Byron Donalds has already won the one-man Republican primary in Florida. Under normal circumstances, that would be enough. But will it be this time?
Not necessarily, for two reasons. First, Ron DeSantis desperately wants to maintain control of the GOP in his state in order to remain relevant for 2028, so a bitter proxy battle with Trump is probably on the table. Second, while a large segment of the GOP electorate enthusiastically supports black conservative candidates in order to prove (at least to themselves) that they aren’t racist, the Carlson/Fuentes episode establishes that there are plenty of open bigots within the party. How many, and does this mean DeSantis could become the preferred candidate of the extreme right element of the base? TBD.