He won about 50.1% to 48.7%, the closest Florida governor’s race in years. Jolly was the first to call him.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Republican Byron Donalds defeated Democrat David Jolly on Tuesday to become Florida’s first Black governor, the nation’s first Black Republican governor and the first Black person elected statewide in Florida.
Donalds won 50.1% to Jolly’s 48.7% with about 99% of votes counted, according to the Associated Press, a closer race than polls suggested. He will succeed the term-limited Ron DeSantis in January and extends the Republican hold on the governor’s office to a fifth straight term. Only three Black governors have been elected in US history before, all Democrats.
Donalds, 48, is a two-term congressman and a former state legislator who was endorsed early by President Donald Trump. He raised nearly $174 million to Jolly’s less than $28 million. Jolly, a former Republican congressman who became a Democrat, declined to debate him. A Jolly aide complained that outside Democratic groups sent little money.
Donalds said Jolly was the first to call him after the results and that Trump called second. “I want you to hear from Florida that we are still red,” he said he told Trump. He had set a goal of winning more than 20% of the state’s Black vote. The result came as Democrats won control of Congress, in a night when Republicans grew unhappy with Trump over gas prices and the Iran war, NPR reported.
Donalds will join Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, as the nation’s only Black governors, according to The Hill.
This report draws on information from the Associated Press, NPR, CBS News, NBC News and The Hill.