, the governor unloaded publicly.
"You got a guy like Byron Donalds, he just hasn't been a part of any of the victories that we've had here over the Left over these last years. He's just not been a part of it," DeSantis said.
https://twitter.com/CryptidPolitics/status/2041858765490733485?s=20
That's a sitting governor dismissing a man he personally recruited to run the state party – because that man backed a candidate DeSantis couldn't beat.
Casey DeSantis spent months teasing a gubernatorial run, a move that looked designed to freeze the field while Donalds' fundraising kept climbing.
She never got in.
67 Million Dollars Later
Donalds just posted $22.2 million in the first quarter of 2026 alone – the largest Q1 haul by a non-incumbent gubernatorial candidate in Florida history.
His total is north of $67 million.
More than 10,000 donors contributed in the last quarter.
He has Trump. He has Elon Musk. He has Rick Scott.
He has a majority of Florida's sheriffs and three-quarters of the Republican caucus in the Florida House – the same chamber where he once served before DeSantis came calling about that county chair seat.
The man who called Donalds in 2018 with a job offer is now watching from the sidelines as Donalds raises more money in a single quarter than most candidates see in a career.
That county chair loss was the best thing that ever happened to Byron Donalds.
And Ron DeSantis is the last person in Florida who wants to admit it.
Sources:
- A.G. Gancarski, "Byron Donalds says Ron DeSantis wanted him to chair Florida GOP," Florida Politics, April 14, 2026.
- Staff, "Byron Donalds posts record $22M quarter to kick off 2026 Governor's race," Florida Politics, April 1, 2026.
- Staff, "Byron Donalds Raises $22.2 Million in Q1 as Florida Gov Race Heats Up," Breitbart, April 1, 2026.
