What the GOP Doesn’t Want You to Know About the Gubernatorial Candidates

Florida Republicans are being asked to choose the next governor without a traditional debate stage.

The Republican Party of Florida originally announced it would coordinate statewide candidate debates for 2026, saying voters deserved a “clear, fair, and organized opportunity” to hear from candidates. But new party rules require candidates to meet a 10/10/10 threshold: 10 percent in polling, more than $10 million raised, and more than 10,000 donors. Under those rules, only Congressman Byron Donalds appears to qualify.

Governor Ron DeSantis has called that “counterproductive” and accused party leadership of trying to “engineer an outcome.” He is right about one thing: Republican voters deserve more than fundraising totals, endorsements, and controlled speeches.

So Tidings Media will do what the party will not. Over the next several weeks, we will publish deeper profiles of the Republican candidates for governor, including their records, campaign strategies, public policy positions, and the questions they should be asked.

Here is the starting field.

Byron Donalds

Credentials: U.S. Representative from Southwest Florida; former Florida House member; nationally known Trump ally.

Campaign strategy: Donalds is running as the Trump-backed frontrunner. His campaign is built around national Republican alignment, high-dollar fundraising, endorsements, and presenting himself as the candidate who can carry the MAGA coalition into Tallahassee.

Policy positions:

• Implement President Trump’s agenda in Florida.
• Crack down on illegal immigration and end taxpayer benefits for illegal immigrants.
• Address affordability, including property insurance and housing costs.
• Promote lower taxes, less regulation, school choice, and economic opportunity.
• Support Second Amendment rights, pro-life policies, and opposition to “woke” ideology in schools.
• Continue Everglades restoration, improve water quality, and protect beaches and natural resources.

Jay Collins

Credentials: Florida lieutenant governor; former state senator; decorated Green Beret; military amputee who continued serving after losing a leg.

Campaign strategy: Collins is running as the DeSantis-aligned warrior candidate. His message is service, discipline, public trust, and keeping Florida on the conservative path DeSantis built.

Policy positions:

• Put “Florida First” and resist Washington-driven chaos.
• Back law enforcement, support ICE, and target fentanyl networks.
• Reduce cost pressures from property taxes, property insurance, auto insurance, and housing.
• Support manufacturing, low taxes, less red tape, and job creation.
• Defend farmers, ranchers, water rights, and property rights.
• Improve schools with a focus on reading, math, workforce readiness, and civics.

Paul Renner

Credentials: Former Speaker of the Florida House; Navy veteran; former state prosecutor; former legislator; former member of the Florida Board of Governors.

Campaign strategy: Renner is running on his legislative record and trying to claim the “effective conservative” lane. His pitch is that he helped build the DeSantis-era Florida model and has already delivered results.

Policy positions:

• Defend the “Free State of Florida” record built during the DeSantis years.
• Promote tax cuts and government spending restraint.
• Support lawsuit reform and continued insurance market reforms.
• Support pro-life legislation and conservative social policy.
• Protect children from social media exploitation.
• Support school choice, election integrity, Everglades funding, and the Florida Wildlife Corridor.

James Fishback

Credentials: Businessman; founder of Azoria; fourth-generation Floridian; online conservative activist.

Campaign strategy: Fishback is running as an insurgent, anti-establishment candidate. His campaign focuses on affordability, anti-globalist themes, development pressure, farmland, private equity, and data centers.

Policy positions:

• Oppose unchecked data center development and projects voters “didn’t vote for.”
• Protect farmland from disappearing under development pressure.
• Challenge private equity ownership of neighborhoods and housing.
• Attack inflation and affordability pressures on Florida families.
• Present himself as a DeSantis-style successor rather than a party-establishment candidate.

Jim Holcomb

Credentials: Qualified Republican candidate for governor.

Campaign strategy: Holcomb is part of the broader Republican field but has not received the same statewide media attention, polling attention, or platform visibility as Donalds, Collins, Renner, Fishback, or Rodriguez.

Publicly available policy profile:

• A detailed campaign platform was not readily available from major public sources at publication time.
• Voters should ask Holcomb directly about property insurance.
• Voters should ask where he stands on growth, development, and infrastructure.
• Voters should ask whether he supports the DeSantis record or wants a different direction.
• Voters should ask how he would compete in a general election.
• Voters should ask whether he supports open debates for every qualified Republican candidate.

Arthur Joseph McCaffrey

Credentials: Qualified Republican candidate from Venice, Florida.

Campaign strategy: McCaffrey appears to be running as a lower-profile grassroots or outsider candidate.

Publicly available policy profile:

• Public candidate databases identify elections as one of his stated issue areas.
• Voters should ask his position on election integrity and ballot access.
• Voters should ask how he would address property taxes and insurance.
• Voters should ask whether he supports party-controlled debate thresholds.
• Voters should ask how he would govern differently from DeSantis.
• Voters should ask whether he supports local control on growth and development.

