Donalds Seeks to Upend History in Governor’s Race (Part I)

“A politician thinks of the next election; a statesman, of the next generation.” — Eleanor Roosevelt

Republicans are gleeful that MAGA U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds has made it through the primaries and will battle his Democratic opponent, former U.S. Rep. David Jolly, in November to become Florida’s next governor.

Gov. Ron DeSantis, President Donald Trump, and Republican wags are exuding confidence, messaging to Floridians that they deserve another four years and fully expect to win. Donalds would be the first Black person elected governor in Florida.

But as the old saying goes, “There’s many a slip between the cup and the lip.”

Republicans have held a stranglehold on Florida politics for almost 30 years, since taking the Senate in 1995, the House in 1997, and the Governor’s Mansion in 1999 (not counting Bob Martinez’s governorship between 1987 and 1991).

Republican Party hard-liners have spent years solidifying their hold on the machinery of power while working around the edges of the economic hardships Floridians face.

As we roll toward November, questions demanding answers are on many Floridians’ lips: After 30 years of absolute Republican rule, why has so little been fixed? Why are so many Floridians still on the outside looking in? Why should Republicans continue in power?

DeSantis and Donalds have been making their case with passion and enthusiasm but there’s a vast chasm between words and producing well-paying jobs, healthcare all can afford, and the ability to put food on the table.

Republicans have to pretend it’s business as usual, that everything’s hunky dory, but icy cold reality is breathing down their necks. The house is on fire and those best able to put it out — lawmakers, politicians, and others — are sauntering past the burning building hoping no one notices the conflagration.

Drowning

Floridians, like most ordinary Americans, are drowning, inundated by steadily rising costs. As of this Labor Day, AAA says, diesel fuel cost almost $6 a gallon and regular gasoline more than $4 per gallon, up from $2.81 before the U.S.-Iran conflict. Prices at the grocery store rachet up every visit; rent is exorbitant; affordable housing elusive; healthcare scarce. Meanwhile, Republicans are more interested in culture wars.

As political analyst and psychologist Carina Cedrechi explains, “Floridians are experiencing very public pain. The economy is broken, the government is failing us,” she says in an Instagram post. “People are scared and need help. People are one medical emergency, one rent increase, one blown transmission from eating drywall.”

Americans are exhausted, Cedrechi says, held hostage by a system that sees them merely as units of production and in which every dollar, every shred of time and labor, is being extracted by politicians, corporations, and oligarchs.

“A 76-year-old shouldn’t have to be bagging groceries and experience anxiety because groceries, rent, and electric formed a financial street gang,” she says. Nor should people have to borrow the price of a house to get an education, or require “the gross domestic product of a small nation” for childcare.

“Ordinary people have been told to lower their expectations. People need to have breathing room, enough savings to survive an emergency, enough healthcare to leave a terrible job, enough housing security to start a family … enough life left after survival to become a human being.”

Trump is deeply unpopular because he reneged on his campaign promise to lower prices and ease the economic suffering of Americans.

Affordability

“Ninety-five percent of Americans believe the U.S. is suffering an affordability crisis, as many report trouble with the rising cost of groceries and gas, according to an exclusive new poll conducted for the Guardian,” the story says.

“The affordability struggle crosses party lines: about half of all Democrats, Republicans and independents say they are having trouble affording everyday necessities like gas and groceries. Two-thirds of Americans — including 49% of Republicans — said they have little faith that the federal government will improve the cost-of-living crisis they face.”

Donalds doesn’t seem bothered by this or the harm caused by state and federal policies to Floridians. Nor is he overly bothered that DeSantis has, in real time, exercised the maxim of elevating and fattening the pockets of friends and allies, while disparaging, threatening, and removing real and perceived enemies.

In January, a Leon County grand jury found that the DeSantis administration engaged in a “sophisticated scheme” that diverted $10 million from a Medicaid settlement, deposited it in the account of his wife’s Hope Florida Foundation, then moved the cash through a series of nonprofits and political committees, including the Republican Party of Florida. The money financed opposition to a ballot initiative that would have legalized recreational marijuana in the state.

DeSantis rewarded the major players who aided him in the diversion. He elevated his then-chief of staff, James Utmeier, to attorney general; Attorney General Ashley Moody he made U.S. senator; John Guard, who was chief deputy AG, got a judgeship on the 2nd District Court of Appeal; and Jason Weida, then-secretary of Florida’s Agency for Healthcare Administration, became DeSantis’ chief of staff.

The DeSantis legacy

Donalds has said he intends to continue DeSantis’s far-right MAGA legacy.

“My mission as the state’s next governor is to build on the success of Ron DeSantis to make sure that all of you can be free, and we continue to be the best state in all of America,” he said after DeSantis endorsed him and a slate of other candidates at the GOP Leadership Conference in Tampa on Sept. 1.

But the Florida Donalds imagines is a mirage.

Florida:

• Is the fifth-most expensive state to go grocery shopping, with Miami the most expensive city in the entire country, with local households averaging $327.89 per week.
• Ranks as the 11th-worst state to raise a family; 42nd in childcare costs; and 46th in housing affordability.
• Ranks 50th for rent affordability, with the highest costs nationally.
• Ranks 26th in for its median middle-class household income of $77,735, and roughly 30th overall for general median household income per Florida Today.
• Ranks 47th in the opportunity metric because, of the dire challenges residents face with the cost of living, income equality, and overall financial opportunity.
• Ranks third in the nation for total state prison population.
• Ranked 35th out of 35 states scrutinized for academic growth in reading, with scores falling since 2022.
• Ranks last in a new national report on support for K-12 schools because of the lack of funding and policy support for traditional public schools compared to private and charter alternatives.

And, according to a variety of sources, Florida is No.1 in identity theft reports per person; has the highest average home insurance costs; was No. 1 in home insurance non-renewals in 2024; was No. 1 in foreclosure rates during the first half of 2026; and has had the most book bans for three years running.

‘Midterm nightmare’

The midterms usually portend losses for the party in power. In 2026, the Republican base is hopping mad, with white women, independents, Latinos and working-class whites indicating fading support for a party they feel no longer cares about their most basic needs.

Donalds and the MAGAverse hope and pray they can outrun the approaching storm.

A recent Politico headline captures flawlessly Republicans’ dilemma: “The Republican Party’s Midterm Nightmare is Taking Shape.”

It appears Democrats are favored to sweep into power in the U.S. House and, if the electorate votes in large numbers and certain races fall their way, the Senate as well. This would effectively neuter Trump and jettison the MAGA agenda for the remaining two years of the Trump presidency.

“Absent a drastic shift in voter sentiment, this election is poised to mirror the last time a Republican was besieged by ornery voters upset with corruption, the price at the pump and an unpopular Middle Eastern war: complete Democratic takeover,” writes Jonathan Martin, Politico’s senior political columnist and politics bureau chief.

Veteran political consultant and pundit Chuck Rocha agrees.

“The good news is that people are more pissed than I have ever seen them in my life. And they were mad two years ago at Joe Biden. Let me say that as the Democrat,” said Rocha, James Talarico’s chief adviser and founder and president of Solidarity Strategies.

“But that’s nowhere compared to the way they are thinking right now about Trump. And a lot of this has to do with folks that are, like, on Social Security, where you’re on a fixed income like my mama every month, but every month the groceries cost more. It costs more to put more money in your car. And you know who’s to blame? They blame Republicans. … Whatever they say, they’re blaming Republicans because Republicans are in charge.”