Can Byron Donalds win over Black voters if he doesn’t want to talk about race?
Florida Congressman Byron Donalds has a real shot to make history as the state’s first Black governor. But he doesn’t want to focus on his race.
Donalds has the endorsement of President Donald Trump and a $45 million war chest, and polling has him well ahead of Republican opponents Lt. Gov. Jay Collins, investor James Fishback and former Florida House Speaker Paul Renner.
A win would put Donalds in exclusive company with Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, former Virginia Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick — all Black Democrats who were elected to their positions. He would be the first Black Republican governor of any state since Reconstruction. The closest Florida has come to a Black governor was in 2018, when Democratic candidate and former Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum lost to Ron DeSantis by fewer than 34,000 votes.
But as a Republican co-signed by Trump and the son of immigrants, Donalds is testing whether he can satisfy the largely white Republican base, withstand racially tinged attacks from within his own party, and pull Black voters toward a GOP that has struggled for decades to win their support — all while trying to run a campaign that doesn’t want to focus on the color of his skin.
“Florida is a meritocracy,” Donalds told a Tampa TV station this summer. “We’re not a state caught up in the color of someone’s skin. We’re really caught up in: Can somebody get the job done?”
But Donalds’ rise has been met with skepticism from some who feel his policies don’t address the systemic issues Floridians, particularly Black residents, face at a time when costs are rising, Black neighborhoods are being gentrified and the unemployment for Black people is double that of white people. For others, the refrain is that Donalds is a candidate running a campaign focused on the interests of all Floridians. He just happens to be Black.
Experts and analysts say Donalds has work to do if he wants to make inroads with the Black community, but supporters say he’s laid the groundwork to become a governor for everyone, and skeptical Black voters will change their minds. His candidacy is raising questions about whether he represents a shift in Black political influence in Florida.
But Donalds supporters, like Republican and former North Miami Mayor Joe Celestin, said he has put the work in to earn becoming Florida’s governor and not just its first Black governor.
“I think he’s the only crossover candidate we have right now. And I don’t think whoever’s going to lead Florida can focus on the party line,” Celestin said. “You need to see the entire state, and you need to have an agenda that would over-represent the interest of all Floridians regardless of party affiliation.”
Race still matters
Donalds hasn’t made race a central focus of his campaign, opting instead to zero in on a platform that includes enacting the Trump agenda, fighting illegal immigration and addressing affordability concerns. But his race isn’t something voters and even members of his own party will just ignore.
“As a Black man, whether we want to admit it or whether he wants to admit it or not, race still matters,” University of Florida political science professor Sharon Wright Austin said. “I really do think that that’s going to be a wake-up call for him, because a lot of people who are in both parties just do not want to vote for a person of color, and they definitely don’t want to vote for a Black man.”
But Donalds’ campaign is keeping its messaging laser-focused on larger issues. Donalds’ senior advisor Danielle Alvarez told the Miami Herald Donalds will protect and grow the coalition Trump built, which she said was a movement “powered by hard-working Americans of every background, including more young, Hispanic, and Black voters.”
“Byron will work to lower costs for families and seniors, fight to end illegal immigration, and stand up to the radical left agenda that has made life more expensive and communities less safe,” she said in a statement. Donalds was not available to speak with the Herald by time of publishing. “Together, President Trump and Byron Donalds will expand this coalition built on strength, opportunity, and putting the people of Florida first.”
But Fishback, one of Donalds’ opponents, has already tried to make the Naples Republican’s race a point of friction, calling Donalds a “Section 8” candidate and a “slave,” albeit to corporate donors. He also referred to Donalds using the racialized term “tether,” which refers to Blacks immigrants. Donalds, who has a Panamanian father and a Jamaican mother and who is campaigning against illegal immigration, hasn’t addressed Fishback’s comments directly, but at a fundraiser in November he denounced “the woke right,” a segment of his party that he said threatened to co-opt the conservative movement with their hardline stance against all forms of immigration — even legal immigration.
