Byron Donalds, the Republican nominee for Florida governor, hosted a community cookout Saturday at The Urban on NW 2nd Avenue in Overtown, folding the historically Black Miami neighborhood into his months-long “Defending the Florida Dream” tour exactly a month before the general election. The 12:30 p.m. gathering marked the latest stop in a campaign swing built around courting Black and Hispanic voters in a race that recent polling shows is remarkably close.
The Overtown stop was reported by Florida Politics, which has tracked the tour since it kicked off in The Villages back in April. Since then, Donalds launched a Latinos for Byron initiative at Hialeah Park in May, introduced Miami-Dade State Senator Bryan Avila as his running mate at the Freedom Tower in August, and held a town hall at Florida A&M University on September 29. Donalds clinched the Republican nomination on August 18 after capturing 47.8% of the statewide primary vote and 58% in Miami-Dade County, according to WLRN, in a crowded ten-candidate field that included former Lieutenant Governor Jay Collins.
The neighborhood Donalds chose for Saturday's cookout carries its own weight. Overtown was established in 1896 as “Colored Town” and grew into a thriving Black commercial and cultural hub known in the mid-20th century as the “Harlem of the South” and “Little Broadway,” according to Segregation by Design, a place where famous Black musicians stayed while performing at segregated Miami Beach venues.
Democratic Officials Cross Party Lines
Donalds' Overtown outreach follows a string of cross-party endorsements that his campaign has leaned on heavily. Gainesville City Commissioner Cynthia Chestnut, a Democrat and former state representative, endorsed Donalds, as did Haines City Commissioner Anne Huffman, also a Democrat, per the Florida Politics report. Chestnut told Mainstreet Daily News last month that she backed Donalds because Democratic nominee David Jolly's selection of Gwen Graham as his running mate created an “all-White ticket” that overlooked qualified Black and Hispanic leaders — an endorsement that drew sharp pushback from local Alachua County Democratic leaders.
Jolly, a former Republican congressman who represented Pinellas County's 13th District from 2014 to 2017 before leaving the GOP in 2018 and registering as a Democrat in April 2025, picked former U.S. Rep. Gwen Graham as his lieutenant governor candidate in June 2026, according to WLRN. Graham, daughter of late Florida Governor and U.S. Senator Bob Graham, previously finished second in the 2018 Democratic gubernatorial primary. Under Florida Statute § 99.061, gubernatorial candidates must formally designate a lieutenant governor running mate so both appear together on the general election ballot as a single ticket.
A Tightening Poll, A Wide Money Gap
The cookout comes as a St. Pete Polls survey conducted for Florida Politics found the governor's race essentially tied, with Donalds leading Jolly 44% to 43%. The same survey reported Donalds pulling 16% support among Black voters, a number his campaign has pointed to as evidence that his outreach tour is gaining traction beyond traditional GOP territory.
Money remains lopsided in Donalds' favor. As of September 11, Donalds had nearly $44 million on hand compared with roughly $6.3 million for Jolly, per the Florida Politics report. Donalds' campaign has also released a 60-second advertisement criticizing Jolly's debate record after Jolly declined to debate Donalds, and the dispute echoes an earlier flashpoint when the Tampa Tiger Bay Club said Donalds ducked a joint event with Jolly — a claim Donalds' campaign disputed.
Registration Gap Still Favors Republicans
Statewide numbers still tilt heavily toward Republicans. The Florida Division of Elections recorded a GOP lead of more than 1.5 million active registered voters over Democrats heading into September, according to the Tampa Bay Times. Even so, Florida Democrats added 29,633 active registered voters in September, narrowly outpacing the GOP's 29,140 additions for the party's first monthly net registration gain over Republicans in more than five years, Florida Politics reported separately.
Mail voting patterns are also shifting into view ahead of November. County election supervisors had distributed nearly 1.5 million vote-by-mail ballots statewide by late September, with registered Democrats requesting roughly 660,000 compared with 485,000 sent to registered Republicans, according to CBS News Miami. Miami-Dade voters specifically began receiving their vote-by-mail ballots on September 24.
Donalds, who has represented Florida's 19th Congressional District covering Naples, Fort Myers, and Cape Coral since January 2021 after two terms in the Florida House, is seeking to become the state's first Black governor. His Overtown stop adds another data point to a race where the structural numbers favor Republicans but the polling margin remains thin, with both campaigns racing to turn out supporters before Election Day.
