Florida Republican Byron Donalds is now running for governor.

Donalds announced his candidacy for the next Governor of Florida on Fox News Tuesday night.

It was no surprise that President Donald Trump posted on social media the previous week he would support the third-term Naples congressman if he ran for office.

“As governor, Byron would be a BIG voice and work closely with me in order to advance our America First Agenda. He will fight to secure our border, stop migrant crime, strengthen our military, protect our vets, restore our economic power, advance American energy DOMINANCE and defend our Second Amendment, which is always under attack,” the President said on his Truth Social Platform.

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Donalds is the only major Republican candidate to run for the position of Governor after the term expires. Ron DeSantis. The New York Times reported that Florida’s first lady Casey DeSantis was considering a run for governor, something her husband had mentioned on Monday.

“You’re referring to someone like her.” I won the Florida governor’s election with the largest margin of any Republican. Ron DeSantis said to reporters in Tampa that she would perform better than him.

DeSantis chose to criticize Washington lawmakers, including Donalds, for failing to focus on the president’s agenda when asked if he was going join Trump in endorsing Donalds.

“We have achieved victories in Florida. He said, “We need to start achieving these victories up here.” “You’ve got a guy named Byron. He hasn’t played a role in any of our victories over the left that we have had over the last few years. He hasn’t been involved in any of the victories that we have had here over the left these last years. He has been campaigning in other states and that is fine but ok, well then deliver results there.

Donalds, in his announcement on Tuesday, praised DeSantis for the “tremendous” job he has done as Florida Governor, and added that “now, the job is to maintain the best state of the country as the top state of the country.”

Donalds announced his Fox News appearance just after a tight Republican majority in the House adopted, by a vote of 217 to 215, the fiscal 2025 budget resolution, which would have provided reconciliation instructions for the Trump legislative agenda. This included tax cuts and expenditures.

Donalds was one of many House Republicans who were floated last Congress as potential speakers. He was elected in his district in southwest Florida in 2020. He is the only Black Republican currently in the Sunshine State delegation’s congressional delegation.

Donalds is a rising star in the House GOP Conference. He serves on the Financial Services and Oversight and Government Reform Committees. His roots are in the Crown Heights area of Brooklyn, New York. He attended Florida A&M and then Florida State University before moving to Florida.

“I came to Florida at 17 years of age, on a Greyhound bus. I had a trunk of clothes in my hands. Donalds told reporters Tuesday that he has built a career and a family in Florida. “I served four years as a member of the Florida state legislature and four years as a member of Congress. Now, I believe, is the right time to take up the mantle to lead our state to the future.”

Republicans have long been the dominant party in Florida’s governorship races, an formerly swing state which has become decidedly red over recent cycles. Since 1994, when Gov. Lawton Chilis was re-elected for a second term.