President Donald Trump is making it very clear whom he would support in the blockbuster 2026 gubernatorial race to succeed term-limited Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
“I am hearing that Highly Respected Congressman Byron Donalds is considering running for Governor of Florida, a State that I love, and WON BIG in 2016, 2020, and 2024,” Trump, a Florida resident, wrote in a social media post on Thursday.
And the president emphasized that Donalds, a longtime Trump friend, ally and supporter, “would be a truly Great and Powerful Governor for Florida.”
Trump added that Donalds, “should he decide to run, will have my Complete and Total Endorsement. RUN, BYRON, RUN!”
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Byron Donalds speaks inside the Capital One arena at an event for President Donald Trump, on the inauguration day of Trump’s second presidential term, in Washington D.C., on January 20, 2025. REUTERS/Mike Segar (REUTERS/Mike Segar)
Donalds, a conservative former state lawmaker who has represented parts of southwest Florida’s 19th District in Congress for four years, has been eyeing a potential gubernatorial bid for nearly a year.
“I’ve thought about it. I don’t really rule anything out,” Donalds said in a Fox News Digital interview last spring when asked about a possible run for governor.
Sources confirmed to Fox News last month that Donalds had been telling potential donors and Florida political players that he intends to run for governor.
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Another signal also came last month, when Donalds hired prominent Republican pollster Tony Fabrizio’s research firm. Fabrizio was a top pollster in Trump’s 2016 and 2024 presidential campaigns.
Sources in Florida tell Fox News that Donalds, behind the scenes, continues to make moves towards launching a gubernatorial campaign.
Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida speaks during Day 1 of the Republican National Convention, at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on July 15, 2024. (REUTERS/Mike Segar)
And a source in Donalds’ political orbit told Fox News on Thursday that the congressman has been pushing hard for a Trump endorsement, in an effort to crowd out potential rivals for the GOP gubernatorial nomination.
Another prominent Florida Republican who’s seriously considering a run for governor is state Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson, the former president of the state Senate.
There’s also been some speculation that DeSantis’ wife, Florida First Lady Casey DeSantis, was potentially considering a run to succeed her husband in Tallahassee. A poll released earlier this week, which suggested Casey DeSantis would be favored in the race, grabbed plenty of attention.
Former Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, who was Trump’s first choice for attorney general in his second administration before dropping out amid controversy, late last year made some noise about potentially running for governor. But there’s been little buzz in recent weeks about a possible Gaetz campaign.
Dan Eberhart, a Florida-based oil drilling chief executive officer and a prominent Republican donor who’s raised big bucks for Trump and DeSantis in recent years and who is also in Donalds’ political orbit, told Fox News that Donalds, if he runs, would “bring a fresh conservative vision for Florida’s future that will be hard to beat.”
The social media post by Trump was his second this week to pump up Donalds.
Trump on Monday showcased a screen grab of a poll conducted by a group aligned with Donalds that indicated the congressman leading in a hypothetical 2026 Florida gubernatorial match-up.
Trump has been talking up Donalds for over a year when it comes to a possible run for governor. At a closed-door fundraiser in New York City last spring, Trump suggested that if Donalds ran for Florida governor, he’d have “many friends in the race.”
Donalds, speaking with Fox News Digital soon after Trump made the comments, said “it’s really cool that people back home in Florida consider me to be able to be the state’s next governor. It’s really an honor. It’s honestly surreal thinking about it because I’m 45 and my journey through politics has been a really fruitful one.”
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With Florida, which was once a top general election battleground state, now firmly red, the slowly emerging GOP gubernatorial nomination fight will be greatly impacted by Trump’s endorsement in his adopted home state.
But not to be discounted is any possible endorsement by DeSantis in the race to succeed the governor.
