Byron Donalds says his investments are above board, condemns attacks as politically motivated

Gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds is rebutting criticisms that his investments in equities are immoral or unethical, saying his broker manages his accounts via third-party trading authorization.

“I’ve always had them on my personal IRAs. Even when I worked in financial advising. And by the way, I’m securities licensed by trade. I managed other people’s money. So this is not a political talking point. I take this seriously because my own licenses depended on this,” Donalds said during a roundtable of faith leaders in Doral.

Opponents like Lt. Gov. Jay Collins and former House Speaker Paul Renner have criticized Donalds, accusing him of “enriching himself in office” and warning that Donalds’ trades as a member of Congress could become an issue if he is nominated by Republicans next month.

But Donalds, contrary to the insinuations and allegations, said he has nothing to do with trades made on his behalf.

“I have never initiated one stock trade as a member of Congress. I never have. I don’t even call my broker,” Donalds explained.

“My broker does it on my behalf because I gave him that authority and that authorization when I opened up the accounts. My adviser was actually my former senior partner in the firm I worked in. He manages all the money at that firm, and I don’t tell him what to trade or what not to trade because, quite frankly, it’s highly unethical. And I would never do that.”

Donalds said he started investing early in his career, back when he worked in financial services, rolling over his 401(k) into an IRA that is managed externally. Contrary to a narrative being pushed by political enemies, he said the record shows he is not profiting from public service.

“I filed my financial disclosure with the state of Florida to run for Congress — I mean, to run for Governor, excuse me. In that financial disclosure, my IRAs are a little over $280,000. That doesn’t sound like I was in Congress getting rich.”

The document reveals his investments are diversified across a number of equities, most of them very mainstream holdings common to 401(k)s and the like.

Donalds holds Amazon, Carnival Cruise Lines, Chipotle, Brown and Brown, Progressive, Tradeweb, IDEXX, McKesson, Zoetis, Comfort Systems, Howmet Aerospace, Parker-Hannifin, PayPal, Trane, Visa, Alphabet, Amphenol, Arista, Autodesk, Broadcom, Cadence Design, Fortinet, Intuit, Lam Research, Mastercard, Meta, Microsoft, Monolithic Power, NVIDIA, and the Trade Desk.

His largest single position is shy of $16,000, in Parker-Hannifin. Some of his positions are valued at under $4,000, meanwhile.

The holdings reflect his 2025 Form 6 disclosure and would not capture more recent purchases or sales.

The attacks are driven by political desperation, Donalds said.

“The reason why people do this kind of stuff in campaigns is because they can’t beat me on the issues. They can’t beat me amongst the people. So now they have to resort to lying,” he said, before seemingly alluding to Renner, with whom he served in the Florida House.

“There are people in this race who have known me for a decade, and now, all of a sudden, they want to throw this stuff against the wall. That’s how you know it’s politics. Because if it was an issue, why didn’t you bring this up nine years ago, or six years ago, or five years ago, or three years ago? You didn’t do that. They do it now because they’re losing in a race for Governor to me.”