Byron Donalds seizes Florida governor's mansion, a historic first

Byron Donalds is heading to the Florida governor's mansion. NBC News projects the Republican beat Democrat David Jolly, keeping the GOP's grip on the statehouse running for nearly three decades.

When he's sworn in next year, Donalds becomes Florida's first Black governor — and the fifth Republican in a row to hold the job.

The money gap told the story early. Donalds pulled in $130 million, a haul that dwarfed Jolly's operation and left the Democrat leaning on little national party support. Florida hasn't put a Democrat in the governor's office since 1994, and Republicans have treated the state as friendly turf ever since.

Jolly, a former Republican congressman who switched parties, did manage to keep the final margin closer than Ron DeSantis' last win, which came by more than 20 points. But he spent much of the race fighting for attention and cash he never got.

The debate stage stayed empty. Jolly refused to share one with Donalds, a call that drew flak from Republicans and Democrats alike. Donalds hammered him for "hiding" from voters — he stuck Jolly with the nickname "angry Jolly" — while Jolly said flatly in September, "You can't debate a liar."

Donalds also worked to tie Jolly to Democratic Senate candidate Angie Nixon, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, telling Fox News that "Florida rejects socialism" and that both candidates were too far left for the state. Jolly mostly kept his distance from Nixon and played the moderate, even telling Floridians in October to follow DeSantis' directions as Hurricane Isaias bore down on the Panhandle, calling the governor a capable leader in a storm response, according to NBC News. He rarely appeared publicly with Nixon and leaned on selective praise for DeSantis to sell himself to the middle — a stretch that didn't land on election night.