Byron Donalds took his campaign to a Kissimmee church Monday afternoon, rallying supporters alongside running mate Bryan Ávila as Democratic rival David Jolly kept his focus squarely on overhauling Florida's homeowners insurance system. With five weeks left before Election Day, the Florida governor's race remains expected to be tight, and the two campaigns are drawing increasingly sharp contrasts over how to ease costs for homeowners across the state.
Donalds and Ávila appeared at Nación de Fe Church in Kissimmee as part of what the campaign calls its Defending the Florida Dream Tour, according to WESH. Ávila used the stop to criticize what he described as policies promoted by the radical left, while the pair urged Florida not to follow the path of Democratic-led states like California, Illinois and New York. Donalds told the crowd that Florida voters will choose conservative policy over the next 36 days, framing the election as a continuation of Gov. Ron DeSantis's conservative agenda.
Property taxes were central to the pitch. Donalds voiced support for Amendment 3, telling supporters that homeowners need property tax relief. The measure, which appears on Florida's November 3 ballot, would raise the non-school homestead tax exemption to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028 while cutting the annual assessment growth cap on non-homestead properties from 10% to 5%, according to the Florida Division of Elections. State economists cited by 1000 Friends of Florida project the amendment would cut local government property tax revenues by roughly $5 billion in its first year and $12 billion by its fifth, a hit that opponents warn could squeeze municipal budgets for public safety, infrastructure and parks. Jolly opposes the amendment.
Jolly Targets Insurers Over Denied Claims and Shifted Profits
While Donalds worked the Kissimmee crowd, Jolly kept hammering what he calls a broken homeowners insurance system, per the same WESH report. He argues undercapitalized insurance firms in Florida deny half of claims when storms hit, while shifting profits out of state and retaining losses within Florida's own reinsurance backstop, sometimes called the hurricane fund, which is used to bail out insurers after major storms.
Jolly's answer is a state catastrophe fund that would remove wind and hurricane coverage from the private market entirely. His campaign says the approach could cut homeowners insurance premiums by 60% to 70%, addressing a market where average annual home insurance premiums were reported at $7,136 in a July 2024 Insure.com article, according to his campaign site. He has said he is prepared to act through executive orders if lawmakers do not move first.
Those executive orders would define what counts as fair and reasonable financial standards for insurers and cap transfers to corporate affiliates at 20%, according to Florida Politics. Jolly has cited state data showing insurers transferred $1.3 billion in affiliate net income between 2017 and 2019 while reporting $432 million in Florida market losses. Current state law requires such transfers to be fair and reasonable but sets no fixed statutory percentage cap.
Fact-Check Pushes Back on Donalds' Ad Over Jolly's Plan
The insurance fight has already spilled into the airwaves. A PolitiFact fact-check published Monday found that a Donalds television ad claiming Jolly's plan would impose a $1,000 hurricane tax oversimplified a 2024 Florida State University study, as reported by Tampa Bay Times.
Trump Weighs In as Donalds' Website Draws Scrutiny
The Kissimmee rally came days after former President Donald Trump publicly responded to reports that Donalds was distancing himself from Trump's endorsement. Trump wrote that if it were true that Byron had dropped him, he would lose the election, while also saying Donalds would be a fantastic governor, according to the WESH account. The comments followed a website monitoring analysis showing at least eight explicit Trump references, including a prominent Trump-Endorsed banner and a photo of the two men together, had been removed from the homepage of Donalds' campaign site in favor of messaging centered on Florida affordability, as detailed by Forbes. Hoodline previously reported on the site's Trump purge before the ad fight escalated.
Trump has touted two planned Florida rallies, though dates for his appearances have not been confirmed. Vice President JD Vance is scheduled to appear alongside Donalds at a midterm rally in Lakeland on Thursday, marking the first of multiple White House-backed events planned across Florida before the November 3 election, according to Florida Politics.
Registration Gap Still Looms Over a Close Race
Jolly chose former Congresswoman Gwen Graham, daughter of former Gov. Bob Graham, as his running mate, according to the Associated Press. The cross-party pairing underscores the coalition-building strategy Democrats are counting on in Florida. With polling tight and five weeks remaining, both campaigns appear to be betting that pocketbook issues, insurance premiums for Jolly and property taxes for Donalds, will decide the governor's race.
