Governor of Florida · Open seat · Republican and Democratic primaries August 18, 2026 · General November 3, 2026
Florida governor 2026: the Tuesday field, scored the same after the primary
This governor’s race is an open seat, and that’s why it’s been the argument at so many kitchen tables. Governor Ron DeSantis is term-limited. In a deep-red state, the August 18, 2026 Republican primary was the main conservative decision point. Democrats nominated the same day. Nominees meet on November 3, 2026.
Unofficial election-night tables: Byron Donalds won the Republican primary and David Jolly won the Democratic primary. Those two are the November pair unless the canvass changes it. We’re not going to pretend the rest of the room vanished. We scored the Tuesday field, and a win does not raise a score. If Fishback’s Christian number was the one that caught your eye last week, the Jesus trail is still why he sits high. The card is 41 now, not 44 — we docked the how, not the faith. Donalds is still 36 / 29 / 20. The November ballot is just shorter.
Scores are Christian / Constitution / GOP out of 45 / 35 / 20. The letter is the 100-point total. Rubric: how we score. Badges: callout badges explained.
The four Republican cards we looked hardest at
Four Republicans have grade-A cards and the thickest statewide trail in our file: James Fishback, Byron Donalds, Paul Renner, and Jay Collins. They are not clones. Unofficially, only Donalds is still on the November style. The other three stay here as Tuesday’s field.
James Fishback (R) — 41 / 35 / 15 · A
Fishback is still the highest Christian score in the Republican field (41/45) and the highest Constitution score (35/35). The GOP number is 15 — below the institutional contenders — because this campaign is an America First / outsider challenge, not a party-establishment vehicle. The public materials are explicitly Christ-centered: “Christ is King,” John 3:16, church events, a hard line against gender ideology, opposition to same-sex marriage if Obergefell were overturned, and pro-life culture proposals (including a campaign idea to fund crisis pregnancy centers).
The 41 is not the raw Jesus trail. That trail was 44. We took three points off because Christians are called to conduct themselves well. “And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness” (2 Timothy 2:24–25 ESV). “We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God” (2 Corinthians 10:5 ESV) — that is about ideas, not a license to be mean to a person. Opened coverage (Florida Politics, August 2026): a late, unsubstantiated trafficking claim against Byron Donalds that the Justice Department denied, plus “slave,” “DEI Republican,” and “By'rone.” Firmness on the Gospel is why he still leads this bar. The how is why it is not 44. Constitution and GOP did not move.
Badges on the card: Trump + DeSantis + Musk + MAHA. The Trump badge here is MAGA-adjacent outsider messaging — not the formal gubernatorial endorsement, which belongs to Donalds. The DeSantis badge is a public pledge to preserve anti-DEI and cultural wins. MAHA is an official MAHA Institute endorsement for governor (campaign posts, June 2026). Musk is affinity — free speech, anti-bureaucracy — not a personal endorsement. That’s why his Constitution bar is maxed and his GOP bar is not.
Byron Donalds (R) — 36 / 29 / 20 · B
Donalds is the U.S. representative from FL-19. Unofficially, he’s the Republican nominee. The score does not move because of Tuesday. He’s the only candidate in this comparison with a formal Trump endorsement (“complete and total”). His GOP score is the ceiling: 20/20. Christian is 36 — Protestant, pro-life House record, faith-and-family themes (including Joshua 24:15) — but the campaign brand is MAGA / Trump more than continuous Christ-first messaging, which is why he sits below Fishback and Rodriguez on that bar. Constitution is 29: America First, border, school choice, anti-DEI, high institutional MAGA, not the health-freedom / outsider Constitution peak of Renner or Fishback.
Badges: Trump + Musk. There is no DeSantis badge on this card and no MAHA badge. Musk is agenda/company affinity (speech, efficiency, Space Coast), not a formal Musk endorsement. If your filter is “formal Trump endorsement plus max GOP,” this is the card. If your filter is “highest Jesus-named intensity,” it isn’t the top card. Both of those are honest reads of the same numbers.
