On paper, the Republican main to be Florida’s subsequent governor seems to be little greater than a formality.
The clear front-runner, Rep. Byron Donalds, carries into the ultimate weeks of the race President Donald Trump’s endorsement, the backing of a lot of the state GOP’s institution, a commanding fundraising benefit and little opposition on the airwaves.
Instead, the competition has turn into a bitter succession battle pushed largely by one highly effective holdout: Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Still immensely standard amongst Florida Republicans however barred by time period limits from looking for reelection, DeSantis has refused at hand the baton to Donalds and has spent months publicly and privately arguing the Naples congressman is unfit to switch him. He has even shared his reservations straight with Trump, in response to a particular person near DeSantis with data of a current dialog between the 2.
Yet DeSantis has didn’t throw his help behind another, as a substitute undercutting different Republicans attempting to take down Donalds. He has declined to raise Lt. Gov. Jay Collins, regardless of appointing him to the put up simply a yr in the past, and he has dismissed the candidacy of former state House Speaker Paul Renner, as soon as a shut ally who helped muscle the governor’s agenda by way of the legislature earlier than his presidential marketing campaign.
The ensuing vacuum has reworked what might have been a easy Republican succession into one of many nastiest GOP main fights of the midterm season — marked by an unpleasant public feud between DeSantis’ high workers and his personal lieutenant governor, a authorized battle to disqualify a candidate and fears of the governor retaliating in opposition to those that facet with Trump’s chosen candidate.
It has additionally opened house for James Fishback, a 31-year-old, race-baiting rebel who has gained nationwide consideration regardless of a troubling authorized historical past and restricted monetary help. Fishback has known as Donalds, who’s Black, a “slave to his donors” and a “DEI Republican” who would “turn Florida into a Section 8 ghetto,” and has attracted reward from influential right-wing commentators like Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes.
DeSantis’ position within the divisive battle has annoyed his remaining allies within the celebration and left him more and more remoted as he drifts towards an unsure political future. Though the governor has made little secret of his continued presidential ambitions, some Republican pals fear he’s eroding the goodwill constructed throughout two phrases in workplace, when he rose from relative obscurity to turn into one of many GOP’s largest stars earlier than shedding the celebration’s 2024 presidential nomination to Trump, and leaving himself susceptible as he tries to regroup with an eye toward 2028.
“Everybody has tried to talk sense into him, including the president,” the particular person mentioned. “Ron is leaving without a lot of friends. There’s going to be a big effort to take the shine off of him and he won’t have a platform to defend himself.”
The saga of Ron and Byron
DeSantis and Donalds had been as soon as shut. Donalds was a dependable ally for the governor within the state legislature earlier than successful a congressional seat in 2020. DeSantis additionally labored intently with Donalds’ spouse, Erika, a college selection advocate and constitution college operator, to develop Florida’s personal college voucher program. On election night time in 2022, Donalds launched DeSantis earlier than the governor delivered his landslide victory speech.
Their relationship unraveled the next spring.
As DeSantis ready to launch a White House bid, Donalds opted to endorse Trump over his residence state governor. It helped set off a wave of endorsements for Trump from Florida Republicans earlier than DeSantis had formally entered the race.
According to the particular person near DeSantis, Donalds spent days attempting to share his choice with the governor earlier than making his endorsement, however DeSantis refused to take or return his calls. A Republican operative near Donalds confirmed this account. DeSantis’ workplace didn’t reply to questions in regards to the episode.
When Donalds started laying the groundwork for a gubernatorial marketing campaign two years later with Trump’s backing, DeSantis shortly sought to undermine it.
“The reality is we’ve achieved victories in Florida. We need to start achieving those victories up there (in Washington),” he mentioned in February 2025. “I think people look at it and say you’ve got a guy like Byron, he just hasn’t been a part of any of the victories that we’ve had here over the left over these last years. He’s just not been a part of it. He’s been in other states campaigning doing that and that’s fine, but OK, then deliver results up there.”
Those assaults have been echoed by Renner and Collins as they’ve tried to chip away at Donalds’ help and place themselves as DeSantis’ inheritor. They have additionally often highlighted Donalds’ authorized troubles as a younger man, when he was arrested on separate events for marijuana possession and for fraud. Donalds earlier this yr acknowledged selling drugs earlier than he met his spouse as a 21-year-old and “gave my life to Christ.”
While Renner and Collins each aggressively supported DeSantis’ presidential marketing campaign – together with stumping for him in bitter cold Iowa forward of the state’s caucuses – he has been to date unmoved to the return the favor and assist them defeat Donalds.
“If I feel the need to do something, I do it,” the governor mentioned in April about a potential endorsement. “And so you guys can stand by and just watch.”
For a time, first woman Casey DeSantis thought of coming into the race herself to hold on her husband’s legacy, doubtlessly establishing a proxy battle between Florida’s first couple and Trump. But hypothesis light after questions emerged surrounding her state charity initiative, and final month’s candidate qualifying deadline successfully closed the door on a bid.
Donalds has largely ignored the salvos from DeSantis. His marketing campaign advised NCS he’s now waiting for the overall election and sure Democratic nominee David Jolly, a former Republican congressman who modified events amid his opposition to Trump. Donalds has raised greater than $100 million between his marketing campaign and state political committee and had almost $66 million readily available as of final month, about 10 instances greater than Collins, the following closest. He has declined to debate his opponents, figuring out that his contenders hadn’t earned the proper to share a stage with him.
