Byron Donalds (X Profile: @ByronDonalds) is the Heir Presumptive to the Governor’s Mansion in Tallahassee.
Go back and read that statement again, because it isn’t hyperbole – it’s what I posit is a neat, one sentence summation of Congressman Donalds’ bid to become of the Union’s most revered statemen.
The Campaign currently being run by Congressman Donalds harkens back to the way Electoral Politics was administered pre-2008:
- Endorsements from the right individuals and organisations meant everything. No candidate for any political office, whether it be municipal, county, state, or federal, was seen as a viable candidate for elected office is he was not endorsed by the individuals and organisations deemed “polite” by the Established Order.
- The Dollar Amount – and, more pointedly, the source of the funds – in your Campaign War Chest was a clear signal to both the Electorate and the Established Order of how seriously you should be taken as a candidate for Elected Office. If your Campaign War Chest is adequate, you were seen as a viable candidate by the Established Order. However, if the primary source of the funds in your War Chest is from Campaign Merchandise Sales and/or Donations from the non-Upper Middle and Working Classes, you were deemed to have raised those funds via questionable methods and thus, dismissed as not viable.
- Polling produced by Organisations deemed “polite” by the Established Order was used to demonstrate the inevitability of the “polite” candidate.
- A candidate was only seen as viable if it was “his turn” to seek the Elected Office in question. You were deemed as “impolite” for even attempting to upset an un-written “Line of Succession” to a particular Elected Office.
- The Media’s object was to reinforce the entire Electoral Apparatus.
- Your Manifesto was of no significant consequence, as the Democrats and Republicans were both Centrist Parties dedicated to achieving the Objects as set forth by the Established Order.
These are the Tenets that under-pinned the Age of Performative Politics. Congressman Donalds’ Gubernatorial Campaign is being run staunchly along these lines, which can only mean one thing: Congressman Donalds is a Performative Politician.
But that is not the only issue I have with Congressman Donalds.
One of my biggest concerns is that none of the Republican Candidates seeking to represent the Republican Party of Florida in the November 2026 Gubernatorial Election possess the level of bureaucratic skill necessary to Administer one of the Union’s most politically and economically important states.
Political Executives at the Municipal, County and State level must be considerably more bureaucratic than charismatic, as his office requires him to be actively and aggressively engaged with the mechanisms of the state in order to ensure that they are operating at a level that effectively and efficiently delivers to constituents.
By contrast, Federal Elected Officials need not be as bureaucratic as Political Executives at the Municipal, County and State levels, as the vast majority of “Federated Services” (most of which as prima facie un-constitutional) are performed by the Federal Civil Service that forms a de facto separate Branch of Government. Congressmen don’t even need to know how to craft Policy, as think tanks perform this function for them. Therefore, the only thing that Federal Elected Officials need to be expressly competent at is being charismatic.
I posit that the more prominent the Republican Candidates seeking to accede the Governor’s Mansion in Tallahassee are all more charismatic than they are bureaucratic. This means, then, that no matter which of them accedes the Governor’s Mansion, Florida is about to undergo some serious “Administrative Headwinds.” Congressman Donalds is the most worrying amongst the prominent candidates because he is largely a Performative Politician.
My other major issue with Congressman Donalds is that he is married to a non-Black Woman and has sired non-Black Children. While this is a non-issue for the “Big Tent” that the Republican Party has become since the early 2020’s, I find this to be deeply problematic. Mixed Race people are just that – mixed race. They are not one race or the other, nor are they half of one race and half of the other – they are something altogether new. And this is precisely what the Status Quo wants: for everyone to be so “mixed race” that no one can definitively belong to any group or to any land.
I oppose the entry of any man to elected office (I oppose the entry of women to office, whether elected or not), at any level, engaged in miscegenation. I realise that this not a popular position but I nonetheless stand ardently by it.
