Sharon Udasin | JTA
Sunshine State voters will need to choose between two pro-Israel candidates for governor in November’s general election to replace Gov. Ron DeSantis, after Republican Rep. Byron Donalds and Democrat David Jolly won their respective primaries on Tuesday night.
The Associated Press called both the Republican and Democratic primary races for governor at 8 p.m., about an hour after polls closed on Tuesday, with around 85% of the votes counted in both races. By that time, Donalds had secured 48.6% of the GOP primary votes and Jolly had amassed 61.5% of Democratic primary votes.
Jolly had been a Republican Representative for Florida in the U.S. House from 2014-2017, representing the South-Central coastal zone, but gradually abandoned the party for the Democrats as he distanced himself from President Donald Trump. Byron Donalds has served as Florida’s Representative in Washington since 2019.
DeSantis, Florida’s governor since 2019, is term-limited by state law and therefore isn’t able to run for reelection. His replacement will be filling the shoes of a governor known for his unwavering stance on Israel and his intolerance for the boycott, divestment, sanctions movement.
A strong supporter of Israel, DeSantis was the first Florida governor to visit the West Bank, stopping in an Israeli industrial park in the Gush Etzion region there in 2019. Amid pressure from DeSantis that same year, Airbnb reversed a policy that had removed apartment listings in West Bank settlements.
DeSantis has signed off on multiple bills that focused on protecting Florida’s Jewish community from antisemitic attacks, as well as a proclamation that celebrated Israel’s 75th independence in 2023.He has also been a strong backer of military action against Iran.
Donalds, who would be Florida’s first Black governor if elected, earned the endorsement of President Trump and has similarly expressed support for decisive action against Iran.
“Peace is achieved through strength, not weakness,” Donalds said in a post on X at the beginning of the war. “I stand with President Trump, our military, and the hope this leads to lasting security in the Middle East.”
In Congress, however, Donalds voted in 2024 against the Antisemitism Awareness Act, which passed the U.S. House but stalled in the Senate. He said he couldn’t support the bill because it “was rushed, the language was unclear and no amendments were allowed.” But he pledged his steadfast support for the State of Israel and his Jewish neighbors and stressed that antisemitism must be clearly defined.
In keeping with that principle, Donalds said he had previously voted for a Florida bill that described antisemitism “as hateful perceptions, rhetorical and physical manifestations, language that justifies the killing or harming of Jews, Holocaust disinformation, tropes regarding dual loyalties, the application of a double standard towards Israel, and denial of the fact that Israel is the ancestral homeland of the Jewish people.”
On the other side of the aisle, Jolly has been a longtime supporter of Israel, and that stance has remained unshaken during his shift from Republican to moderate Democrat.
During his time in Congress as a Republican, Jolly paid a 2016 visit to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem and then called for the U.S. to raise annual military assistance for Israel from $3.1 billion to $5 billion, according to local media reports.
Where Jolly has sharply diverged from Donalds today is in his perspective on U.S. military action in Iran. The same day that Donalds declared his support for Trump’s decision, Jolly posted an opposing viewpoint.
“This president enters war without the broad confidence of the American people and with a cabinet largely unqualified,” Jolly warned in a February post on X.
While stressing that Trump lacks support from Congress, Jolly also said that he would pray for the safety of U.S. troops and “a swift end to conflict” now that it had begun.
“We likewise pray for a successful outcome from our operations — a more stable region and world, a reduced nuclear threat and a fuller embrace of freedom abroad,” he added.
