MIAMI — For most of his nine years in Congress and the Florida State House of Representatives, Republican Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida rarely made race a part of his political discourse. Last weekend, during a series of black voter outreach events in the Miami area, he did so — carefully and on his own terms.
In an interview with CBS News, the Republican candidate for Florida governor said he is now aiming “north of 20 percent” of the black vote.
“I think there are a lot of black voters who are watching my campaign because they’re just trying to figure out who’s going to be the best person to lead Florida into the future,” Donalds said. “I think the other thing with black voters: They’re starting to not be so monolithically tied to the Democratic Party.”
For comparison, about 13% of Black voters supported Gov. Ron DeSantis’ 2022 re-election bid, according to CBS News exit polls. President Trump won about 15% of the black vote in Florida during his 2024 presidential campaign.
In 2024, Donalds was one of Mr. Trump’s most visible surrogates among black voters nationally, co-headlining a multi-city tour with Representative Wesley Hunt of Texas billed as “Congress, Cigars and Cognac” — informal, sit-down conversations intended to make Mr. Trump’s points in rooms that were not always receptive. Now he’s applying the same playbook for himself, as a primary rather than a substitute.
A potential Donalds victory would place him in an exclusive club of black leaders in the state. Only three elected governors have been black in U.S. history. Donalds is one of three candidates this year who would be the first black Republican governors ever elected.
When asked what it would mean for him to make history, Donalds paused, smiled inwardly and let his guard down for a moment. “It’s crazy, honestly,” he told CBS News — a rare admission from a candidate who spent his campaign avoiding identity-based appeals.
“I’m not talking about my race in this campaign,” Donalds told the crowd Saturday at the Black Professionals Summit’s Legacy Con, one of several stops targeting the key voting bloc. “Florida is a meritocracy. Here in Florida, we have people who come from so many different parts of the country. What they’re really interested in now is: Can you get the job done?”
Seiji Yamashita/CBS News 
Legacy Con organizers told CBS News they also invited Democratic candidate David Jolly to speak at the summit, but he did not attend, citing a scheduling conflict.
Less than a month into the campaign, Donalds also pushed back against criticism that his outreach to minorities was new or narrow. “We’re actually targeting all voters,” he said, noting his team’s door-to-door canvassing targeting Black voters in North Miami and Broward County, Hispanic voters in Doral and Hialeah, and more.
But some voters he met during his time in South Florida say his loyalty to the president clouds their opinion of him. During an outlet at the black restaurant Lorna’s Caribbean in Miami Gardens, Jermaine Woodside, 54, said he arrived skeptical but remained more open to the congressman after an hour-long dinner, even though he said bluntly that Donalds should not associate with Mr. Trump. “It’s going to hurt him, and that’s why I was reluctant to be part of his campaign,” Woodside told CBS News.
Donalds said CBS News voters shouldn’t judge him solely on his history with Mr. Trump.
“Look at the issues I stand for. Look at the ideas I talk about. Yes, the president supported me. Yes, a few years ago I supported him to be president. But I’m running for governor of Florida,” he said.
Not everyone was convinced. Miami resident Kalyn James came alone to a meet-and-greet with Donalds held at an outdoor event space in the predominantly black Overtown neighborhood. James quietly protested the event by holding up a sign reading “Vote Blue” with Donalds’ name crossed out as he worked the room and spoke to other attendees.
“I just don’t think he has the buy-in that he thinks he has,” James told CBS News. “And honestly, (his victory) would go down in history, but I think he would be on the wrong side of history.”
Jasmine Burney-Clark, founder of the nonpartisan voting rights group Equal Ground, had sharper criticism. She noted that Donalds refused to sign her organization’s candidate pledge, asserting his intention to sign a Democratic-backed voting rights bill — which Jolly signed — and argued that his weekend events were not authentic.
“Byron Donalds was black at the beginning of this election and he will be black at the end,” Burney-Clark told CBS News. “Black voters are not going to be fooled by his targeting and manipulative tactics aimed at getting out their vote.”
The outreach comes as recent polls show a surprisingly close race for an office that a Democrat hasn’t won since the 1990s. For Donalds, the math is clear even if the politics are complicated: narrow the gap with black voters, and the Democrats’ return to the governor’s mansion becomes much more difficult.
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