Opinion

GIANNO CALDWELL: Florida needs Byron Donalds to protect the DeSantis legacy

Florida is ground zero for conservative values in America, the next governor either protects what's been built here or lets it erode

By Gianno Caldwell Fox News

Published August 17, 2026 11:49am EDT

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The people of Florida want to 'remain free': Rep Byron Donalds

Florida gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds discusses the Florida governor's races and discusses the SPLC CFO arrest scandal on 'The Big Weekend Show.'

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When COVID hit in March 2020, I was living in Los Angeles. What I saw there changed the course of my life.

It became clear almost immediately that local officials in California weren't following the science. They were following the politics. Every decision, every mandate, every shutdown got filtered through one lens: how do we use this crisis to fight back against Trump and Republicans? Californians paid for that calculation. Businesses shuttered. Kids lost years of school. Families lost everything they'd built. I watched it happen in real time.

Florida went a different way. Governor Ron DeSantis stood firm. While Dr. Anthony Fauci pushed school closures, vaccine mandates, and business lockdowns, DeSantis said no. He signed executive orders and legislation suspending every local COVID mandate on Florida's citizens and businesses, and put into state law the presumption that schools stay open for in-person instruction. The pressure on him was relentless, from the left and from parts of the right. He didn't fold.

THE REAL REASON AMERICANS ARE FLEEING BLUE STATES FOR FLORIDA AND TEXAS

That's what made my........

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