Now, on to the Analysis of Congressman Donalds’ Gubernatorial Manifesto
LaunchPad
Congressman Donalds’ proposed LaunchPad Initiative appears, on its face, to be a move in the right direction where it concerns moving the state’s workforce from largely low-skilled to at least majority high-skilled.
If I were appointed Florida Commissioner of Education, what I would do is re-structure the state’s K-12 Education System to (wait for it) look more like New York’s.
Elementary School would be structed so that pupils (especially after 3rd grade) who display higher levels of competency in some subjects over others to be in Honors/Advanced/Special Programmes for those subjects.
Junior and Senior High School would re-structed with some being College Preparatory and some being focused squarely on Vocational Education, with the College Preparatory students graduating with a High School Diplomma and the first two years of University Instruction complete, and the Vocational Education students graduating with a High School Diplomma and a Licence and Work Experience necessary to enter the state’s workforce in a Vocation. A state-wide, standard examination upon the completion of Elementary School would determine whether a pupil gets placed on a College Preparatory or Vocational Track.
The Vocations available to become licenced in at the Vocational Schools would be directly correlated to the blue-collar sectors that the state’s economy foresees it will need more qualified individuals to enter in order to remain viable. The Work Experience that Vocation-based pupils will be required to earn as part of their education will begin with the summer term while in Junior High School and extend into the end of the 10th Grade, with the pupil working full-time in the vocation in question from end of the 11th Grade to the end of the 12th Grade.
Vocation-based students are qualified to earn the Licence in question by completing whatever state-based examination other individuals are required to complete. Vocation-based pupils will still be required to complete whatever would be typically required to enter one of the state’s (Community) Colleges. This means that a large swath of the Senior High School Education for Vocation-based students would largely disappear.
Vocation-based pupils who later decide to pursue Higher Education and College Preparatory-based pupils who later decide to pursue a Vocation, would have the option to do so via the state’s (Community) Colleges.
These changes would have the result of not centralising the allocation of Labour in Tallahassee while also fundamentally changing the K-12 Education System to suit the demands of a rapidly evolving economy. There would, in theory, be more Vocational Schools than College Preparatory School, and the state’s (Community) Colleges would likely see increased enrollment in some areas and a complete closure of some Departments/Programmes in other areas. All of that will be necessary in order to take Florida from being a state brimming with low-skilled workers to one where the workers have received an education that will leave them prepared to command a living wage.
Instead, Congressman Donalds proposes an initiative that centralises how economic opportunities will be allocated in order to keep the citisenry reliant on the state.
Most Transparent Government in America
Congressman Donalds’ Plan to Make Tallahassee the Most Transparent Government in America is an excellent concept. Save that such an initiative does not expand the state’s Civil Service, I have no critiques to offer on this Plank of the Congressman’s Gubernatorial Manifesto.
Insurer Scorecard
While reviewing Fishback’s Campaign Manifesto, I opined that I wasn’t sure what my position should be on the state’s growing issue with Insurance.
While Congressman Donalds’ Manifesto doesn’t move me definitely in one direction or the other, the Congressman’s Plan to Make Insurance Companies Compete in Plain Sight is an excellent concept. Particularly, his Plan centres on a re-vamped Rate Comparison Tool that will allow consumers to “to compare insurance rates on automobile, health and home insurance.” Access to data in a digestible format gives the consumer increased buying power. That is is crucial in Florida, especially when it comes to Insurance of all types.
One of the questions that I would like to ask each Gubernatorial Candidate is: what is your position on Government Sponsored Insurance? Homeowners in Florida are quickly running out of viable options for Home Insurance, with the state becoming the ultimate default Insurer. That is not a viable position for a U.S. state to be in, and IS an issue that has to be resolved, poste haste.
Save that such an initiative does not expand the state’s Civil Service, I have no critiques other critiques to offer on this Plank of the Congressman’s Gubernatorial Manifesto.
