GOP candidates for governor make their rounds

Jul 16, 2026 By NATHAN MAYBERG 12 min read

Florida Lt. Governor Jay Collins and Congressman Byron Donalds (R-Naples), two of the leading contenders to be the next governor of Florida, recently spoke with the Breeze Newspapers ahead of the upcoming Aug. 18 Republican primary.

Donalds, whose congressional district covers most of Lee County, has been considered the frontrunner in part for the backing of his candidacy by President Donald Trump. Donalds has been a staunch backer of the president.

Donalds voted against certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election in Pennsylvania, and against certification in Arizona in 2021 after the riots at the Capitol.

Collins, 50, a former state senator whose district included Tampa, has been lieutenant governor since 2025.

Donalds, 47, was elected to the House of Representatives in 2020, succeeding Rep. Francis Rooney (R-Naples). There are now 14 candidates vying to replace Donalds in the 19th Congressional district.

There are 11 Republicans competing in the primary for governor. Former Florida House Speaker Paul Renner is also considered one of the leading candidates. His campaign didn’t respond to requests for an interview as of press time.

Collins is suing candidate James Fishback, to have him removed from the ballot for allegedly not meeting the residency requirements for governor.

Other Republican candidates in the field include Jim Holcomb, Arthur Joseph McCaffrey, Daniel Nokovich, Rachel Rodriguez, James Shaw, Caneste Succe, and Bobby Williams.

Several polls have shown Donalds leading the race.

In 2023, Donalds sought to be Speaker of the House during an unsuccessful challenge to former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy. McCarthy was later voted out as Speaker and replaced by Mike Johnson. Donalds said he fully supports Johnson. “Speaker Johnson is doing the best job he can, but the Senate is just unworkable right now,” Donalds said.

Byron Donalds

Donalds said he wants to see the Save America Act passed in the Senate, procurement reform for energy, and Trump’s border security bill approved.

“The problem is everything is logjammed in the Senate,” he said.

Donalds said he is running to make sure “Florida remains the best state in all of America. I moved here 30 years ago to go to college. I have been very blessed, have built the Florida dream of my life, and I want to make sure that is available to families in our state.”

Congressman Byron Donalds

Donalds said “the next governor needs to have a strong business and economics background.” Before being elected to Congress, Donalds was a state representative and worked as a financial advisor and was an associate vice president of investments at Moran Wealth Management in Naples.

The congressman said he wants insurance reforms, and wants to “reform the regulatory side to push down insurance costs for homeowners.”

Donalds said he is aware of the struggles that homeowners and condo associations have had in being reimbursed by insurance companies since Hurricane Ian.

“I have been aware since Hurricane Ian,” Donalds said.

He wants to put out an insurance scorecard that would give information on how much an insurance company would charge, but would also give information on denial percentages, and the timeliness of fulfilling claims.

After Hurricane Ian, Donalds was hopeful there would be a supplemental funding bill to help Fort Myers Beach. While such a bill wasn’t passed, Donalds said he has been spending a lot of time staying on top of FEMA reimbursements. He is critical of how the agency has responded to the impacts from Hurricane Ian throughout the region, and took part in hearings with FEMA in the county after Hurricane Ian in which he was critical of their response.

Donalds said he was meeting with FEMA just this week on releasing reimbursements for Naples and Sanibel.

“We pushed hard with FEMA to get a final sign-off on reimbursement to rebuild the Naples pier,” Donalds said.

He said he is also working on Fort Myers Beach issues regarding FEMA.

“We work very diligently with FEMA, and have quite frankly been on their backs to make sure they release the funds,” he said. “Honestly, it’s a bureaucratic agency that takes way too long to do the basic things. We want to see a reformed FEMA that really empowers Florida.”

Donalds is supportive of the increase in the homestead property exemption that will be up for a state referendum this November, but said if it doesn’t pass he wants to use the budget commission to make changes to a new bill to ensure there is relief for seniors on fixed incomes and working families.

“I support it, but the question is if it’s going to pass,” Donalds said. He wants a full study of the taxing system and fee structures in the state, and also to “find newer ways to try and capture revenue from the 140 million tourists who come to Florida every year so they can actually help to pay for the services that quite frankly Floridians are paying for today.”

Lee County has estimated it could lose as much as $200 million or more in property tax revenue annually by 2028 if the referendum passes.

“The better question is can Floridians continue to handle a higher level of property taxes,” Donalds said. “The budgets of our homeowners haven’t increased.”

Donalds said Lee County should have gone to a rollback rate. “Now the voters are going to decide,” he said.

Donalds acknowledged that the increase in costs for public schools is also a large part of the tax increases for residents. He said he opposed the lawsuit by the state teacher’s union suing the state over the funding of public schools.

The son of an assistant principal and middle school teacher, who worked in public schools in Brooklyn, his wife now runs a nonprofit that advises new charter schools. Donalds backs school choice.

Donalds said he also wants to reform permitting and planning regulations, “so you can decrease the government side hat does add to costs when it comes to building new homes.”

Told that overdevelopment concerns have become a top issue in a county commissioner race, Donalds said he has heard those concerns but that the issue is “county government has not kept up with road infrastructure and quite frankly neither has the state Florida.”

Donalds said many citizens are “concerned about growth because commute times, transportation times and quality of life is decreasing because of congestion and traffic.”

Donalds said Southwest Florida needs a “growth management plan so we know how Southwest Florida is going to look and evolve in the next 30 years.”

Right now, Donalds said there is no coordination among the counties in the region.

When he first ran for Congress, Donalds expressed skepticism of regulations to protect wildlife, saying he thought there were too many bears and panthers.

Donalds said he believes a study is needed to determine if the panther population has gone up, saying that the panther population has grown to an extent that it may not warrant protections under the Endangered Species Act.

