The 'Mega-MAGA' Contender Who Barely Mentions Trump: Byron Donalds' Calculated Distance in Florida's Governor Race
In Florida's race for governor, one name is conspicuously absent from Republican nominee Byron Donalds' campaign — Donald Trump. The three-term congressman known as ultra-MAGA has removed almost every mention of the president from his website and has barely uttered his name on the trail.
Addressing a wildly supportive crowd in Florida's bluest county, Donalds listed those he blamed for any 'affordability' issues voters might be experiencing. Joe Biden and the Democrats' radical policies were at fault, he insisted, even though neither has wielded power in Washington for almost two years.
He also pointed a finger at other traditional targets of the modern Republican movement — New York's democratic socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani, and Dr Anthony Fauci. His opponent David Jolly also received a lengthy verbal lashing.
Yet Trump's name remained unspoken, as did any mention of the war in Iran, soaring gas prices, unaffordable healthcare premiums, or any number of issues that have caused the president's approval rating to drop to new lows.
How to handle Trump has become a conundrum for Donalds as he navigates a race that remains much closer than he would like it to be, with the president's unpopularity driving the calculation.
Last month the Donalds campaign decided to purge almost every mention of Trump from his campaign website, including removing 'enact the Trump agenda' as his top priority as governor.
That distancing appeared to be working, until Trump announced he would come to Fort Myers on Friday, a little more than a week from election day, on the latest stop of his late red-state tour in support of vulnerable candidates.
Some prominent Republicans seeking election have chosen to be elsewhere when Trump comes to town; Texas governor Greg Abbott discovered an unavoidable commitment as Trump visited San Antonio this month. Donalds, by contrast, said: 'Of course I'm going to be there. What kind of question is that?'
Another journalist asked Donalds if his silence on Trump was a deliberate uncoupling from some of the president's more unpopular policies, such as his immigration crackdown polling poorly with Florida's large Latino and Hispanic voting blocs. He did not answer directly, saying he had been giving a speech about his own campaign for governor.
The distancing is a calculated gamble that may prove inconsequential anyway, given that registered Republican Florida voters outnumber Democrats by more than 1.5 million.
But his snippy responses suggest he knows Trump is uppermost in voters' minds as they decide whether to let him succeed Ron DeSantis — whose endorsement has replaced Trump's on Florida TV ads — and extend the Republican grip on the governor's mansion that dates to January 1999.
Political analyst Larry Sabato said the distancing was a ploy that will be quickly forgotten if Donalds wins. 'Donalds is super-Maga. This is just a campaign tactic being used by quite a few Republicans all across the country,' said Sabato. 'Donalds has no choice but to make the most out of Trump, but not be devoured by him. And it's not easy to do. You're walking a very fine line there.'
Democratic leaders point to Donalds' ultra-conservative, pro-MAGA positions during almost six years in Congress, including refusing to certify Biden's 2020 election win, arguing undocumented immigrants are not entitled to due process, denying climate change is human-made, championing abortion restrictions, and opposing transgender women and girls in sport.
Nikki Fried, chair of the Florida Democratic party, told a press conference Thursday that Donalds is not fooling voters. Even when he tried to distance himself by scrubbing the president from his website, she said, he went running back within hours — 'there is no hiding from this presidency.'
To win and become Florida's first Black governor, Donalds cannot afford to lose huge chunks of the alliance that helped Trump win the state at three successive presidential elections, including Black voters and Hispanics.
According to polls, Hispanic voters appear to be wavering about sticking with the Republican cause, favouring Donalds 48%-43% in an NBC6/Telemundo 51 survey published last week. Support from Black voters looks to have slipped away, the same poll giving Jolly a 76-10 advantage.
Democrats nationally see a tightening race and on Tuesday pledged an extra million dollars to bolster Jolly in late campaigning. Sabato's Crystal Ball and Fox News list the Donalds-Jolly contest as 'leans Republican'.
Sabato said the days when Florida could be considered a purple state are long gone. 'It's not even close,' he said. 'Trump won it easily, and so you can't underestimate the Republican vote there, or overestimate the Democratic vote.' What remains to be seen is whether Donalds' calculated distance keeps him on the path to victory.
