Now Vance is hitting the campaign trail as Republicans work to keep the governor’s mansion in GOP hands.
Speaking before Republican voters in Lakeland on Thursday, Vance framed the contest in stark terms.
“Florida is facing one of the easiest choices I have ever seen in politics in my entire life,” Vance said.
The vice president used the appearance to promote Donalds and Republican Senate candidate Ashley Moody while unloading on their Democratic opponents, David Jolly and Angie Nixon.
The event underscored just how much attention Republicans are giving Florida during the final stretch of the 2026 midterm campaign.
Donalds and Jolly offer voters two markedly different political paths.
Donalds entered Congress in 2021 and became a prominent conservative voice in Washington. President Donald Trump backed his gubernatorial campaign, and Donalds ultimately defeated a large Republican primary field that included Lt. Gov. Jay Collins and former state House Speaker Paul Renner.
Jolly has followed a very different political journey.
He served in Congress as a Republican from 2014 until 2017 before breaking with the GOP. He subsequently became an independent and eventually joined the Democratic Party.
His opposition to Trump became an important part of his post-congressional political identity.
Jolly argues that Florida’s political environment has changed enough to give Democrats an opportunity despite the party’s long statewide losing streak.
“If the election were tonight, we would win the general election in Florida as a Democratic candidate,” Jolly told CNN before the primary results were announced.
He also pointed to voter dissatisfaction as a possible path forward.
“The cycle is presenting an opportunity where voters are just screaming for change,” he said.
Republicans nevertheless enter the final campaign stretch with major advantages built during Florida’s political transformation over the last decade.
Trump won Florida by roughly 13 percentage points in the 2024 presidential election, while DeSantis secured reelection by nearly 20 points two years earlier.
Republicans have also accumulated a substantial voter-registration advantage in a state that was once considered one of America’s quintessential political battlegrounds.
But the 2026 governor’s race has recently shown signs of being more competitive than those previous results might suggest.
A September poll reported by Florida Politics showed Donalds at 44% and Jolly at 43%, a statistical dead heat. Other recent surveys have produced different margins, illustrating the uncertainty surrounding the contest as Election Day approaches.
The Cook Political Report has also shifted its assessment of the race, moving it from Likely Republican to Lean Republican in early October.
That tightening political environment helps explain why Vance appeared personally in Lakeland.
He praised Donalds as an “amazing warrior” for Florida and argued that Donalds and other Republican candidates share the Trump administration’s priorities.
“What Ashley and Byron want is not complicated. It’s simple, and it used to be — even 20 or 30 years ago — it was bipartisan. It was simple. They want good jobs for Floridians, they want happy families, they want safe streets, and they want healthy food for you and for your children. It’s the same thing that President Trump and I want. It’s the same thing we fight for, nationwide, every single day in our administration.”
Donalds also used the rally to contrast himself with Jolly on issues including gun policy and transgender rights.
“This campaign is not just about defending our future, which is right here on the marquee. This is about defending the Florida dream. We are going to protect the beauty of our state. We are going to protect the freedoms of our state. We are going to protect the children of our state because that is how we remain No. 1.”
Democrats are offering a sharply different account of the election.
Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried argued Thursday that Republicans are confronting dissatisfaction among their own voters.
“There is an enthusiasm gap with the Republicans. They are frustrated and angry. They are angry at the corruption coming out of D.C., and they are angry at the corruption coming out of Tallahassee,” Fried said.
That disagreement now goes directly to Florida voters.
Donalds is campaigning on continued Republican control of a state that has moved substantially toward the GOP, backed by Trump and reinforced by high-profile appearances from Vance.
Jolly is trying to assemble a different coalition — Democrats, independents and Republicans dissatisfied with the direction of the party he once represented.
Florida’s recent election history provides Republicans with substantial structural advantages, but the latest polling and ratings indicate that both campaigns have reason to treat the remaining weeks seriously.
After decisive primary victories settled the nominees in August, the Florida governor’s race has now become a direct contest between two former congressional colleagues who ended up on opposite sides of one of the country’s most consequential political realignments.
And on November 3, Florida voters will decide which of those paths takes control of the governor’s mansion.
