The Rise of Byron Donalds

While Louisiana Republican Mike Johnson ultimately emerged as the new Speaker of the House following Kevin McCarthy’s tumultuous exit last month, one other name being tossed around was Florida Representative Byron Donalds. At 45 years old and in just his second term in Congress, Donalds has clearly earned the respect of many of his colleagues and is rapidly becoming a national figure.

Donalds was born to a single mother in Brooklyn, New York, and raised in the Crown Heights neighborhood – then as now one of the more crime-ridden areas of the city. “I was jumped by a gang when I was in fifth grade,” Donalds told a local Florida news outlet back in 2020. “I mean, that’s just what would happen.”

Donalds excelled at academics from an early age, and his mother scrapped and saved to send him to a private school nearby. He went on to graduate from Florida State University in 2002 before taking a job as a credit analyst with TIB Bank near Naples, Florida.

While in college, Donalds met another student named Erika Lees who would later become his wife. During their on-again-off-again relationship during school, she invited him to church, which Donalds credits with changing his life and leading him to God.

As Donalds explained to the Ft. Myers News-Press in a 2020 interview, after his experience in church, he was waiting tables at a local diner when he served a group of women returning from a revival. “The Holy Spirit was dealing with me – really talking to me – and I looked out and they were getting into their van,” he said. Donalds then followed them into the parking lot and asked them to pray for him. “And I gave my life to Christ right there in the parking lot of Cracker Barrel in Tallahassee.”

In 2010, Donalds became involved with the Tea Party movement, where he got his first experience in politics. In March of that year he spoke to a small group of Tea Party activists from the back of a red pickup truck, where some Republican officials first recognized that he had political talent. Although the mainstream media constantly disparaged the Tea Party movement as “racist,” Donalds has said repeatedly that, as a black man, he felt nothing but welcomed at events and rallies.

Donalds was asked to speak at several other Tea Party events, slowly raising his profile in Southwest Florida Republican circles. In 2012, Donalds ran for Florida’s 19th Congressional District, but placed fifth out of six candidates. Four years later, he ran successfully for the Florida House of Representatives, where he became a champion of school choice and financial protections for the elderly.

Donalds left the Florida House to run again for Congress in 2020. This time he would be successful, beating out several other well-financed primary candidates and easily cruising to victory in his deep-red district by a margin of 61 percent to 39 percent. Last year he won re-election by an even larger margin, securing 68 percent of the vote.

While in Congress, Donalds has made a name for himself as a conservative firebrand and strong ally of former President Donald Trump. Despite being from Florida, home to GOP presidential hopeful Governor Ron DeSantis, Donalds became one of the first Republicans to endorse Trump’s 2024 bid. Some pundits have even speculated that Donalds could be a dark horse vice presidential pick for Trump – something Donalds himself has hinted he could be open to.

In addition to his support for Trump, Donalds has become a household name across America for his willingness to do battle with the liberal media. He is one of the few Republicans willing to regularly appear on networks like MSNBC and CNN and spar with the hosts over public policy. Following CNN’s townhall with Trump earlier this year, for instance, Donalds appeared to defend Trump’s record as president and point out the many failures of the Biden administration.

Unsurprisingly, Donalds has become one of the top targets of the mainstream media and Democrat Party.

Earlier this year, MSNBC host Joy Reid accused Donalds of being a Republican “diversity statement,” further suggesting that his elevation within the party is an “affirmative action” choice by Republicans. Missouri Congresswoman Cori Bush, meanwhile, has called Donalds a “prop” who “supports a policy agenda intent on upholding and perpetuating white supremacy.”

However, Donalds’s overwhelming popularity with his voters back home in Florida and the evident respect he commands among his House colleagues suggests something far different: a rising star. Americans will undoubtedly continue to hear his name more and more in the years ahead.

Andrew Shirley is a veteran speechwriter and AMAC Newsline columnist. His commentary can be found on X at @AA_Shirley.