“If you look at their campaigns, anybody looking at it, any metric, you already see that these campaigns don’t have what it takes to win a statewide election,” Donalds advised a Miami CBS station earlier this month. “So why would I then help them raise their credibility, raise their name, or raise their view with the people of Florida?”
Fishback, Collins and Renner just lately participated in a debate hosted by Patrick Bet-David on his standard YouTube present, the place Donalds’ absence was a much-discussed subject because the candidates argued over who ought to drop out and clear house for single different that would seize the massive swath of undecided voters nonetheless up for grabs. They all mentioned they intend to stay within the race.
Last month, the state celebration canceled a debate scheduled for its annual gathering as a result of solely Donalds met the polling and fundraising thresholds to take part. DeSantis called the decision a “farce” on X and accused the celebration of attempting to “engineer an outcome.”
Evan Powers, the chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, defended the celebration’s place and argued that the candidacies of Fishback, Collins and Renner had been a “sideshow.”
“We know who is going to win the primary,” Powers mentioned, “and we’re moving ahead to general election mode.”
Mudslinging, confrontations and lawsuits
The marketing campaign has however grown extra acrimonious main as much as the state’s August 18 main.
Christina Pushaw, a longtime adviser to DeSantis who stays on the state payroll, and different allies just lately accused Collins’ spouse, Layla, of working a number of nameless social media accounts essential of the governor and his workers. Layla Collins denied the accusation in a social media post, however the finger pointing and identify calling between the 2 camps continued for days for all of X to look at.
The hostility between DeSantis’ high workers and Collins apparently isn’t new. A senior administration official in Tallahassee advised NCS that the state’s second couple has been a “constant source of drama” and predicted the race marked “the potential end of Jay’s political career.”
“The governor gave Jay a platform and opportunity to succeed, and instead of listening to the governor, he and his wife chose to engage in months of attacks on DeSantis staff and allies,” the administration official mentioned.
In a assertion to NCS, Collins mentioned the governor had been “given bad information by people who do not want him engaging in this race. I know for a fact that some on his staff have actively worked against me and my wife to stain our names and reputations.”
He added that he would “not be intimidated into dropping out.”
“We have a lane,” he mentioned. “The data has shown that we have a real path to victory.”
DeSantis has not publicly weighed in because the confrontation exposes strife throughout the highest ranges of his administration.
Collins, in the meantime, has sued to take away Fishback from the poll, arguing he doesn’t fulfill the state’s seven-year residency requirement to function governor. The lawsuit cites paperwork that confirmed he’s an lively voter in Washington, DC, the place he has owned a residence since 2021 and claims a property tax deduction solely obtainable for a main residence. A decide is scheduled to listen to arguments within the case subsequent week. Collins, who lived in Montana as just lately as 2019, has solely narrowly eclipsed the residency threshold, Fishback and Renner have identified.
In an interview Tuesday with NCS, Fishback mentioned he by no means lived full-time in DC and accused Collins of “playing the same game the Democrats have for years, and that’s lawfare.”
“If you can’t beat them at the polls, you drag them to court,” he mentioned.
Fishback can be embroiled in a separate authorized dispute stemming from his earlier employer, the New York hedge fund Greenlight Capital. The agency sued Fishback, alleging he didn’t pay again cash he borrowed earlier than leaving to begin his personal funding agency and misrepresenting his position at Greenlight to potential shoppers. A decide dominated for Greenlight in March 2025, and the corporate has spent the previous 16 months attempting to gather the judgement and authorized charges, arguing in court docket filings that the gubernatorial candidate continues to spend on luxurious items regardless of claiming he can’t afford to pay. Last month, a New York decide ordered Fishback to pay Greenlight greater than $1 million in authorized charges.
Fishback advised NCS he intends to enchantment the ruling and dismissed the lawsuits because the actions of an aggrieved former boss.
Despite these authorized challenges, Fishback has pressed forward along with his confrontational marketing campaign. Video posted to social media final week confirmed Fishback trying to enter a native celebration occasion that includes Donalds, resulting in bodily confrontations between supporters of the candidates.
For DeSantis, the turmoil displays a broader decline in his political affect.
After returning to Tallahassee following his failed presidential marketing campaign, DeSantis appeared noticeably diminished as he confronted for the primary time pushback from his personal celebration.
For a time, although, he retained appreciable leverage over Republican lawmakers and different statewide elected officers by way of his veto powers, particularly his skill to chop any proposed line of spending within the finances. Against that actuality, few Republicans dared to weigh in on the governor’s race and danger crossing DeSantis, whose vindictiveness is well-documented in Tallahassee over the previous eight years.
But the menace largely evaporated final month when DeSantis formally signed this yr’s state finances. Since then, a rising checklist of Republican leaders have endorsed Donalds, together with, notably, Attorney General James Uthmeier, DeSantis’ former chief of workers and 2024 marketing campaign supervisor.
Uthmeier’s endorsement prompted a barrage of criticism from a military of on-line accounts that DeSantis allies have often unleashed on his political foes, particularly Donalds. Pushaw and different supporters spent a number of days this month defending Uthmeier and scrambling to reign them in.
DeSantis himself, nevertheless, has remained silent.