Ron DeSantis spent eight years building the most successful conservative governorship in America.
Now the man he won't endorse just reminded him who was in the room when it counted.
Byron Donalds reminded Panhandle voters of something Ron DeSantis apparently forgot.
DeSantis Won His First Race With Donalds in the Room
The 2018 race wasn't pretty.
Gillum – the Tallahassee mayor who later ended up back in jail on federal fraud charges – had Democrats convinced Florida was finally flipping blue.
The race was within the margin of error until the very end.
Donalds was on the debate prep team.
So was Richard Corcoran – the former House Speaker who now leads New College after DeSantis tapped him to gut the woke administrative state there.
https://twitter.com/Bannons_WarRoom/status/2085379392872542319?s=20
Matt Gaetz was in the room too.
These were the men who helped Ron DeSantis become Ron DeSantis.
After winning, DeSantis turned around and urged Donalds – then still a state legislator – to chair the Republican Party of Florida.
He wanted him near the levers of power.
That was then.
Donalds reminded voters of this fact at a recent rally.
“Back in 2018, I was on the debate prep team for then-Congressman DeSantis in the General Election,” Donalds said.
What Changed Everything Between Them
When DeSantis launched his presidential campaign in 2023, Donalds did something the governor considered unforgivable.
He endorsed Trump.
Not only that – the endorsement came before DeSantis had formally entered the race, and it helped trigger a wave of Florida Republicans jumping to Trump.
Donalds spent days trying to reach the governor before making his endorsement public – DeSantis never picked up or called back.
DeSantis has been burning that bridge ever since.
He's called Donalds ideologically insufficient.
https://twitter.com/ByronDonalds/status/2087148557996265820?s=20
He said Donalds "wasn't a part of any of the victories" over the Left.
He publicly floated his wife Casey as a better option – a move that collapsed when Trump endorsed Donalds and made clear the former First Lady wasn't getting the MAGA machine behind her.
Now, with the August 18 primary just days away, DeSantis announced he's "not involved in any Primaries" and declined to endorse anyone – including the man leading by 31 points who carries Trump's complete and total endorsement.
"Being Governor is different than winning Governor," DeSantis said last week – a quote so carefully crafted to sting Donalds that it barely even pretends to be general advice. “And honestly, what goes into winning it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be a good Governor, because a lot of it is name recognition,” he continued. “And the way to get name recognition in a really big state is you either have to pay for it by buying advertising, or you have to generate a lot of free media, which is hard in a state this big, because we have so many different media markets.”
DeSantis Is Making Enemies He Doesn't Need to Make
Ron DeSantis – a brilliant executive who delivered real conservative wins for Florida – is letting a 2023 political wound turn into a 2026 self-inflicted disaster.
Donalds is leading at 49% in the latest James Madison Institute poll.
His nearest competitor, Lt. Gov. Jay Collins, is at 18%.
The race has been over for months.
Trump reaffirmed his endorsement this week on Truth Social.
https://twitter.com/ByronDonalds/status/2087229887677370724?s=20
DeSantis withholding his blessing doesn't change the outcome.
It just ensures that whoever wins the governorship does so without owing DeSantis anything – and that Florida conservatives remember the governor chose a personal grudge over party unity with a week left before the primary.
Meanwhile, Donalds keeps telling supporters he expects DeSantis to campaign with him before the general.
The man who showed up for DeSantis in 2018 is asking for nothing more than the same in return.
Sources:
- A.G. Gancarski, "At Panhandle rally, Byron Donalds reminds voters he was on Team DeSantis back in 2018," Florida Politics, August 10, 2026.
- A.G. Gancarski, "Ron DeSantis closes door on gubernatorial endorsement before GOP Primary," Florida Politics, August 6, 2026.
- A.G. Gancarski, "Poll: Byron Donalds leads GOP Primary race by 31 points, David Jolly by 7," Florida Politics, August 6, 2026.
- Staff, "DeSantis allies break away, endorse Byron Donalds for Florida governor," Tampa Bay Times, July 6, 2026.
- A.G. Gancarski, "Byron Donalds says Ron DeSantis will be behind him by the General Election," Florida Politics, July 21, 2026.
