Florida stands to be the epicenter for another Republican civil war two and a half years after Gov. Ron DeSantis challenged President Donald Trump in his bid to retake the White House.
DeSantis will be leaving the governor’s mansion at the end of his second term next year, and Rep. Byron Donalds is the apparent frontrunner to replace him, having already received Trump’s endorsement. Donalds has one primary challenger: Paul Renner, the former speaker of the Florida House, who is polling at 2%.
Though Donalds seemingly has a tight grip on the race, all eyes are on Tallahassee. DeSantis has yet to reveal who he is backing to be his successor and rumors are flying that Lt. Gov. Jay Collins, who was appointed to the vacant position by DeSantis in August, may enter the race with the support of the governor.
The Daily Caller spoke to sources who are involved in and close to the race for governor who were granted anonymity to discuss the inner workings of the race candidly. The sources said that although the race is calm now as Donalds barnstorms the state, they see a potential second DeSantis-Trump showdown bubbling under the surface.
Contributing to the feeling that tensions are on the verge of boiling over is that DeSantis has given the impression that he wants to name his own successor, multiple sources said, but has publicly expressed doubts about whether Donalds can be his guy.
One month after Donalds entered the race, the governor’s political operation even started urging state lobbyists to not back him, NBC News reported.
“I know DeSantis is still coming to grips with the idea that Byron can be the nominee, because I’m talking to donors, and DeSantis is just point-blank trashing him to donors … just nasty stuff,” a source involved in Florida politics told the Caller.
But some think that if DeSantis ultimately declines to endorse Donalds, it will be less for personal reasons and more attributable to the governor’s desire to be something of a maverick who charts his own path politically.
Donalds’ and DeSantis’s fraught relationship goes back to 2023 when the duo clashed over Florida’s African-American history standards in schools. Donalds went on to endorse Trump in the 2024 presidential race, a move he admitted “frayed” their relationship even further.
The feud intensified thanks to the circumstances under which Donalds became the de facto frontrunner in the governor’s race.
Trump endorsed Donalds for governor in February and urged him to run — five days later, Donalds obliged.
But at the time, it was presumed that DeSantis’ wife, Casey DeSantis, would run to succeed her husband. The Thursday before Donalds’ announcement, Florida’s first lady gave a long speech at a conservative conference filled with donors touting the successes of her husband’s administration and her own charity work. A source present said attendees were discussing how the appearance seemed aimed at testing the waters for a gubernatorial bid.