Byron Donalds continues to dominate Jay Collins, Paul Renner in GOP Primary Poll

U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds remains in a dominant position in the Republican Primary for Governor, polling shows.

A new St. Pete Polls^[1] survey shows Donalds would win more than 39% of the vote in a Republican Primary against Lt. Gov. Jay Collins, who has less than 4% support, and former House Speaker Paul Renner, who shows up with less than 3%.

While more than half of likely Republican Primary voters remain undecided, that shows the Naples Republican continuing to massively outperform either of the two high-profile Republicans most likely to appear on the Primary ballot next year.

Renner announced his campaign for Governor last month^[2]. Many have expected Collins to run^[3] to succeed Gov. Ron DeSantis, who appointed the Tampa Republican as Lieutenant Governor in August^[4].

The pollsters also tested Donalds’ performance if he were in a head-to-head against only Collins. In such a race, Donalds would win more than 52% of the vote to Collins’ nearly 12%.

If Donalds faced another rumored contender, Casey DeSantis, things would be marginally more competitive. But the Congressman still leads a head-to-head Primary with 47% support to the First Lady’s 21%.

In both head-to-head races, pollsters informed voters that Donalds had President Donald Trump’s endorsement^[5], while Collins or Casey DeSantis would likely have the endorsement of Gov. DeSantis.

The poll of 1,034 likely Primary voters was taken from Oct. 13 to 15, and pollsters report a margin of error of 3 percentage points.

The poll also found Florida Republicans supportive of both Trump and Florida’s Governor. Asked about whether GOP voters approve of the job Trump is doing, about 82% said yes while under 13% said no. Asked the same about DeSantis, 85% approve of his job performance while just over 11% do not. Nearly 82% of those polled said Florida was on the right track.