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Reaction to GOA Endorsement of Byron Donalds a Reminder of Social Media’s Skewed Perspective

News RoomBy 6 Mins Read
Reaction to GOA Endorsement of Byron Donalds a Reminder of Social Media’s Skewed Perspective

Florida’s primary elections are still a few months away, but Gun Owners of America has already chosen its candidate for governor. On Thursday, GOA announced it’s endorsing current congressman Byron Donalds in the Republican primary. 





My colleague Tom Knighton will be taking a look at Donalds’ record on Second Amendment issues in an upcoming post, but suffice it to say here that there are no glaring red flags when it comes to his votes on 2A issues. 

Donalds is also the heavy favorite to win the gubernatorial primary. A poll released on Thursday found Donald has the support of 54% of Republican voters and a commanding 46-point lead over his nearest opponent. 

GOA’s pick is hardly controversial, but the reaction from X users was uniformly negative. Here’s a sampling of responses to GOA’s post. 

Those are at least mostly reasonable arguments, though I disagree that Donalds has done “nothing” to support the Second Amendment as an elected official. 

Reasonable arguments, though, were the exception and not the rule, in the online reaction to GOA’s endorsement. 





Yes, Gun Owners of America bases its endorsements on the single issue of support for the Second Amendment, which shouldn’t come as a surprise given it’s a single issue organization. 

Generally speaking, its outside groups that spend money on candidates, not the other way around. And if “no one” is voting for Donalds, then virtually every poll of the gubernatorial primary must be worthless, because they all show Donalds as the clear front runner. 

Several accounts responded to GOA’s endorsement by making derogatory comments about Donalds’ skin color, while others bashed GOA for picking the “AIPAC” candidate. 

Fishback’s best poll to date was a Change Research survey conducted last month that showed him capturing 9% of the GOP primary vote. That’s good enough for second place, but it’s still 39 points behind Donalds, with only 28% of the electorate undecided. 

The online reaction to GOA’s endorsement is yet another reminder that the politics of X, Facebook, TikTok, etc. are not necessarily reflective of the political reality on the ground. Based solely on social media posts, a casual observer could easily have assumed that in the Ohio gubernatorial primary Casey Putsch was going to win handily, for instance. Instead, Vivek Ramaswamy crushed Putsch and captured more than 82% of the primary vote. 





Fishback has a substantial following online as well, but that hasn’t translated to much real world support, in either polling or fundraising. As Florida Politics reported this week, the Fishback-affiliated Florida First PAC has raised $535,000 through May of this year, compared to $81 million for Donalds and $5 million for Jay Collins. And according to Florida Politics, most of that $535,000 has come from just two deep-pocketed donors. 

Daniel Hassan of Palm Beach, who was born in Pakistan, contributed $375,000, with $300,000 given in the last two months. He is the CEO of Primawork Capital.

Christina Lavery Caruso, the registered agent for Tampa’s Integrity Motors of Florida, seems to have donated $50,000 to the PAC under the name “Christina Caruso” and another $50,000 as “Christina Lavery.” Both donations were sent from a business address.

Although it is not unusual for candidates to depend on one or two donors, Fishback’s activity stands out because most of the money is being spent quickly. Nearly $280,000 went to consulting fees, as well as food, gas, and lodging over the last two months.

The account currently has about $95,000 on hand.

Fishback’s campaign account has limits on how much can be donated by each person, so it cannot accept hundreds of thousands from just two sources. The campaign raised $92,300 from 437 contributors, spent over $102,000, and now has just over $17,000 on hand.

Popularity, or a lack thereof, shouldn’t dictate who receives the endorsement of a single-issue organization. The deciding factor should be support for that organization’s issue. Fishback has said a lot of the right things to get the backing of gun owners (and made a lot of statements that have disqualified him in the eyes of many conservatives), but unlike Donalds, Collins, and former Florida House Speaker Paul Renner, he doesn’t have a voting record to look at. 





I think there’s a case to be made for each of those three candidates to earn the endorsement of Second Amendment organizations like GOA based on their past history (though Renner’s vote for the post-Parkland gun control package is a huge problem), and that legislative history is always going to be more important to advocacy groups than promises made on a campaign trail. Fishback may be the first choice for 10% of Florida’s Republican voters, but for any serious Second Amendment advocacy group he’s at most the fourth-best candidate in the field.


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Editor’s Note: President Trump and Republicans across the country are doing everything they can to protect our Second Amendment rights and right to self-defense.

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