Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) is running to be Florida’s next governor.

The Florida congressman announced his candidacy in the state’s 2026 gubernatorial race after President Donald Trump endorsed him for the position.

“I joined the tea party movement, was in the conservative movement, I was able to serve four years in the state legislature, four years in Congress, and now is the time to take the mantle and lead our state into the future,” he said on Fox News’s Hannity on Tuesday night.

“We have a great governor: Ron DeSantis has done a tremendous job for our state. Now, the job is to keep the best state in the country as the best state in the country,” he added.

Donalds teased the announcement last week during his address at the Conservative Political Action Conference. “As for me, stay tuned,” he said onstage.

Trump endorsed him last Thursday. The congressman said at CPAC the next day that it had “been an interesting 12 hours” since then.

“Florida is not going to stop leading,” Donalds said during his speech. “We’re going to build off of what we’ve done, and we are going to continue to lead bigger, better, faster, greater, safer, freer, because the American dream is for everybody, and we’re going to show the other 49 states how to get it done.”

BYRON DONALDS COMMANDS CROWD AT CPAC

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) declined to endorse Donalds when asked who he favors in the 2026 race on Monday amid rumors that his wife, Casey, could run.

“He just hasn’t been a part of any of the victories that we’ve had here, over the Left, over these last years,” DeSantis said of Donalds. “He’s been in other states, campaigning, doing that, and that’s fine, but OK, well then, deliver results up there.”