Republican Rep. Byron Donalds has won Florida’s race for governor, narrowly defeating Democrat David Jolly in a contest that came down to a fraction of the vote.
The Associated Press called the race with more than 95 percent of ballots counted. As of 9:10 p.m. Eastern, Donalds held a 1.3 percentage point lead over Jolly, a margin of fewer than 102,000 votes.
Donalds succeeds term-limited Gov. Ron DeSantis, continuing a run of Republican control in Florida that accelerated after 2020. DeSantis built national prominence during the pandemic by resisting federal COVID-19 restrictions and emphasizing personal freedom, a stance that drew residents and businesses to the state and earned it the nickname the “Free State of Florida.”
Jolly’s record during the pandemic became a point of contrast in the race. He left Florida during that period for Pennsylvania, a state with stricter COVID-19 rules, and at the time said that “rules” were “greater than the calling of personal freedom.” Jolly also supported mask and vaccine mandates for children.
Florida’s economy outpaced Pennsylvania’s over the following years. Inflation-adjusted GDP per resident rose 16.9 percent in Florida between 2019 and 2025, compared with 5.5 percent in Pennsylvania, and Florida recovered its pandemic-era job losses faster. The state’s political makeup shifted as well: in November 2021, registered Republicans outnumbered registered Democrats in Florida for the first time, and that gap has since grown to more than 1.5 million voters.
In a Breitbart News interview last year, Donalds said he intended to build on DeSantis’s record rather than chart a new course. “Governor DeSantis has led our state tremendously, and now it’s taking all that success and then now building upon it. What are we going to do about the future of transportation in our state, making sure it’s easier for our citizens to move through our cities and move to the states. Insurance. We have to continue to do everything we can to drive prices low,” he said, adding that he believes Florida “can become the financial capital of the world in a decade.”
Jolly, during the campaign, said he wanted to apologize to the “world” on behalf of Florida for what he called “culture wars” — a reference to state policies restricting gender-transition procedures for minors and cracking down on illegal immigration.
“Congratulations to Florida’s next governor, Byron Donalds! Florida is the best place to live, work, and raise a family because of commonsense conservative champions, and Donalds will keep it that way by delivering historic wins for families, workers, seniors, veterans, and small businesses across the Sunshine State,” said Republican National Committee spokeswoman Emma Hall.
