U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, the GOP front-runner for Florida governor, is endorsed by President Donald Trump and has an insurmountable lead in campaign contributions. Most credible polls of likely Republican voters show him with a commanding edge against his primary opponents.

But in a week in which his Democratic foe, former U.S. Rep. David Jolly, pivoted toward the November general election, Donalds finds himself stuck battling his own party.

On Thursday, Donalds’ campaign blunted mounting pressure to debate his three GOP rivals in the race with an official refusal. In other words, there will be no debate.

“There are no participation trophies in politics,” said Gates McGavick, communications director for the Donalds campaign. “It is not Byron’s job to legitimize campaigns that have failed to gain meaningful support. Republicans are united behind Byron Donalds on defeating Democrats in November.”

His three main Republican opponents haven’t gotten the message that Donalds has already won the Aug. 18 primary. Rather than quit the race, all three have launched public campaigns to convince Donalds to debate them.

Lt. Gov. Jay Collins is asking voters to sign a petition to convince party leaders to set up a debate.

“You have to come out and debate, and I’m very frustrated that Byron Donalds isn’t willing to do that,” Collins said Sunday on Fox News. “If you’re that far ahead, then what are you scared of? Step up, communicate and show up on the debate stage.”

On Wednesday, former Florida House Speaker Paul Renner said he wants a series of debates.

“If you can’t stand on the stage with your fellow Republicans, how can you possibly defend the free state of Florida?” Renner said in a news interview that his campaign retweeted. “How can you possibly stand on the stage with David Jolly? It’s disrespectful to the voters of Florida for us not to have a series of debates.”

“Byron Donalds is trying to steal the election,” said investor James Fishback on X late Wednesday in a retweet of a claim that the Republican Party of Florida was barring him and other candidates from debating.

Florida GOP chairperson Evan Power wouldn’t comment on whether candidates have been barred from debating Donalds. Social media has buzzed with reports that party leaders created a debate threshold for a GOP summit in late June that includes certain levels of polling and fundraising.

“We have nothing to report until candidate qualifying is completed,” Power told the Tampa Bay Times when asked about the threshold, referencing instead Friday’s noon deadline to qualify for the race. “We don’t even know what our field looks like.”

But Fishback said Power told him in March that to qualify for debate participation, candidates needed to raise more than $10 million and gain 10% support in unspecified polls. No GOP candidate besides Donalds meets that 10/10 threshold.

There’s no question that Donalds is lapping his GOP and possible Democratic opponents. The latest round of campaign finance reports revealed this week that his campaign had raised a total of $82 million.

In April and May alone, Donalds’ campaign pulled in $14 million.

Jolly’s campaign raised $1.2 million during that time.

Yet Jolly has a big advantage in that his main rival, Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings, dropped out of the Democratic primary race last week after being diagnosed with prostate cancer.

With virtually no chance of losing the primary, Jolly has the luxury of using his limited war chest and resources to focus on the general election and appeal to independent voters.

On Wednesday, he announced his running mate, former U.S. Rep. Gwen Graham, daughter of popular former Gov. Bob Graham.

Together, they pitched the Democratic ticket to all voters.

“You don’t have to be a Democrat to vote for a Democrat, because we want every single voter across the state to recognize this is a generational moment that requires generational leadership,” Jolly said.

Donalds, meanwhile, is still proving his conservative bona fides. In an election cycle where Trump has all-time low approval ratings, Donalds must still give interviews backing the Iran war and downplaying gas prices to mollify Trump and MAGA voters.

So, even though Donalds asserts that the general election has already started, his hardline conservative messaging suggests he’s still trying to wrap up a primary win. Fending off his GOP rivals until the Aug. 18 primary comes with risks.

“At this point, fighting amongst Republicans only helps the Democrats end the Florida Dream we all love and cherish,” Donalds said on X this week.

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(Times data reporter Ashley Borja contributed to this story.)

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