Ron DeSantis won Florida by 19 points in 2022 and nobody has come close to matching his operation since.
Now Trump's handpicked successor just launched a $20 million statewide ad blitz – and the Republican Party canceled the primary debate because nobody else qualified to stand on stage with him.
The race for Florida's next governor may already be over before a single vote is cast.
Donalds Is Running a General Election Campaign While His Opponents Beg for Relevance
Friends of Byron Donalds PAC announced Thursday it will spend $20 million on cable, broadcast, streaming, and radio across every major Florida media market starting June 30 through the August 18 Republican primary.
That's not a primary ad buy.
That's a coronation.
The campaign is sitting on an $81 million war chest built from over 35,000 donors – the largest the Donalds campaign says any non-incumbent has ever assembled in a Florida governor's race.
Lt. Gov. Jay Collins has 5% in the polls.
James Fishback has 8%.
https://twitter.com/ByronDonalds/status/2070139634055631114?s=20
Former House Speaker Paul Renner has 2%.
Donalds has 54%.
The Republican Party of Florida canceled the June gubernatorial debate this month after determining that only one candidate – Donalds – met the minimum 10% polling threshold to qualify for the stage.
Ron DeSantis publicly blasted the party for trying to "engineer the outcome" of the primary, noting that he himself would not have qualified under those criteria in 2018.
Think about that for a second – the man who won Florida by 19 points couldn't get on this stage.
The Trump Factor Has Made This a Mathematical Impossibility for Anyone Else
Trump endorsed Donalds in February 2025 – before Donalds had even formally launched his campaign.
When Florida Republican primary voters are told about that endorsement, the polling becomes absurd.
In a January Fabrizio, Lee & Associates survey, Donalds led investment CEO James Fishback 47% to 5% without the endorsement mentioned – and 76% to 6% once voters were informed Trump had already picked his man.
That's not a race.
That's a formality.
Donalds is running a campaign built around the Trump brand in the most pro-Trump state in the country – a state the president won by 13 points in 2024.
He has endorsements from Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Elon Musk, Senator Ted Cruz, Senator Rick Scott, a majority of Florida sheriffs, and 75% of the Republican caucus in the Florida House.
His field operation has knocked on more than 150,000 doors across the state.
The $20 million ad campaign launching next week will run through the primary – but the campaign is already running spots attacking California Governor Gavin Newsom instead of his Republican opponents.
He's already moved on.
What David Jolly Is Not Going to Tell You About Himself
Florida hasn't elected a Democratic governor since 1994.
The Democrats' best hope is David Jolly – a man who spent years as a Republican congressman, switched parties when it became convenient, and is now asking Florida voters to reward him for it.
https://twitter.com/FLVoiceNews/status/2070175240332660988?s=20
Every credible poll except one commissioned by Jolly's own campaign has Donalds ahead in the general election matchup.
Here's what the mainstream media won't say out loud: David Jolly is not a Democrat who found his principles.
He's a Republican who found a better career opportunity on the other side.
Florida voters have seen this before and they don't forget.
Meanwhile, Byron Donalds is the son of Jamaican immigrants who grew up in Brooklyn with nothing handed to him, worked his way into the Florida legislature, and now represents Southwest Florida in Congress – a man whose entire life is the argument against the Democratic Party's worldview.
He doesn't have to pretend to care about affordability.
He lived it.
Democrats are betting that frustration over housing costs and insurance rates creates a 32-year opening in a state that handed Trump his biggest presidential margin anywhere in the country.
That's not a strategy.
That's desperation dressed up as a poll.
The Florida primary is 54 days away.
The general election is less than five months out.
Byron Donalds is already spending $20 million like he knows exactly what's coming.
Sources:
- Kennedy Owens, "Donalds PAC announces $20 million statewide ad campaign ahead of Florida GOP primary," FL Voice News, June 25, 2026.
- "Poll: Trump-Backed Byron Donalds Leads Florida Gov. Primary by 46 Points," Breitbart, June 11, 2026.
- Paul Steinhauser, "Rep. Byron Donalds leads Florida governor race with Trump support," Fox News, December 22, 2025.
- "Byron Donalds Adds Record $22 Million to Gubernatorial War Chest," The Floridian, April 1, 2026.
- "Florida 2026 Poll: Donalds Leads GOP Primary for Governor," Emerson College Polling, April 2, 2026.
- "Latest 2026 Florida GOP gubernatorial poll shows Byron Donalds blowing away the rest of the field," Florida Phoenix, January 9, 2026.
