Republican Byron Donalds attacks Democrat David Jolly over trans rights in Florida governor’s race

As Rep. Byron Donalds runs for Florida governor, he’s already making opposition to transgender rights a central part of his platform.

The leading candidate in Tuesday’s GOP primary, Donalds has already begun attacking David Jolly, the Democratic front-runner for governor, singling out his support for transgender youths’ access to medical care and participation in sports.

“David Jolly is somebody who thinks it's still okay for boys to be in girl sports. Somebody who thinks it's still okay for boys to be in girl sports. It's only him and the WNBA who thinks this,” Donalds said at a rally ahead of the primary.

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He praised controversial comments from Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham, who said in a recent ESPN profile that she wanted “to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn't have to go against biological men.” Donalds also praised Riley Gaines, an anti-trans activist who parlayed a fifth-place tie with transgender swimmer Lia Thomas into a lucrative career as an anti-LGBTQ speaker.

Jolly, a former Republican congressman, broke with the party years ago over social issues. Notably, his position on transgender participation in sports is more nuanced than Donalds suggested. He told NPR station WLRN that he does not believe athletes assigned male at birth should compete in sports designated for female athletes, but he also doesn’t want the government to impose sweeping restrictions.

“Look, if a 10- or 12-year-old soccer league in the community has a coed team, I don’t think the governor should be throwing a flag on the field,” Jolly said.

But Jolly has defended parents’ right to make decisions about gender-affirming care for their children, a position that helped earn him the endorsement of the Equality Florida Action PAC. Donalds took issue with that position as well.

“David Jolly still thinks it's okay to transgender kids. This is sick to me. I don't even understand this,” Donalds said at his rally. “Even the American Medical Association has finally realized that this is insanity. That you do not take the puberty from kids. You protect their puberty. Even European countries have realized this now, and they've stopped this practice. But David Jolly and the radical Democrat socialists-they still support it.”

Donalds' characterization of the medical consensus appeared to be based on prior reporting by The New York Times that the AMA had altered its guidance and favored new restrictions on gender-affirming care for minors. After that report was published, however, the AMA quickly pushed back, telling The Advocate that it continues to believe parents, families, and medical professionals should decide together when such care is “medically necessary.”

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U.S. politicians have long claimed that European nations are retreating from transgender health care, usually citing actions by a handful of conservative governments. The United Kingdom has rolled back previously supportive positions on trans rights in recent years, including banning puberty blockers for minors. But the Association of the Scientific Medical Societies in Germany reaffirmed its support for gender-affirming care for young people last year.

Donalds said at his rally that his opposition to trans rights was not a “culture war” but rather “common sense.” He also recently shared a clip from a podcast interview in which he said of Jolly, “I don’t think he’s a cultural fit for our state,” before listing the Democrat’s position on sports as the top reason.