Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) took aim at Democrats and liberal media Sunday night on Fox News, telling host Trey Gowdy that he and other black conservatives like Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) and ex-Rep. Mia Love (R-UT) are “vilified” because they shatter the myth that black Americans belong solely to the Democratic Party.
“We don’t fit the narrative,” Donalds said, pointing to President Trump’s growing pull with black voters—13% in 2024 per CNN’s exit polls, up from 12% in 2020 and 8% in 2016.
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Donalds leaned into the hostility he’d seen firsthand.
Gowdy recalled the “front-row seat” he had to racist jabs at Scott—like the “Uncle Tim” Twitter storm after his 2021 Biden rebuttal—and Love, recently diagnosed with terminal cancer, who was iced out by Ebony magazine in 2018 despite her historic stint as Utah’s first black congresswoman.
“They have to demonize us,” Donalds argued. “Black people are actually more conservative than the Democrat Party is.”
The Florida rep, now 46, traced his political awakening to age 30 when he realized his conservative streak didn’t go along with the left’s playbook.
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“I had to be able sell that—not just to myself and convince myself, but to convince people of my community to support me,” he told Gowdy. “That’s why that media has to vilify us and destroy us, but it’s not going to work. We are not going to stop.”
Trump’s February 20 endorsement of Donalds for Florida’s 2026 gubernatorial race—where Gov. Ron DeSantis can’t run again—amps up the stakes, signaling a rising star unfazed by the heat.
Donalds framed the attacks as a losing battle against a shifting tide.
The idea “that the Democrat Party is the only home for black people is simply not true,” he said, betting that resilience—and votes—will prove it. With Trump’s nod and a conservative wave in his sights, Donalds is digging in for the long haul.
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