FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Former Rep. David Jolly won the Democratic nomination and U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds won the Republican nomination for Florida governor on Tuesday, setting the stage for November contest to replace outgoing Gov. Ron DeSantis.
For the second time in a row, Florida Democrats have chosen a former Republican as their candidate for the state’s highest office.
Jolly, 53, served as a Republican U.S. representative but became a fierce critic of Trump. He became an independent and then joined the Democratic Party last year.
Four years ago, Democrats backed former Republican Gov. Charlie Crist. He was easily defeated by Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is finishing his second term and is barred from seeking a third consecutive term
Donalds is trying to make history — and Jolly, too
There have been three elected Black governors in U.S. history. Yet the 47-year-old Donalds is more likely to tout his conservative credentials than the possibility of joining that select group as campaigning opens for November.
He has promised to push tax cuts, overhaul Florida's insurance regulations to lower consumer costs and seek greater price transparency from healthcare providers.
“The people of Florida want to make sure that the Florida dream is alive and well into the future,” he said recently. “Affordability is a problem for all Floridians. It doesn't matter what your politics are. It doesn't matter what the color of your skin is.”
Trump has had an inconsistent record on picks for governor in primaries this year, and a strong showing by Donalds would leave him, and Republicans in general, in a more commanding position for November. Though DeSantis coasted to reelection in 2022, he squeaked into office in 2018 by little more of 32,000 ballots out of 8.1 million cast.
Meanwhile, Jolly is hoping to prove a party-switching former Republican can actually carry the Democratic banner in a state where that's failed before. Democrats nominated former Republican Gov. Charlie Crist in 2022 only to see him lose by nearly 20 percentage points to DeSantis.
Rich Chamberlin, a retiree in Port St. Lucie, said he supported Jolly in Tuesday's primary, spurred on by attack ads against him.
“I saw anti-Jolly ads. I said ‘Ok, if they are against him, then I must be for him,'" Chamberlin said, adding it didn't matter to him that Jolly was once a Republican.
Can Democrats make the Senate race interesting?
Moody, a former state attorney general tapped for Rubio's seat in 2025, was already in a strong position as she pursued the GOP nomination. DeSantis, when he appointed her, praised her as a law-and-order prosecutor ready to help Trump “shut the border,” tame inflation, and overhaul a federal bureaucracy “run amok.”
Democrats face a familiar theme of 2026 primaries, with the progressive Nixon confronting Vindman from the party's center-left establishment. Vindman's testimony in 2019 was notable in the Democrat-led House impeachment case that led to Trump's acquittal in the Republican-led Senate. Trump ousted Vindman afterward.
Floridians haven’t sent a Democrat to the Senate since 2012.
Wasserman Schultz runs - and wins - in a new plurality Black district
Serving in Congress since 2005 , she entered a new district — thanks to DeSantis' successful push for new congressional maps intended to boost Trump's midterm election prospects.
It’s not the first time Wasserman Schultz has had to sway new voters after Republicans tinkered with boundaries. But this time she was the only white candidate in a plurality Black district — the redrawn Florida 20th, concentrated in the most diverse parts of South Florida's Broward County. It's the most Democratic House district in Florida, meaning she will be a prohibitive favorite in November.
Her four Black primary opponents — including Cherfilus-McCormick — had argued that the district requires a Black representative. But the voters went with a candidate who touted long experience from serving in Congress since 2005.
Surrounded by her campaign staff Tuesday night, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz tearfully thanked voters for having confidence in her. “(I will work) to make all of you proud, to make sure that the people we spoke to all across this district know that I will fight so they can pay their rent,” Schultz said.
She said she hoped to live up to the legacy of Alcee Hastings, a long-time representative of District 20 who passed away in 2021. Schultz will be the first representative of the new District 20 despite controversy regarding her running in the historically Black-represented district.
Republican Rep. Cory Mills faces primary challenges
In other races, former television news reporter Ryan Elijah won the Republican nomination for Florida’s 7th Congressional District, ousting scandal-plagued U.S. Rep. Cory Mills.
A two-term congressman, Mills had spent months denying allegations of domestic violence against a former girlfriend and other controversies. Among allegations, Mills has denied accusations that he abused a former girlfriend.
Florida Republicans including DeSantis had abandoned Mills ahead of the primary. And Trump, though initially backing Mills in February, did not include him in a list of endorsements released this week.
Elijah advances to the general election in a central Florida district that is considered reliably Republican.
Associated Press reporters Gisela Salomon in Miami and David Fischer in Port St. Lucie, Florida, contributed.
