Gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds downplays Trump on website, expert says it’s not uncommon

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV/Gray Florida Capital Bureau) - There are signals that Florida’s Republican candidate for governor Byron Donalds may be distancing himself from President Donald Trump.

There’s been a lot of talk, especially online, about Donalds’s campaign website. Earlier this month, the site prominently featured Trump.

This week, the site was updated, keeping a few references to Trump, but putting his primary election night victory more front and center.

A political science professor said the switch-up isn’t that uncommon, as candidates often distance themselves from incumbent presidents.

He said it happened under President Obama and after President Trump’s first term.

“Byron Donalds is probably, one, just trying to come back to the middle a little bit from the general election after a Republican primary,” Aubrey Jewett, a professor at University of Central Florida said. “But, two, he understands that Trump in the general election is not going to be as helpful as he was in the primary.”

Jewett said the president’s approval rating is currently low. Even some Republican candidates have gently critiqued him, especially on immigration, a feature not unique to either party.

“A lot of Democrats tried to distance themselves at least somewhat from President Obama that time,” Jewett said. “You saw Republicans, again they’re not totally disowning [President Trump] but they begin to at least have some separation between the president, or at the very least, just not highlight the president so much.”

The Donalds campaign said he and the president are still close. His spokesperson said on X that reporting of a break between the two “doesn’t comport with reality.”

Meanwhile, Florida Democrats describe Donalds “frantically” distancing himself from the president.