In January 2021, Donalds voted to object to the certification of electors from Arizona and Pennsylvania in the 2020 presidential election.[13] Donalds said that he did not "personally" believe that President Joe Biden was a "legitimate" president of the United States,[14] but that Biden was nevertheless the president.[15]
In 1997, Donalds was charged with marijuana possession, but the charges were dropped as part of a pre-trial diversion program, and he was fined $150 (equivalent to $280 in 2023).[21][22] In 2000, he pleaded no contest to a felony theft charge for allegedly attempting to defraud a bank (by depositing a bad check), but his record was later sealed and expunged.[21][22][23][24]
According to an attorney consulted by the fact-checking site PolitiFact, "Donalds would not have been able to get his record expunged if the state considered him a convicted felon."[25]
Donalds was elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 2016. During his Florida House tenure, he chaired the Insurance and Banking Subcommittee.[29]
Donalds being sworn in by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy
Donalds was the Republican nominee for Florida's 19th congressional district in the 2020 election, running to succeed retiring incumbent Francis Rooney. He won a crowded nine-way Republican primary by 770 votes over State Representative Dane Eagle, finishing just over the threshold to avoid a recount.[30][31] Republicans have a 550,000-voter advantage over Democrats in registration, and Florida Gulf Coast University professor Peter Bergerson noted that the Republican primary is almost always the real contest for most races in the area.[30][32] In August 2020, anonymous text messages were sent out to constituents in the 19th district claiming that Donalds was dropping out of the race. Donalds later clarified via tweet that he was not dropping out and called the messages "illegal".[33][34]
During his campaign, Donalds described himself as a "Trump supporting, gun owning, liberty loving, pro-life, politically incorrect Black man."[35] He stated his support for economic freedom, clean water, nuclear power and decreased government involvement in health care. He opposed the Green New Deal.[16]
In the November general election, Donalds defeated Democratic nominee Cindy Banyai. Donalds said he would focus on policy related to water quality in Southwest Florida.[36] Upon his swearing-in on January 3, 2021, Donalds became the sixth person to represent this district since its creation in 1983 (it had been the 13th District from 1983 to 1993, the 14th from 1993 to 2013, and has been the 19th since 2013).
Tenure in Congress
In late 2020, Donalds was identified as a participant in the "Freedom Force", a group of incoming House Republicans who "say they’re fighting against socialism in America".[37][38][39] The following year Donalds was blocked from joining the Congressional Black Caucus.[40][41]
2020 Election
In January 2021, Donalds voted to object to the certification of electors from Arizona and Pennsylvania in the 2020 presidential election.[42] Donalds has since claimed that Joe Biden was not the legitimate president of the United States, a claim he repeated in a Vanity Fair interview in July 2023.[14]
In 2023, Donalds was among 47 Republicans to vote in favor of H.Con.Res. 21, which directed President Joe Biden to remove U.S. troops from Syria within 180 days.[45][46]
On January 3, 2023, Donalds received one vote in the 118th Congress's first election for Speaker of the House, from Chip Roy.[47] Donalds voted for Kevin McCarthy on the first two ballots, then for Jim Jordan on the third.[48] On January 4, on the fourth ballot, Roy nominated Donalds for Speaker, and he received 20 votes.[47] This marked the first time two Black lawmakers were nominated for Speaker, the other being Democratic nominee Hakeem Jeffries.[49] He was nominated by Lauren Boebert on the fifth ballot, and again received 20 votes.[50] He was sequentially nominated by Scott Perry,[51]Dan Bishop, Andy Biggs, Matt Rosendale, and Anna Paulina Luna on the sixth to tenth ballots. He was not nominated on the 11th ballot, but still received 12 votes. Donalds switched[52] his vote back to McCarthy after House Republican leadership made many concessions to House Freedom Caucus members.
In a political outreach event in June 2024, Donalds opined as follows about the Jim Crow era:[57][58]
You see, during Jim Crow, the black family was together. During Jim Crow, more black people were not just conservative, black people have always been conservative-minded, but more black people voted conservatively. And then, HEW., Lyndon Johnson, and then you go down that road, and now we are where we are. What's happened in America the last ten years, and I say it because it's my contemporaries…you're starting to see more black people be married in homes raising kids.
After some backlash against those remarks, Donalds denied “that Black people were doing better under Jim Crow” or that “Jim Crow is great”, and also denied having been inaccurate when he said that black marriage rates were relatively high during that era.[59]
Byron Donalds married Bisa Hall on June 15, 1999. They divorced in 2002.[68][69]
Donalds married Erika (née Lees) on March 15, 2003. They have three sons and live in Naples, Florida.[70]
^ abSarkissian, Arek (August 5, 2016). "Lawyer, banker compete in Collier, Hendry House race". Naples Daily News. Retrieved March 21, 2024. Donalds ... faced a marijuana possession charge in Leon County in 1997, but he was given pre-trial diversion and he paid a $150 fine, court records show.
^ abWright, Warren (April 28, 2014). "Tea Party star answers to charges of a criminal past". Fox 4 Now. Retrieved March 21, 2024 – via YouTube. He claims he was arrested for possession of pot, not distribution, and the second offense was for theft, not taking a bribe.
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