As succession battle heats up, Ron DeSantis bashes Byron Donalds, boosts Casey DeSantis

Gov. Ron DeSantis is wading into the 2026 Governor’s race, taking shots at Donald Trump’s preferred candidate and boosting the First Lady as his logical successor.

“You got a guy like Byron Donalds, he just hasn’t been a part of any of the victories that we’ve had here over the Left over these last years. He’s just not been a part of it,” DeSantis said in Tampa.

“He’s been in other states campaigning, doing that, and that’s fine. But okay, well, then deliver results up there. You know, that’s what I want to see. I want to see them delivering results for the people of Florida. We deliver it here all the time for the people of Florida, and that’s what we need to be doing.”

The comments come as Donalds is ramping up a strong operation ahead of an increasingly likely 2026 bid.

Trump offered Donalds, a longtime ally in Congress, his endorsement last week. And Donalds has said his team is having “internal conversations” and that an announcement is coming soon. The potential candidate also has hired prominent campaign staffers like Trump pollster Tony Fabrizio.

DeSantis has been coy previously about Casey DeSantis running, but he is now changing his tune amid the Trump momentum for her potential Primary opponent.

“I was asked on it on Fox the other day about all these people (who) are chattering about her running. And what I said was that she’s never angled for anything, right? Because that’s just not who she is. I mean, she kind of, you know, does what she does,” DeSantis said.

He then said she was a stronger candidate than he was even in 2022.

“I won by the biggest margin that any Republican’s ever won a Governor’s race here in Florida. She would do better than me. Like, there’s no question about that. That would happen. And she’s somebody that has the intestinal fortitude and the dedication to conservative principles,” he added. “Anything we’ve accomplished, she’d be able to take to the next level.”

He then said long-deceased conservative leader Rush Limbaugh endorsed her years ago, as he was entranced by her uncompromising worldview at a dinner where she was “just holding court with Rush about conservatism and all this other stuff.”

“And you can see Rush, his eyes are lighting up because, you know, Rush would always say, ‘The spouses are more liberal and it pulls the office holder to the left.’ And in this case, he’s saying, like, that is not true,” DeSantis recalled.

“And so at the end of the dinner, he just put his finger in my chest. He’s like, ‘The only person I would rather have as my Governor than you is her.’ And he pointed at her. And I was like, that’s a pretty good endorsement there.”

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