According to FWC statistics, 20-30 panthers are being killed in vehicle accidents almost every year, and projects such as the Kingston development off Corkscrew Road, have been projected by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to contribute to more fatal accidents with panthers.

“Should panthers be protected? Of course they should be protected but we have to acknowledge that the panther population has grown significantly from when it was put on the Endangered Species List,” Donalds said.

Donalds did acknowledge that panthers are being killed on local roads, but said “as Florida grows, we need to balance that.”

Florida panthers have long been considered one of the most critically endangered species in the United States.

“When you see a panther being killed on the road, I think there has to be an understanding that the panther population has increased significantly, so the Florida panther in of itself under today’s numbers, would actually not qualify for the Endangered Species List.”

Donalds could not immediately provide the numbers but said there should be a new study of the Florida panther population. Donalds said he also believes panthers need better protections from developments, as well as a better study on their populations.

“You need to balance both,” he said.

On data centers, Donalds supports regulations that limits their use of water and energy, and limits proximity to residential neighborhoods. On the other hand, Donalds said he also believes in property rights and if a property owner has permits that won’t increase energy costs on utility customers, he believes they should be allowed.

Jay Collins

While Donalds hails from New York City, Collins is from Montana.

Collins said he “grew up very poor in a bit of a broken home. The American dream is alive and well,” Collins said.

A U.S. Army veteran, Collins was a Green Beret medic who served tours in Afghanistan and Iraq. A battle in Afghanistan with an enemy combatant led to him being shot and ultimately losing one of his legs. He was able to re-enlist after losing his leg, and left service as a first sergeant.

Lt. Gov. Jay Collins

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After his service, Collins moved to the Tampa area and was elected state senator. He was appointed as lieutenant governor last year by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Collins was recently in Cape Coral, where he spoke about data centers.

“It’s a concern everywhere,” Collins said. “Hyperscale data centers are something we should absolutely be concerned about. We have to know the facts and we have to protect our people in our state. Nobody wants to have power prices go up, nobody wants to see degraded water quality or access.”

Collins said he is concerned about power shortages, water shortages and price increases. He said he does not yet want to ban data centers, but supports the tactics taken by DeSantis, to focus on ensuring that bills wouldn’t go up where the data centers are built.

“There should be no degradation of water quality,” or impacts on local aquifers, or else the data centers shouldn’t be allowed to be built, he said.

He said there also needs to be clarity and transparency as to who the customers are for the data centers.

“I don’t want to see state overreach,” Collins said. He said the data centers should be decided by local governments.

Recently, in New York, there was a one-year moratorium put on data centers statewide.

Collins has also expressed concern about the use of Flock Safety cameras, which has become a growing issue in the state, as their use expands. The Lee County Sheriff’s Office utilizes Flock Safety cameras, and license plate readers, as does the Cape Coral Police Department.

“Nobody wants a police state,” Collins said. “Nobody wants to have cameras on ever corner, 24/7, 354,” Collins said.

He said there is a concern about individual freedoms.

However, when used properly, Collins said the cameras can be effective in catching dangerous criminals.

“There are regulations and authorizations and you can’t have random people doing random things with it. It has to be used as intended, with strict guardrails and accountability. We can never trade our individual freedoms.

On the state referendum to increase the homestead property exemption up to $250,000 over two years, Collins said taxes in the state have increased too much.

“We have a spending problem,” Collins said.

Collins wants a trust fund to support fiscally-constrained counties in the bill, to “help offset that tax base.”

Collins said he does have concerns about fiscally-constrained counties being impacted by the loss of revenue.

“Overall, I believe it is not the government’s money, it’s the people’s money,” Collins said. “When you try to do something bold, people get scared.”

Collins said there are people worried that the property tax exemption could impact public safety and roads, but doesn’t think those concerns are founded.

“We have plenty of money, we just have to be careful with the way we spend it,” he said.

Told Lee County is projecting a loss of more than $200 million in property tax revenue. Collins said “I would encourage you guys to go do the math on that.”

Collins he is proud of his political service in passing legislation for permitless carry, prayer in sports, education reform regarding the required teaching of how socialism and communism is taught in schools.

After Hurricane Ian, Collins volunteered throughout Southwest Florida in delivering meals. That included being on Fort Myers Beach to serve meals to those who had lost everything in Hurricane Ian. Seeing the destroyed Fort Myers Beach Pier after Hurricane Ian struck a nerve with him, as he said he had just visited the pier weeks before Hurricane Ian.

On the funding of public schools and the ongoing lawsuit by the state teachers union against the state challenging the state’s funding of public schools, Collins said his children attend public schools. He supports school choice.

“It’s fundamentally a good thing but we need accountability as well,” Collins said.

“We have to make sure that everyone is competitive. The money follows the child,” he said.

Collins said he would prioritize school choice as governor.

In the School District of Lee County, where an operating deficit of more than $40 million exists and hundreds of staff members were expected to have been laid off after the end of the school year, Collins said he would need to examine those details.

DeSantis visited the school district in May where he sharply criticized teacher unions.

On the topic of development, Collins said “I am a limited pre-preemption person. I don’t like to preempt anymore than I have to. Nobody wants to see overgrowth. We have to maintain our farmland, we have to maintain our waterways, our beaches, our green zones. That is what makes Florida what they are. Likewise, we do need pro-business approaches,” Collins said.

Collins said he wants quicker permitting with less permit fees for developers.

“That is the best way to keep overgrowth from being an issue,” Collins said.

Collins said that in regards to the threat to the Florida panthers from developments in Lee County and Collier County, “I think we have done a very good job.”

Collins said “obviously I am on board with protecting what we have.”

To reach NATHAN MAYBERG, please email nmayberg@breezenewspapers.com