Frontrunner for Florida governor Byron Donalds meets with faith leaders in Winter Garden

Just three days after he was on Fox News’ “Saturday in America” sharing his faith redemption story with host Kayleigh McEnany, Florida gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds was doing the same in Winter Garden.

Donalds, the President Donald Trump-endorsed frontrunner to succeed Gov. Ron DeSantis in Tallahassee, met with faith leaders from throughout Central Florida Tuesday, June 16, at the West Orange Dream Center. During the hourlong discussion, Donalds not only shared his now-famous Cracker Barrel testimony but also fielded questions from leaders representing more than 20 different congregations and organizations.

“The vision of Florida is very simple: We are the best state in America; we have to keep it that way,” Donalds said. “But at its core, it’s going to be built around a number of things. First: Law and order is still going to remain the principle. Common sense is still the principle. Conservatism is still the principle. Those are going to remain.

“I want everybody to live the Florida dream,” he said. “I want every kid in our state to be able to build it for themselves. And I want the people who currently live in it to be able to still afford it going forward. We’re the best state. … But listen: Getting to No. 1 is hard. Staying at No. 1 is harder.”

ON AFFORDABILITY
Donalds said affordability is, by far, the most pressing concern among Floridians.

“It’s multifaceted,” he said. “First is just housing. … How we address housing costs is essentially (to speed) up the way local governments permit these jobs. ... The permitting process makes a construction job more expensive. … The longer government takes to permit that job, the more expensive the job is. ... And the developers and the contractors are not eating the cost. They pass that cost on to the end user.”

Beyond housing, insurance costs also are a major concern among Florida voters, Donalds said.

“Property insurance for homeowners has risen dramatically the last seven years,” he said. “The governor’s tort reform — we’re going to keep that in place. It is starting to show that the insurance (costs are) coming down. We’re seeing that already in auto insurance. … For property and casualty — homeowners insurance. We want to bring reforms to the regulatory system that sets the framework for how housing is rated and insured. We believe we can lower cost 20% in the state of Florida with some of the housing insurance reforms that we’re going to look at.” 

The third piece, Donalds said, is up to voters.

“That’s the governor’s property tax amendment,” he said. “Early numbers that I’ve seen is that for homeowners, it could cut their property tax bill — depending on the value of the home — almost unilaterally when it comes to non-school expenses. For some homeowners, if you have a higher-value home, it could be a 25% decrease in your property taxes. That’s real money in your pocket every single month that helps people make ends meet.” 

And finally, Donalds’ administration would focus on health care costs and work to create an environment in which Floridians can shop for the lowest prices.

“We want to post a real cash price for the top 20 medical services provided by every doctor’s office, every clinic and every hospital,” he said. “What we know about price transparency is that in any market where there (are) transparent prices, prices stabilize, and in some respects, prices come down, because everybody who is trying to get your business is trying to compete.

“We want to get rid of prior authorizations, which slow down the ability for people to get the health care they need,” Donalds said. “We want to break the in-network/out-of-network stuff — just because a doctor couldn’t negotiate with an insurance company. 

“We also want to look at how we deliver health care in the state of Florida,” he said. “The system that we have today is a sick care system. It is not a wellness system. So when we talk to the hospitals, the insurance carriers, the pharmaceutical companies and the doctors, everybody’s in agreement it’s not working the way it should. … We want to lead on designing health care delivery in our state with a goal of actually lowering those costs.

“If you could address health care costs, property insurance, rental rates and what it costs to build a home, you’ve addressed the core essence of the affordability issues that are impacting Florida families,” Donalds said.

ON CHURCHES’ ROLES IN GOVERNMENT
“We’re under this delusion, mostly from the left in America, that there’s some separation between church and state,” Donalds said. “That is not true. That is what Jefferson wrote to the Danbury Baptists in order for the Danbury Baptists to feel comfortable that they could come to, at that time, the Colonies … because they were witnessing the fact that the kings were using the church for whatever the king wanted. And that’s why Jefferson was very clear, and the framers were clear, that there is not going to be a national church that the government ordains and essentially utilizes for governmental purposes. 

“But that thought process … assumes that the church is to be removed from the public square,” he said. “Not true. The church is essential and a part of the public square and of public discourse.”

ON ABORTION
Despite Florida’s six-week ban on abortion, Donalds said this remains an issue. However, he said the pro-life proponent’s battle now is for hearts and minds.

“A lot of legal battles that have been won in the last three or five years have been great,” Donalds said. “But now, it’s about helping that young lady who did get pregnant to realize there is a community and a resource there to help her bring that child into this world. 

“I also think that there’s a lot of education around this,” he said. “If you look at polling, younger Americans are more pro-life than … Americans who are my age (47) or my mother’s generation. … That’s a good thing. It took us 100 years as a country to get to this position. Truthfully … you’re not going to unwind that overnight. … But when you’re dealing with people from a political, cultural, moral standpoint, you now have to win them over with empathy — not just politics. 

“As governor, we’re going to invest in pregnancy resource centers,” Donalds said. “We’re going to make sure that those centers are getting the care and the support and resources they need to be able to extend in those communities to help a young girl or to help a woman if they happen to end up pregnant and they don’t know what to do. And we want to be there to guide them, to help them in a direction that I believe they should go, which is bringing that child into the world, raising that child, and hopefully that young lady and the father can build a life together.”

ON PARTISAN POLITICS
“I’m a Republican; I have no desire to help either party,” Donalds said. “When I do this job, it’s not to the betterment of the Republican Party or to the detriment of the Democrat Party. … For me, it’s about … making sure the right policy is being done that is based upon common sense, that’s based on economic sense, that’s based on constitutionalism and that’s based on Western civilization. If you accomplish those four things ... the people we all serve ... thrive. The parties at that point become irrelevant. 

“As a Republican, half the time, when people don’t understand … where a Republican is coming from, it’s because they haven’t taken the time to engage that community — or just have a dialogue and have a conversation,” he said. “You have to engage people directly. They (have to) be able to see me, have a real conversation, talk about these issues in a much more detailed way — not just in a political talking point. And I think that’s actually what unites a community.”