Gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds is speaking out about threats on his life as he runs for the Republican nomination in the August primary.
Donalds, a Naples Republican in his third term in Congress, faced one threat on social media last month as he re-shared President Donald Trump’s endorsement in the Governor’s race. A second person called Donalds’ district office making similar threats, saying he was “going to blow up the entire office.”
“Somebody just flat out said they were going to kill me,” Donalds told radio host Mark Levin on Friday.
Donalds noted that people have strong opinions, but that recent experience shows examples of viewpoints being used to justify political violence.
“In politics, everybody needs to understand we all have very strong opinions and stuff like that, but at the end of the day, people just want to go home and see their families whether you’re running for office, whether you’re an activist, (or a commentator),” Donalds said.
He cited the assassination of conservative Charlie Kirk last year as an example of “what happens when you get to the point where all you want to do is just demonize your opponents and not really treat them as human beings.”
“People are always trying to find ways to get more attention and get more likes and all that kind of stuff. But when all you do is just demonize somebody to the point where you’re treating them as if they’re going to destroy Florida or anything like that. All you’re doing is giving an opening to somebody who has real mental health issues to try to do something crazy like this.”
Donalds considers himself a free speech “absolutist,” but stresses the importance of being “mindful” of how things are being said, so as not to “create an environment where somebody’s going to take that as their responsibility to save whatever they’re trying to do, and they go take somebody else’s life. That’s just reprehensible to me.”
Donalds said the incident “strengthened (his) resolve for working incredibly hard to be the state’s next Governor and to keep Florida free and keep Florida the preeminent conservative and common sense state in all of America.”
He is undeterred by the threats, promising to “keep going” and expressing confidence in his position in the race for the nomination to succeed Ron DeSantis.
