ORLANDO, Florida—Rep. Byron Donalds, who is running for governor in the Sunshine State in 2026, traces the political violence on the Left back to a desire to silence dissent as parents and others rise up against the Left’s divisive ideologies.
When asked about the assassination of Charlie Kirk and the text messages in which Jay Jones—the Virginia Democrat candidate for attorney general—fantasized about shooting his political opponent, Donalds connected the violence to dehumanizing rhetoric.
“There’s been a dehumanization, especially on the political Left, where if they can’t find a way to defeat your argument, they have to name call you, try to discredit you, dehumanize you, in order to get on even footing,” Donalds told The Daily Signal in an interview at the Moms for Liberty Joyful Warriors Summit on Saturday.
This rhetoric proves “quite destructive” because “mentally ill” people act on the vitriol, he warned.
Donalds added that what Jones said in the text messages “disqualified” the Democrat from becoming “the top cop in the state of Virginia.” He said he hopes Jones loses and predicted that the Jones’ scandal would “drag down” other Democrats in the Old Dominion.
Investigate Antifa
Donalds pledged that, if elected governor, he would investigate the left-wing groups behind Antifa rioters.
“The truth is that these left-wing groups are highly organized, highly financed,” he noted. “This stuff is not organic—it is the definition of astroturf. It’s done on purpose, it’s done to intimidate, it’s done to try to silence people who have different worldviews.”
He credited Florida’s current governor, Republican Ron DeSantis, with deciding to “battle the Left, battle the medical establishment during COVID, battling back and winning against the teachers unions.”
Donalds pledged to “build on top of that success,” in part by pursuing “further investigations” into left-wing violence.
Critical Race Theory
The congressman wholeheartedly condemned critical race theory, a Marxist lens by which teachers tell children that America is systemically racist and encourage a fundamental transformation of society. After the 2020 death of George Floyd, teachers pushed this theory in classrooms and companies began to adopt racial discrimination in the name of countering “systemic racism.”
“You can’t have something like critical race theory be the baseline of academics in elementary school, middle school, high school,” Donalds told The Daily Signal. “It can’t just run companies, you can’t have it run divisions of your firms, your organizations. That’s nuts.”
Donalds, a black man, acknowledged America’s complicated history with race but insisted that critical race theory twists the truth.
“We know America’s history. It’s not always been good, especially for black people in the country,” he admitted. “But to say today that black people are still in that same position as they were 70 years ago, 90 years ago, 100 years ago, 150 years ago, is also ridiculous, and we don’t need to be permeating a division between Americans today. It’s just not right.”
He said America should focus on “equality of access” and merit. “Merit is going to be the great driver of America, not just today, but going forward into the future.”
Donalds also noted that he and other black Republicans represent white voters in various parts of the country.
“Myself, Wesley Hunt, Burgess Owens, John James—we are all black men who represent majority-white districts,” he noted, referencing congressmen from Texas, Utah, and Michigan, respectively. “Tim Scott is the United States senator from South Carolina. South Carolina does have a strong black population, but it’s a predominantly white state. These are the facts.”
He accused the Left of pushing critical race theory to divide Americans “for political gain.”
“If it wasn’t profitable on the Left politically, they wouldn’t even care about it. They’d throw it overboard like they did Joe Biden,” he quipped.
Moms for Liberty
Donalds spoke at the Moms for Liberty summit, and he told The Daily Signal that the issue of parental rights started in Florida, was essential in Virginia’s 2021 election, and is “going to continue to be critical for every election going forward.”
He said parents want “full transparency” when it comes to what their children learn. “I think the days of them just being led around by the nose, by the medical establishment, or the education establishment—those days are over, and we’re not going to go back to them.”
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