Daniel Nokovich

Credentials: Qualified Republican candidate for governor.

Campaign strategy: Nokovich is a lower-profile candidate who has qualified for the ballot but has not yet broken through in statewide press or polling.

Publicly available policy profile:

• A detailed campaign platform was not readily available from major public sources at publication time.
• Voters should ask his position on property insurance.
• Voters should ask his position on taxes and state spending.
• Voters should ask his position on education and parental rights.
• Voters should ask his position on immigration enforcement in Florida.
• Voters should ask whether every qualified Republican should be allowed to debate.

Rachel Rodriguez

Credentials: Attorney; business builder; working mother; Cuban-American Republican candidate.

Campaign strategy: Rodriguez is running as a faith-forward, medical-freedom, anti-establishment conservative. Her campaign argues that Florida needs a “servant leader,” not another career politician.

Policy positions:

• Restore health freedom, protect informed consent, and penalize mandates.
• Relieve working families through tax cuts, insurance reform, HOA accountability, and reduced red tape.
• Reform the courts with greater transparency and accountability.
• Reclaim parental rights in education, health care, and family matters.
• Reserve Florida’s land by protecting coastlines, wetlands, farmland, water, and food security.

James W. Shaw

Credentials: Qualified Republican candidate; identified in public candidate summaries as a farmer.

Campaign strategy: Shaw appears to be a low-profile candidate whose candidacy may appeal to voters looking for a non-politician or rural voice.

Publicly available policy profile:

• A detailed campaign platform was not readily available from major public sources at publication time.
• Voters should ask his position on agriculture and farmland protection.
• Voters should ask his position on water, development, and rural infrastructure.
• Voters should ask his position on property taxes.
• Voters should ask his position on state spending.
• Voters should ask whether rural Florida is being ignored in the governor’s race.

Caneste Succe

Credentials: Qualified Republican candidate; listed in public summaries as a public representative.

Campaign strategy: Succe is part of the qualified Republican field but remains largely unknown statewide.

Publicly available policy profile:

• A detailed campaign platform was not readily available from major public sources at publication time.
• Voters should ask what constituency he believes is being ignored.
• Voters should ask his position on affordability.
• Voters should ask his position on education.
• Voters should ask his position on public safety.
• Voters should ask whether party debate rules protect voters or protect frontrunners.

Bobby Williams

Credentials: Qualified Republican candidate; described in public summaries as an activist and food bank volunteer.

Campaign strategy: Williams appears to be running as a grassroots conservative candidate with a community-service background.

Publicly available policy profile:

• A detailed campaign platform was not readily available from major public sources at publication time.
• Voters should ask how his food bank and volunteer experience would shape his approach to poverty and affordability.
• Voters should ask his position on housing and inflation.
• Voters should ask his position on education and parental rights.
• Voters should ask his position on public safety.
• Voters should ask whether grassroots candidates are being shut out by party debate rules.

Why This Matters

This race is not only about Donalds, Collins, Renner, Fishback, or any one candidate. It is about whether Republican voters get to compare the field before the primary.

The next governor will inherit a fast-growing state with serious problems: property insurance, housing affordability, infrastructure strain, school accountability, water quality, development pressure, and an increasingly expensive cost of living.

A debate would not solve those issues. But it would force candidates to defend their records and answer the same questions in front of the same voters at the same time.

If the party will not give voters that opportunity, media outlets, civic groups, and voters should create it themselves.

Tidings Media will continue this series with deeper profiles of each candidate in the Republican primary.

Footnotes

1. Florida Division of Elections, Candidate Listing for 2026 Governor’s Race.
2. Republican Party of Florida, January 2026 announcement on statewide Republican candidate debates.
3. Reporting on RPOF 10/10/10 debate thresholds and Governor DeSantis’ criticism of the debate rules.
4. Byron Donalds campaign website, “On the Issues.”
5. Jay Collins campaign website, “Where Jay Stands.”
6. Paul Renner campaign website, biography, record, and issues.
7. James Fishback campaign website.
8. Rachel Rodriguez campaign website, biography and “5 R’s” policy agenda.
9. Ballotpedia and public candidate summaries for lower-profile qualified Republican candidates.

Subscribe to Tidings Media

Florida politics is changing quickly, and many of the most important stories never make national headlines. Subscribe free to Tidings Media for local headlines, state government coverage, civic updates, weather alerts, and practical Florida news without the clutter.

Subscribe free at Tidings.town.news.

About Tidings Media

Stay connected with Tidings Media: Tidings Media offers local curated news for Tampa, Tallahassee, Miami, Jacksonville, Orlando, Port St. Lucie, Fort Lauderdale, Cape Coral, Hialeah, Hollywood, Pembroke Pines, and Zephyrhills. Subscribe free at Tidings.town.news for local headlines, weather alerts, civic updates, practical Florida news, and community stories without the clutter.