In February, after an endorsement by President Donald Trump, U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds announced he was running to be Florida's next governor. Donations began pouring into the Friends of Byron Donalds PAC totaling more than $22 million.
But donations for Byron Donalds for Congress didn't stop. And the Federal Election Commission has an issue with the Donalds' campaign soliciting and collecting money for both.
Last month the FEC, which enforces and administers campaign finance laws, sent a letter to Bradley T. Crate, treasurer for both of Donalds' campaigns. The letter, signed by a senior analyst at the FEC, stated that contributions made to the congressional campaign after the date of Donalds' governor's race announcement "must be refunded, except to the extent there were net debts outstanding for the campaign on the date each primary election contribution was received."
But Donalds isn't returning the donors' money.
According to Crate's response to the FEC, even though Donalds has announced he's running for governor, "Congressman Donalds is still an active candidate for the 2025-2026 Election Cycle" and "he has not officially ended his Congressional re-election campaign and he has made no announcement to that effect."
About $400,000, at last report, came in after he became a candidate for governor.
Donalds didn't return phone calls, email messages or text messages to his cellphone to ask why he hasn't closed the Byron Donalds for Congress campaign if he's running for governor.
Keeping both accounts allows a candidate to shift the money around, said Ian Vandewalker, senior counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law. He cited U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat from New Jersey, who, like Donalds, took money from her federal campaign contributions and gave it to a PAC that supported her campaign for governor.
Byron Donalds for Congress contributed $1.2 million to Friends of Byron Donalds PAC within two days of his February announcement he was running for governor.
No matter what Donalds does with the federal campaign money, any enforcement action from the FEC is unlikely, Vandewalker added.
"The Republican appointees [to the commission] in some ways don't seem to believe in the mission of the FEC and choose not to enforce or interpret the rules," he said. " That makes enforcement have less teeth."
Jeff Swartz, professor emeritus at Cooley Law School in Tampa, said Florida law prohibits someone from being a candidate for two offices whose terms overlap. Donalds has filed paperwork declaring he's a candidate for governor but hasn't declared that he's a candidate for Congress in the next term.
"He may be violating the spirit of the law," Swartz said, but not the letter of the law.
And Swartz speculated as to why Donalds won't close the federal campaign fund just yet.
"He's keeping his powder dry," Swartz said, invoking a saying related to having your musket ready to fire.
If someone with statewide cachet enters the race or Trump switches his endorsement to another candidate, Donalds will drop his bid for governor and file to retain his seat in Congress, Swartz said.
Former U.S. Rep. David Jolly, a Democratic candidate for governor, said Donalds "should decide what office he is running for."
Melanie Payne is an award-winning journalist based in Florida. She has worked for the Akron Beacon Journal, Sacramento Bee, Gannett and WFTS-TV in Tampa.
The Florida Trident is an investigative news outlet focusing on government accountability and transparency across Florida. The Trident was created and first published in 2022 by the Florida Center for Government Accountability, a nonprofit organization that facilitates local investigative reporting across the state.
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