DAYTONA BEACH — In what might be the closest thing Florida Republicans get to a gubernatorial debate prior to the primary election three leading GOP candidates took turns delivering speeches from the same stage June 7.
U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, Lt. Gov. Jay Collins, and former Florida House Speaker Paul Renner addressed the Volusia County Republicans’ Trump Golden Age of America Dinner, attended by more than 300 people in the Ocean Center. The event was bookended on the front end by protesters shouting at well-heeled guests as they arrived, and at the end, banter between former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and longtime Rush Limbaugh producer Bo Snerdley.
Incumbent Florida Congressmen Randy Fine and Cory Mills also spoke to fellow Republicans, with some of their Aug. 18 primary opponents in the audience, while incumbent CFO Blaise Ingoglia and Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson — who will also be on 2026 ballots — also offered remarks.
Byron Donalds urges Republican unity
Donalds, who has been endorsed by President Donald Trump and has been leading polls and fundraising, also campaigned over the weekend at a June 6 event in Palm Coast, which his press secretary Skylar Swanson described as having an “undeniable” energy.
An April Stetson University poll had Donalds ahead with 38%, while 28% of voters were undecided, and the other leading contenders were in single digits.
While his opponents have pined for a debate, Donalds has offered a different suggestion: Republicans uniting behind the frontrunner.
He gave a bit of rationale at the Daytona event.
“Everywhere across our state, there is a little bit of a problem,” Donalds said. “… We’re having fights and divisions within our family, and within our party and within our movement. These battles among activists and club leaders and REC chairmen, these fights do not help us win. … Those fights only help the Democrats.”
Donalds cited history, noting that in 1996 Congressman Daniel Webster of Clermont was the first Republican to become Florida House speaker since Reconstruction, and when Donalds asked Webster how that victory came to be, Webster pointed to infighting amongst the previously dominant Democrats.
Donalds said Democrats think they have a chance to win the governor’s race.
“They think they can outwork us. They think we’re divided,” he said. “Florida is the free state of Florida.”
Paul Renner pushes faith, family, and patriotism
Palm Coast is the home city of Renner, who represented Flagler County in the Florida House for nine years, until 2024.
Renner relayed a story about how Benjamin Franklin was trying to decipher whether a sun carved into George Washington’s chair was rising or setting.
“I think we’re at that moment in our history again. Will America have another 250 years? And I would say there are three things that would ensure that we do,” Renner said. “As an unapologetic Christian believer, we have to return to our faith, number one.”
Renner, who has young children, said fathers need to recommit themselves to their families.
“Strong families are far more important than strong governments, and without them, you can never manage the chaos that results. Just look at the blue states,” Renner said.
Renner — a Navy veteran of 20 years — then cited his own military service.
“We have to return to love of country and patriotism. Faith, family and patriotism will give us a rising sun for the next 250 years,” he said.
Jay Collins hopes to continue rapid rise in politics
Collins, a retired Army Green Beret who lost his left leg seven years after suffering combat injuries, said he would have scoffed at anyone who might have told him five years ago he would become a politician.
But in July 2021, he began a campaign for Congress in the Tampa area. Collins later switched races and in 2022, won a seat in the Florida Senate. Gov. Ron DeSantis named Collins as lieutenant governor last year, and now he’s attempting to make up ground on Donalds in the governor’s race.
“People are tired of politicians. They want leaders,” Collins said. “They want people who say what they mean, mean what they say, and get things done.”
Collins said leadership is about being on the ground, making a difference for people, rather than “being on television,” which is where Donalds became a key surrogate for Trump in the 2024 election.
Collins said when he was hit, he got up to fight.
“It’s the people around us that matter. It’s the people in this nation that make us the United States of America, and I wasn’t going to do anything but get up and fight when I had brothers out there on the wall trying to protect our lives. You see we don’t leave people behind. We don’t play games. And we don’t do things just because it is easy. Here in Florida, we do them because it is hard, because it is the free state of Florida.”
He credited DeSantis with making Florida the “conservative proving grounds” of the United States, after reopening businesses and schools sooner than other states during the pandemic.
“It takes bold conservative leadership. It isn’t asking for consensus. It is about doing what’s right,” Collins said.
A fourth GOP contender, James Fishback, did not speak at the dinner.
Protest of ‘Trump Golden Age of America’ dinner
As Republicans were arriving at the Ocean Center, they were greeted by some 40 protesters waving signs some of which targeted Fine, Daytona’s Republican congressman, and the Volusia GOP’s chosen theme, the “Trump Golden Age of America.”
“These Republicans and their donors have actually done the work for us,” said Henry Cron, co-chair of the Volusia Democratic Socialists of America, “because this neighborhood, this block is run down. We have crumbling infrastructure. We have homeless people who can’t eat and they can’t find housing, and all of these people are hob-nobbing in this convention center, donating to the Republicans, and they’re eating $300 plates of chicken.”
One of the most prominent signs along the sidewalk parallel to North Atlantic Avenue, read: “GOLDEN AGE 4 WHOM.”
Kelly Czajkowski, founder and president of Just Us Volusia!, said she and other constituents have been disappointed in not being able to voice concerns to Fine at in-person town halls.
“We’ve tried to call our electeds, and we can’t get through to them. We can’t get actual town halls. We get telephone town halls with Randy Fine, but they screen the calls, so you don’t actually get to speak to him,” Czajkowski said.
She called the dinner “out of touch,” and she’s disappointed that Fine and others don’t give constituents time that they give those “with the cash.”
Fine referenced the protesters briefly during his talk.
“You’re welcome. My understanding is my fan club welcomed all of you as you came in tonight. I heard there was a lot of screaming, yelling,” Fine said. “Here’s what I will say: If they’re not mad at you, you’re not doing the right thing.”
Fine said when he went to Washington last year after being elected to the 6th District seat in a special election, he was asked how he would work with Democrats.
“I said I didn’t come to Washington to work with the Democrats,” he said. “I came to Washington to beat the Democrats.”
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: 3 Florida governor hopefuls engage Volusia GOP Trump dinner
Reporting by Mark Harper, Daytona Beach News-Journal / The Daytona Beach News-Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Mark Harper, Daytona Beach News-Journal | USA TODAY Network