Zero Tolerance, Zero Dollars
I am in agreement with this portion of Congressman Donalds’ Gubernatorial Manifesto and have no critiques or counter-proposals to offer.
Your Doctor, Your Price
I am in agreement with this portion of Congressman Donalds’ Gubernatorial Manifesto.
The only critique I have to offer is that the changes he proposes may require the state Legislation – unless the state Legislature has already granted the Florida Department of Health the authority to make such changes.
I do my best to stay away from the Mainstream Health Care System, as it is focused on Reactive, rather than Proactive and Preventative, Medicine – and is therefore extremely predatory, ginning up fears in consumers to keep them locked into their system.
I do not negate that health care is expensive in the United States. I believe that it IS expensive because Health Insurance Plans are obliged to cover what Automobile Insurance does not: maintenance.
A Health Insurance Plan that ONLY covers the full cost of surgery, rehabilitative care, and treatment for serious illnesses (think: cancer) would be far more valuable than your standard Health Insurance Policy, which makes too much hay of how much of your Annual Check-Up and Prescription Medication Bills the consumer covers.
Florida Means Business
Congressman Donalds’ Plan to ensure that Florida remains the best state in Union to start a business is solid.
However, given his endorsement and connections, I question whom a streamlined system that cuts red tape (which, in of itself is a GOOD thing) will really serve.
Student Success Plans
While I commend Congressman Donalds’ effort here, the problem with the education to career pipeline is bigger than he – and most political officials – realises, and thus, requires a bigger, bolder solution: the total re-structuring of the state’s K-12 system.
See my notes above in LaunchPad, above.
Much of what Congressman Donalds lays forth here should already be part of the K-12 system. The problem, however, is that the Status Quo don’t want the state’s K-12 system to be changed because that would mean U.S. companies would have to pay Americans and U.S. Citisens competitive wages – instead of importing foreign labour, paid at cheaper prices.
Read to Succeed
Congressman Donalds opens this Plank of his Gubernatorial Manifesto with the following statement:
“As a parent, there is nothing more magical than reading to your children.”
The primary educators of children are their parents. The problem is two-fold: the modern day parent does not see himself as his child’s primary educator, and the state, who has assumed this function, does not wish to equip children with a proper education, as they will become citisens that can adequately and vigorously challenge the authority of the state.
I do not challenge whether or not reading is fundamental – it indeed is. What I do challenge, however, is the fact that NO ONE is holding parents, the primary educators of children, responsible for their role in failing to ensure that their children receive the kind of education necessary to command a living wage in the economy.
Alongside this, I hold firm to my earlier assessment: the state’s K-12 system needs bold, radical change in order to ensure that pupils leave it with not just the skills to command a living wage in a rapidly changing economy, but to hold the state to account.
See my notes above in LaunchPad, above.
Concluding Notes
I am shocked by what I have not found in Congressman Donalds’ Gubernatorial Manifesto:
- Their is ZERO mention of how legal and illegal immigration has negatively impacted the state. Any Republican Candidate not making the connection between the “Cost of Living Crisis” and legal and illegal immigration lacks a fundamental understanding of the realities on the ground, is not to be taken seriously, and cannot be trusted with any political power.
- Their is ZERO mention of how he plans to protect, preserve and defend Florida’s ecology. Ecological Preservation Initiatives are at the heart of preserving the state. That the Heir Presumptive to the Governor’s Mansion in Tallahassee has over-looked this fact in crafting his Gubernatorial Manifesto is concerning.
- Their is ZERO mention of how he plans to pay for any of his new Initiatives, nor any mention of how he plans to continue on the stellar fiscal track that @RonDeSantis has put the state on. This sends the signal that Congressman Donalds is not at all concerned with the Fiscal Position of the state.
I will close this Commentary the way I opened it, but with a bit more clarity:
Congressman Donalds is the Heir Presumptive to the Governor’s Mansion in Tallahassee.
But – Heir Presumptive isn’t the same as Heir Apparent.