Florida homeowners are getting crushed by property taxes and Byron Donalds won't debate the one candidate with a plan to fix it.
Thursday night made that impossible to ignore.
Paul Renner showed up to the "Future of Florida" debate and Byron Donalds stayed home – and Renner made sure every Florida Republican voter knows it.
What Donalds Is Running From
Renner is the only candidate in this race with a serious answer to Florida's affordability crisis.
Property tax revenues statewide jumped more than 50% in five years.
Floridians' incomes grew at roughly twice the rate those revenues did – meaning Tallahassee kept taking more while paychecks stayed flat.
https://twitter.com/FLVoiceNews/status/2072835310166118732?s=20
His "Florida First Affordability Plan" would eliminate homestead property taxes for 95% of Florida homeowners – a $34 billion relief package funded by shifting the burden onto private equity buyers, real estate speculators, and tourists instead of the families living here.
"My proposal will truly end taxes for homeowners," Renner said Thursday. "It will have a $1 million exception on all taxes, so it will address 95% of homeowners and eliminate their homestead property tax."
Donalds hasn't matched that with a competing plan.
He's matched it with a line about participation trophies.
"Campaigns are not charities," Donalds said last month. "If the people who qualified do not have the ability to go out and get 20% of the people of Florida to support them, then it's not my responsibility to elevate them."
That's a clever answer for a press conference.
It's a terrible answer for a Navy veteran asking you to look him in the eye and explain why Florida homeowners should keep writing those checks.
The Debate Donalds Skipped
Thursday's debate featured Renner, Lt. Gov. Jay Collins, and businessman James Fishback.
Collins spent most of the night litigating his lawsuit to get Fishback thrown off the ballot.
Fishback spent most of the night fighting back.
https://twitter.com/FLVoiceNews/status/2072823402495123761?s=20
Renner watched them bicker and delivered the line of the night: "If we were at a dining room table, we would know where the kids' table is."
Then he went back to talking about property taxes.
The Florida Republican Party set fundraising and polling thresholds for its official debate that Donalds alone could clear – which meant Thursday's event had to be streamed on YouTube from a podcast stage rather than broadcast on television with party backing.
Renner, Collins, and Fishback had to go around the party to get in front of voters at all.
The Bigger Problem for Donalds
He's at 54% in the polls and still won't share a stage with a man polling at 3%.
The Trump endorsement is real and it matters – earlier surveys showed his lead swell to nearly 60 points once GOP voters learned Trump was behind him.
https://twitter.com/Paul_Renner/status/2074187914116845660?s=20
But Trump won Florida by 13 points on a promise to fight for working Americans who felt the system was rigged against them.
A 54-point frontrunner who won't debate a Navy veteran's plan to cut property taxes is not exactly that.
Renner's challenge after Thursday's debate was direct: "To continue to refuse to debate is irresponsible and shortchanges the Republican voters of Florida."
The primary is August 18th.
Florida Republicans still have six weeks to ask Byron Donalds why he'll fight for them in Tallahassee if he won't fight for them on a debate stage.
Sources:
- A.G. Gancarski, "Byron Donalds says GOP opponents can't win statewide, so he won't debate them," Florida Politics, July 6, 2026.
- A.G. Gancarski, "No charity cases: Byron Donalds won't 'elevate' opponents by debating them," Florida Politics, June 23, 2026.
- Kennedy Owens, "Renner campaign claims debate victory, challenges Donalds to one-on-one gubernatorial debate," FL Voice News, July 3, 2026.
- Michael Costeines, "Paul Renner Details 'Florida First Affordability Plan,' No Property Taxes for 95% of Homeowners," The Floridian, April 15, 2026.
- "Latest poll shows Byron Donalds at 54% with GOP Primary voters," Florida Politics, May 4, 2026.
