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Posted on 08/26/2026 3:40:18 AM PDT by DFG
Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) announced Tuesday that Florida state Sen. Bryan Avila (R) will be his running mate in the Sunshine State’s gubernatorial race.
Donalds, who won the GOP primary last week, praised Avila as a “proven warrior” and “conservative fighter.” Avila, the former speaker pro tempore of the Florida House, has represented the state’s 39th Senate District since November 2022.
“He has fought woke ideology, he’s fought higher taxes, he’s fought higher costs every single day, and I could not be more prouder to have him stand by my side,” Donalds said at an event at the Freedom Tower in downtown Miami.
Avila, the son of Cuban immigrants, resides in the heavily Cuban-influenced city of Hialeah, located in north Miami-Dade County. Miami-Dade is the largest county in Florida, and 29.2 percent of Floridians are Hispanic or Latino, according to 2025 estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau.
The Florida state lawmaker, a captain in the Florida Army National Guard, said it was an “incredible honor” to be the running mate of Donalds.
“Byron, thank you for your trust, thank you for your friendship and thank you for your leadership,” Avila said, with Donalds standing behind him.
The Donalds-Avila pairing will face off against former GOP Rep. David Jolly (Fla.), a converted Democrat who won the party’s gubernatorial nomination last week.
Jolly’s running mate is former Rep. Gwen Graham (D-Fla.), an assistant Education secretary during the Biden administration and the daughter of former Florida Gov. and Sen. Bob Graham (D).
While Jolly has campaigned as a moderate Democrat, Donalds on Tuesday tied him to state Rep. Angie Nixon (D), the party’s Senate nominee. Nixon is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.
Donalds also called the Jolly-Graham ticket “boring,” a quip that elicited cheers from the crowd.
“They’ve joined forces to create the most boring and uninspiring ticket Florida Democrats could have ever put together,” the Republican nominee remarked.
A Democrat has not won a governor’s race in Florida since 1994, with the state morphing from the largest purple state in the country to a conservative stronghold under Gov. Ron DeSantis (R). DeSantis defeated former Gov. Charlie Crist (D) by nearly 20 points in 2022.
In the statewide primary that concluded last week, more than 1.7 million Republicans and nearly 1.3 million Democrats cast a ballot, according to data from Fresh Take Florida.
Overall, nearly 51 percent of registered Republicans and nearly 38 percent of registered Democrats voted in the primary.
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“and I could not be more prouder...”
__________________________
Make it stop.
Es muy simpatico !
…”and I could not be more prouder”?!
“more prouder”. Arrrgh!! 😒
.ore prouder? Byron, I’m voting for you, however, more prouder is wrong...proudest is what I’d say...
Just saying...
Just saying... liberal 'elites' are often evil, but they do 'speak well'.
It’s “more proudester” you heathen.
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