Byron Donalds, who may be Florida’s next governor, is sympatico with President Trump and supports Trump’s efforts to slash government waste.
That assertion got him a raucous round of applause at a speech in Jacksonville Friday.
Donalds spoke to entrepreneurs in the CEO Leaderboard Roundtable at the River Club. Several local elected officials attended.
In just eight years, Donalds has risen through the political ranks to the point where he has been considered as House speaker and vice president.
Donalds graduated from Florida State University with a degree in marketing and finance and worked in those fields for several years before being elected in 2016 to the Florida House, where he focused on elder affairs, criminal justice reform, and ensuring that each child has access to a world-class education.
While living in Naples, he was elected to Congress in 2021, serving part of Southwest Florida.
Donalds said federal spending is out of control and he supports the Dept. of Government Efficiency (DOGE) instituted by Trump. He agrees with Trump that Medicaid, Social Security and other programs must be reformed.
As governor, he would be a conservationist, not an environmentalist, he said. The environment must be protected, or the state will not be able to attract business, he said, echoing other Republican governors of the past such as Jeb Bush, Rick Scott and Ron DeSantis.
Saying he was not as smart as the collected intelligence in the room, Donalds explained that his method of getting things done was to keep open lines of communication, bring people together and seek compromise. In tough issues, every interest must expect to give up something to solve a problem, he said.
Donalds was a member of the Tea Party movement and has described himself as “Trump supporting, gun owning, liberty loving, pro-life, politically incorrect.”
Since being elected to Congress, Donalds has been a frequent guest on TV network news shows to discuss trending issues.
