FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds won the Republican nomination for Florida governor and former Rep. David Jolly captured the Democratic nomination on Tuesday, setting the stage for a November contest to replace outgoing Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Meanwhile, progressive state Rep. Angie Nixon won the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate, defeating retired Army Lt. Col Alex Vindman, a former National Security Council official who testified in Trump's first impeachment case in 2019. Nixon will face interim Sen. Ashley Moody, who easily won the Republican nomination, in a special election to finish the last two years of Marco Rubio's term after he became Trump's secretary of state last year.
Donalds banked on Trump 's endorsement to secure the nomination and hopes the president's backing will help him prevail in November as he seeks to be elected Florida's first Black governor. He triumphed Tuesday over opponents including a former DeSantis running mate, Lt. Gov. Jay Collins, and political newcomer James Fishback.
The Democrats' leading candidate for governor Jolly is a former Republican congressman who switched parties last year.
DeSantis, a leading conservative figure who has clashed and collaborated with Trump over the years, is barred from running for a third consecutive term.
Tuesday's primaries gave final form to a November ballot whose races will test Trump's grip on his adopted state and Democrats' ability to resurrect Florida as a national political battleground. Florida has moved notably to the right since Trump won his first election in 2016, though Democrats hope to regain ground from his slumping popularity ratings.
For Congress, Tuesday's biggest fight involved longtime Democratic U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who defeated former U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick and others in a redrawn south Florida district.
Wasserman Schultz, who is white, urged voters in the new, plurality Black district to grant her a 12th term. Cherfilus-McCormick had sought a comeback after resigning earlier this year under a pending federal indictment and threat of House ethics sanctions.
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 he enters the next campaign phase.
He promises 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 ultimately 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 he didn't mind Jolly used to be a Republican.
Can Democrats make the Senate race interesting?
Moody, a former state attorney general tapped for Rubio's seat in 2025, was alrady in a strong position seeking 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.
Cherfilus-McCormick had sought to return to Congress despite a pending federal indictment that accuses her of stealing $5 million in federal disaster aid. She has plead not guilty and disputed alleged violations of House rules.
Republican Rep. Cory Mills faces primary challenges
In other races, challenger Ryan Elijah won the Republican nomination for Florida's 7th Congressional District, ousting scandal-plagued U.S. Rep. Cory Mills.
Mills, a two-term congressman, had spent months denying allegations of domestic violence and weathering other controversies. Among allegations, Mills has denied accusations that he abused a former girlfriend. Leading Republicans, including DeSantis, had abandoned their support of Mills leading up to the primary.
Elijah advances to the general election in a central Florida district that is considered reliably Republican.
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Associated Press reporters Gisela Salomon in Miami and David Fischer in Port St. Lucie, Florida, contributed.
