Byron Donalds says he won’t back down on ‘cultural differences’ with David Jolly

TAMPA — There’s still more than a week before the primary elections for governor of Florida are decided, but the two major parties’ leading contenders to succeed Ron DeSantis are already attacking each other on culture issues.

The most recent contretemps between Republican Byron Donalds and Democrat David Jolly took place Saturday, with Jolly blasting Donalds for his just-released television and digital ad criticizing the Democratic candidate on LGBGT and transgender rights. The 30-second ad features video clips of Jolly defending local governments’ ability to paint murals in honor of the LGBTQ+ community and talking about “gender-affirming care” for minors.

Jolly criticized the ad while speaking in the Villages Saturday morning, saying Donalds spent $25 million on an ad that “doesn’t once mention Trump’s economy, doesn’t once mention the cost of housing or healthcare, or the cost of food or gas.”

“You know what he spends it on? To attack the LGBTQ+ community,” Jolly said. “It is shameful. What kind of leader divides people?”

The Jolly campaign sent out a press release hitting Donalds about the ad, arguing, “Not once does he mention the threat that data centers pose to our economy and to our environment.”

Donalds fired back, telling the Phoenix Saturday following a campaign speech at the Tampa Firefighters Museum that he has aired ads about affordability (that one featured the candidate playing basketball with his sons), and one that mentioned his “ratepayer protection plan” regarding data centers in Florida.

“But we’re also going to tell voters the truth, and you’ll notice, he doesn’t say that it was false,” Donalds said about the new ad. “That he believes in transgender surgeries for our kids. He believes that boys should be in women sports, and that is not what the people of Florida want.”

Donalds said he’s going to lean in on cultural issues to frame his general election fight against Jolly (assuming each wins his primary). A a former Republican, Donalds said, Jolly has had to move too far left to assure Democratic about his bona fides as the likely standard bearer for the party this fall.

“We have been very clear,” Donalds said. “We are going to make sure we make Florida affordable. We’re going to protect our environment, but we’re also very clear about the cultural differences between David Jolly and myself, and those stark differences that really impact the future of our state.”

Under Ron DeSantis, Florida has been aggressive on controversial cultural issues. To name one example, DeSantis signed legislation in 2021 barring transgender transgender women from participating in women’s sports teams at public schools and universities.

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld state restrictions on transgender girls and women participating in female sports.

In his speech in Tampa Saturday (where he was by joined onstage by fellow Republicans Ashley Moody, Wilton Simpson, Blaise Ingoglia, Kat Cammack, Gus Bilirakis, and his wife Erika), Donalds leaned into the transgender issue.

“He still thinks it’s okay for boys to be in girls’ sports,” he said of Jolly. “That’s exactly wrong. And so we have somebody who wants to lead Florida who doesn’t believe some of the basic cultural decency that you and I believe and that hard-working red-blooded Floridians believe. This man is a Trojan Horse for the Democrat Socialists of America and in 87 days we’re going to defeat him, too.”

“We want our young girls to grow up to be women,” Donalds later added. “And mothers. Because we are not going to allow the crazy radical left to steal the puberty from our young girls. We are going to protect our young girls in the state of Florida.”

“I’m running for governor because life is too expensive,” Jolly said Saturday. “Floridians are worried about the cost of housing, healthcare, food, and gas — not the color of their sidewalks or the governor’s opinion on their personal life.”