Rep. Byron Donalds has selected Florida state Sen. Bryan Avila as his running mate, adding a Cuban-American military officer and veteran state lawmaker to the Republican ticket in Florida’s race for governor.
Donalds announced the decision Tuesday at Miami’s historic Freedom Tower, calling Avila a “proven warrior” and “conservative fighter” who has battled higher taxes, rising costs and “woke ideology” in Tallahassee.
“He has fought woke ideology, he’s fought higher taxes, he’s fought higher costs every single day, and I could not be more proud to have him stand by my side,” Donalds said, according to The Hill.
The announcement came one week after Donalds won the Republican primary to succeed term-limited Gov. Ron DeSantis. He will face Democratic nominee David Jolly, a former Republican congressman who joined the Democratic Party in 2025, in November.
Avila has represented portions of Miami-Dade County in the Florida Senate since 2022. Before moving to the Senate, he served eight years in the Florida House, including two years as speaker pro tempore.
The Hialeah native currently chairs the Florida Senate’s Finance and Tax Committee and serves as vice chair of its Transportation Committee. He has also served as a captain in the Florida Army National Guard since 2016, according to his official Senate biography.
Donalds emphasized Avila’s personal connection to Florida’s large Cuban-American community, describing him as the son of Cuban exiles who fled communism in search of freedom.
“My parents escaped communist Cuba because they believed America offered something socialism never could — freedom,” Avila said in remarks reported by WFLA.
Avila pledged that the Republican ticket would build on DeSantis’ conservative legacy, make Florida more affordable, protect public safety and defend the freedoms that have attracted millions of new residents to the state.
The selection also strengthens Donalds’ presence in heavily Hispanic South Florida. Avila’s district includes part of Miami-Dade County, while Donalds has represented a Southwest Florida congressional district since 2021.
Donalds enters the general election with the enthusiastic backing of President Donald Trump, a friend and political ally who helped propel his gubernatorial campaign from the beginning.
Their alliance became especially visible during the 2024 presidential race. Donalds endorsed Trump over his own governor, DeSantis, and became one of the Trump campaign’s most prominent congressional surrogates. He appeared at campaign events across the country and helped lead the campaign’s outreach to Black voters.
Trump returned that loyalty in February 2025, endorsing Donalds before the congressman had formally entered the governor’s race. Trump personally called Donalds before urging him to run in a Truth Social post declaring, “Run, Byron, Run!”
Donalds responded at the time by thanking Trump and promising, “I will never let you down,” according to WUSF.
The president reaffirmed his support ahead of Florida’s primary, describing Donalds as a “total winner” and saying he would work closely with the White House to advance the America First agenda in Tallahassee.
“Byron Donalds will be a truly Great and Powerful Governor for Florida,” Trump wrote while reiterating his “Complete and Total Endorsement,” according to Space Coast Daily.
If elected, Donalds would become Florida’s first Black governor. His partnership with Avila would unite two politically important parts of the state while pairing Trump’s chosen candidate with a lawmaker deeply rooted in Miami-Dade’s Cuban-American community.
Jolly responded to Avila’s selection by arguing that Trump—not Donalds’ running mate—would remain the central issue in the campaign.
“This race won’t come down to Byron Donalds’ relationship with Avila; it will come down to Byron’s relationship with Donald Trump,” Jolly said in a statement reported by WFLA.
Donalds, however, mocked the opposing Jolly-Gwen Graham ticket as “boring” and tied Florida Democrats to state Rep. Angie Nixon, a Democratic Socialists of America member who won the party’s U.S. Senate nomination last week.
“They’ve joined forces to create the most boring and uninspiring ticket Florida Democrats could have ever put together,” Donalds told supporters.
Republicans will begin the general-election campaign with a sizable historical advantage. No Democrat has won a Florida governor’s race since 1994, and DeSantis carried the state by nearly 20 percentage points in 2022.
With Avila now at his side and Trump firmly behind him, Donalds is pitching the Republican ticket as the team that will preserve Florida’s conservative direction—and keep one of the nation’s most important states solidly red.
