President Donald Trump listens as Republican Rep. Byron Donalds, speaks at a campaign rally in Daytona Beach, Fla., Friday. Donalds won his election and is set to become the state's first Black governor. Jacquelyn Martin/AP hide caption
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Republican Byron Donalds beat Democrat David Jolly in Florida's closely watched governor's race, according to a race call by the Associated Press.
Donalds, who will become Florida's first Black governor, won the race with the backing of President Donald Trump and a sizable campaign finance war chest. He clinched the governor's race against the national backdrop of Republicans growing unhappy with Trump over gas prices and the war with Iran.
Donalds stumped on affordability issues - inflation, housing and insurance - and promised to continue the conservative policies of out-going Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who remains popular in Florida and joined Donalds during the campaign.
Several polls showed a close race favoring Donalds through much of the campaign in a state that has some 1.5 million more registered Republicans than Democrats, and 3.3 million unaffiliated voters up for grabs.
Donalds, 48, who spent most of his career in the finance industry, has served two terms in Congress and two terms in the Florida House. Seen as a rising star in the Republican party, he started as a Democrat and left the party in 2010 . Donalds was an early Trump supporter in the 2024 election, and Trump returned the favor by backing him. Donalds rallied with Trump just days before the election.
Polls taken earlier this year showed Trump was less popular in Florida than DeSantis, and in September, Donalds appeared to distance himself from Trump by taking prominent displays of Trump's name off his campaign website.
Jolly campaigned on a "believe in better" slogan, zeroing in on affordability issues such as housing, inflation and gas prices and the boom in AI data centers. And on the trail, he called Donalds "data center Donalds" for taking campaign contributions from industry players. Donalds introduced legislation this summer that would require data centers to generate their own power and water.
Jolly, 54, served in Congress as a Republican before leaving the party in 2018 during President Donald Trump's first term. He changed his registration to no-party affiliation and then switched to Democrat last year. He has spent most of his career as a lawyer, lobbyist and television political analyst.
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