Byron Donalds has intensified his Black voter outreach in South Florida, saying he is aiming to win more than 20% of the vote from a constituency that has traditionally backed Democrats.
The Republican nominee for Florida governor used a series of events in the Miami area to make a carefully framed appeal, while insisting that his campaign was focused on all voters rather than identity politics.
“I think there’s a lot of Black voters who are looking at my campaign because they’re just trying to figure out who’s going to be the best person to lead Florida into the future,” Mr Donalds said. He added that Black voters were “starting to not be as monolithically tied to the Democrat Party”.
About 13% of Black voters supported Governor Ron DeSantis in his 2022 re-election campaign, while Mr Trump won about 15% of the Black vote in Florida during his 2024 presidential campaign, according to exit poll figures cited in the material.
Mr Donalds, who has represented Florida in Congress for nine years, was one of Mr Trump’s most prominent Black voter surrogates during the 2024 campaign. He co-headlined a multi-city “Congress, Cigars & Cognac” tour with Texas congressman Wesley Hunt, holding informal discussions aimed at making the case for Mr Trump.
He is now using a similar approach in his own campaign, as the principal candidate rather than a surrogate. At the Black Professionals Summit’s Legacy Con, he said: “I don’t talk about my race in this campaign.”
“Florida is a meritocracy,” he told the gathering. “Here in Florida, we have people who have come from so many different parts of the country. What they really care about now is: Can you get the job done?”
A victory would make Mr Donalds one of only a small number of Black state executives in US history. Just three elected governors have been Black, and he is among three nominees this year who could become the first Black Republican governor elected in the country.
Asked what making history would mean to him, Mr Donalds briefly lowered his guard. “It’s wild, honestly,” he said.
The campaign’s outreach has not been universally welcomed. Jermaine Woodside, 54, said he became more open to Mr Donalds after an hour-long conversation at the Black-owned Lorna’s Caribbean Restaurant in Miami Gardens, but warned that the candidate’s association with Mr Trump could damage his prospects.
“That’s going to hurt him, and that’s the reason why I was reluctant to be a part of his campaign,” Mr Woodside said.
Mr Donalds rejected the idea that voters should assess him solely through his relationship with Mr Trump. “Look at the issues I’m pushing forward. Look at the ideas that I talk about. Yes, the president’s endorsed me. Yes, a couple years ago I endorsed him to be president. But I’m running to be governor of Florida,” he said.
At a meet-and-greet in the predominantly Black Overtown neighbourhood of Miami, resident Kalyn James held a “Vote Blue” sign with Mr Donalds’s name crossed out.
“I just don’t think that he has a buy-in that he thinks he has,” Ms James said. “And honestly, [his win] would make history, but I think he’d be on the wrong side of history.”
Jasmine Burney-Clark, founder of the non-partisan voting rights group Equal Ground, accused Mr Donalds of using the events to pander for support. She said he had declined to sign the organisation’s candidate pledge backing a Democratic-supported state voting rights bill, while Democratic nominee David Jolly had signed it.
“Byron Donalds has been Black at the start of this election, and he will be Black at the end of this election,” Ms Burney-Clark said. “Black voters are not going to be fooled by his targeting and his manipulation tactics to pander to get their vote.”
Mr Donalds said his campaign was targeting every voter, citing door-knocking operations aimed at Black voters in North Miami and Broward County, Hispanic voters in Doral and Hialeah, and other communities.
Organisers of Legacy Con said Mr Jolly had also been invited to address the summit but did not attend, citing a scheduling conflict.
With less than a month of campaigning remaining, recent polling has indicated a close race for a governorship that Democrats have not won since the 1990s. For Mr Donalds, making gains among Black voters could prove central to Republican efforts to hold the office.