Paul Renner (R) — 36 / 33 / 19 · B
Renner is the former Florida House Speaker (2022–2024), a Navy veteran and former prosecutor. Christian 36 matches Donalds. He’s an institutional conservative with a strong culture-war legislative record and less constant Jesus-named branding than Fishback. Constitution is 33 — the highest among the institutional three — because he was a core legislative partner on DeSantis-era education and free-state bills and because of a documented health-freedom record: Stand for Health Freedom endorsement and the Florida Health Freedom and Wellness Initiative.
Badges: DeSantis + Musk + MAHA. No Trump badge. GOP is 19, one point under Donalds. If you wanted the DeSantis legislative machine plus MAHA, and you didn’t require a Trump badge, this is where our numbers landed. Unofficially he is Tuesday’s field, not November’s.
Jay Collins (R) — 34 / 32 / 19 · B
Collins is Lieutenant Governor, a former state senator, and a Green Beret. Christian is 34 — military and institutional Florida conservative identity, not the loudest Jesus-campaign brand. Constitution is 32: DeSantis-appointed LG, “continue Florida’s conservative wins,” plus a formal MAHA Commission role with First Lady Casey DeSantis. GOP is 19.
Badges: DeSantis + Musk + MAHA. No Trump badge. The MAHA badge is the state commission chair / co-chair role — health choice, parental rights, RFK-aligned state initiative — not a slogan. Musk is again affinity (speech, Space Coast, efficiency), not a personal endorsement. Same Tuesday-field note as Renner: unofficially, he is not the November Republican.
Other Republicans we scored
Rachel Rodriguez (R) — 38 / 28 / 15 · B. Cuban-American attorney. Her campaign (rachelforgov.com) calls her a follower of Jesus, a working mom, and a business builder, with parental rights rooted in God. That’s why Christian sits at 38 — second only to Fishback among the names on this page — without Trump, DeSantis, Musk, or MAHA badges. Constitution 28; GOP 15, in the outsider / non-endorsed band.
Bobby Williams Jr. (R) — 28 / 22 / 14 · D. Businessman; founder of the Freedom Tour food and disaster-relief nonprofit (NBC Miami). Service brand; thinner Jesus-named policy grid than Rodriguez or Fishback. 64 is a D — not that the person is “half as conservative as a 36.”
Other Republicans showed up on statewide lists with thinner major-media trails. Treat the official sample ballot as the full field. We don’t invent a ranking for names we haven’t given a finished numeric score.
The Democratic side of Tuesday
Democrats nominated the same day. Unofficially, David Jolly won that primary. The grade-A card we publish is David Jolly (D) — 4 / 5 / 1: former Republican U.S. representative from FL-13, now running as a Democrat on a change-coalition platform. No public Jesus grid and no opened Pride/DEI endorsement, so Christian is 4 — an empty trail, not a contrary-coalition 0, and not a mid-teens floor. GOP 1 because he is running as a Democrat. Confirm every name on your Supervisor’s style. Donalds and Jolly are the November pair unless the canvass says otherwise. Everyone else on this page stays as Tuesday’s field.
Same ballot, different race: the Senate special
On the same August ballot, the special U.S. Senate path included incumbent Ashley B. Moody (R) — 42 / 28 / 20 · A and, on the Democratic side, Alex Vindman (D) — 4 / 3 / 0 · F, among others. Moody’s Christian bar is high on an AG record; Vindman’s numbers reflect an impeachment-era national-security Democrat profile. Neither is a governor candidate. We mention them so church voters looking at the whole statewide style aren’t surprised. Longer write-up: U.S. Senate special 2026 values.
How to use this without fooling yourself
Add the three bars if you want a single 100-point sort. Fishback is 91, Renner 88, Donalds 85, Collins 85, Rodriguez 81. That sort is this site’s weighting — Christian first. If you personally weight a formal Trump endorsement above a Christ-named campaign, Donalds will outrank Fishback for you even though our total does not. That’s why badges are separate. Read what the badges mean before you treat a missing badge as a missing conservative.
Only registered Republicans voted this gubernatorial primary. NPA and Democratic voters did not pick the GOP nominee. A rare universal-primary exception does not apply to this crowded two-party field. See closed primary for church voters and how to vote. Pull the style with your full address: how to read a sample ballot.