“Are we going to have a spirit of fear when it comes to people who say they agree with us, but their words do not align with our principles, or are we going to have a spirit of power and say no to the soft bigotry that might be popping up on social media?” Donalds said.
Celestin, the former North Miami mayor, said Donalds isn’t ignoring his race, but rather focusing on how capable he will be as governor. “He wants to win as the candidate who’s capable of leading the state, not because he’s the first Black man to be elected governor,” he said, adding Donalds has met with members of the National Haitian American Elected Officials Network.
Florida state Sen. Shevrin Jones worked alongside Donalds in the state Legislature and said Donalds has cultivated relationships with Black Democrats and Republicans. While he’s happy for Donalds’ success, Jones said he’s “disappointed in his silence” and his refusal to hold the Trump administration to account when it comes to policies that have negative effects on the Black community and immigrants.
“I’m disappointed that he’s going along this route, and while Byron could potentially be the first Black governor of Florida, I want to make it clear that Black people within this state are the ones who have suffered a great deal under the policies and under the rhetoric under the [Trump] administration,” Jones said. “Floridians deserve leadership that’s focused on lowering costs. They deserve leaders who are going to get in office to make their lives better, not more of this ‘yes-man’ mentality.”
Connecting with voters
Celestin said Donalds’ race does create an opportunity for Republicans to attract Black voters who traditionally vote Democrat. Republicans outpace Democrats in terms of registered voters in Florida, and though Democrats still hold a larger share of Black voters, their grasp may be slowly slipping. During the 2024 presidential election, Florida Democrats had lost 10 percent of their Black registered voters since 2022. By comparison, the number of registered Black Republican voters in 2024 was up 17 percent from 2022.
Celestin thinks the trend will continue as Black voters start to realize where their goals align with the Republican Party.
“He’s going to have to educate them, and we’re going to have to deprogram Black folks. We’ve been led, guided, and preprogrammed to see the Republican Party as the party of the devil,” he said. “We need to be reprogrammed to understand…this country is not really about Democrat and Republican. It’s about common sense and good leaders.”
But Cliff Albright, co-founder of national voting rights nonprofit Black Voters Matter, said that Donalds will have to address the issues that squarely affect Black voters, such as affordability and unemployment, if he plans to court them. Still, he noted that if he continues to tout Trump’s policies that have largely been seen as anti-Black, he can forget the Black vote.
“They’re not going to vote for him just because he’s Black any more than Black people in Georgia were going to vote for [Herschel] Walker because he is Black,” Albright said. “That’s just not enough. It’s where he stands on issues and what type of solutions he is offering.”
Donalds campaigned for Trump during the 2024 presidential campaign, courting Black voters, but told CBN News that he’s noticed Black voters shift more conservative. “I think for Black voters over the age of 50, their politics to some degree was really shaped by the civil rights era,” Donalds said. “But in today’s America, their politics is much more shaped by economics.”
Austin, the UF professor, said Donalds has appeal with Caribbean voters, as there are some that tend to lean conservative, but noted he has an uphill battle when it comes to appealing to Black Americans and their issues.
Austin said she also believes Donalds will work to court Black pastors with the hopes they will influence their Black congregations to vote for him. He’s already formed a faith coalition that includes Pastor J. Jearlyn Dennie, founder of She Leads Florida.
Jones, who represents one of the largest Black communities in the state, said Donalds has to come with a plan to attract Black people and communities affected by gentrification.
“I have to tell you, it is heartbreaking to see the Black folks in my community being displaced because of the overdevelopment that’s happening in Miami-Dade County,” he said. “If Black folk continue to live under these types of policies that are not making their lives better, and they want to vote for Byron Donalds because he’s Black, not only do I think is short-sighted, I think it’s dangerous.”
Austin thinks Donalds will need to have some serious conversations with Black voters.
“I think that the Black community is really going to hold him accountable, and we really would want to see very clear positions from him,” Austin said. “He has to tell us exactly what he stands for and how we are going to benefit if he’s elected.”
