Florida Rep. Byron Donalds does not mince words when it comes to the challenge of being a freshman congressman in the minority party.
“Let’s just be real. It’s tough as a new member, especially a new Republican, to accomplish much of anything,” Donalds, 42, told the Washington Examiner in an interview. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “runs the place with an iron fist, so from a legislative standpoint, it’s difficult to say, ‘I’m going to pass this bill and that bill.’”
Donalds, who previously worked in the finance and banking industry, was elected to represent Florida’s 19th Congressional District, which encompasses Cape Coral and Naples in the state’s southwest, in 2020 following the retirement of former Rep. Francis Rooney. He compared his first few months in Congress with his four-year run in Florida’s House of Representatives.
“The thing that’s surprising to me is how much time we waste up here,” he said. “In Florida’s Legislature, not only do we have really only 60 days in the legislative session, but we’re also term-limited. You know that your ‘political life,’ quote-unquote, is coming to an end,” prompting swifter action.
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Even with those challenges, Donalds does have his priorities set on ensuring funding continues for Everglades restoration. And he hopes to be the “voice of reason to the policies that are coming out of this Congress and this administration.”
He is making inroads in that respect. Donalds, one of only two black Republicans in the House along with Utah Rep. Burgess Owens, is frequently on Fox News as a foil to left-wing proponents of critical race theory and the “Marxist” Black Lives Matter ethos.
After The View host Joy Behar said that South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, who delivered the Republican response to President Joe Biden’s first joint address to Congress, doesn’t “understand” systemic racism, Donalds sounded off on “white liberals who love to demean a black conservative because we don’t go along with their ideology.”
“It’s a responsibility, but yeah, it’s a burden” to respond to race issues frequently, Donalds said. “I would love to talk about foreign policy, tax policy, budgets, infrastructure, financial markets, the economy, jobs, immigration.”
But, he added, “I get it. I’m one of two black guys in the House. So when these questions come, of course reporters come to me or they come to Burgess or they go to Sen. Scott.”
He has been able to flex his messaging muscles in other areas. At a press conference following a Republican tax cut “boot camp” refresher on the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act to prepare new members to counter proposed Biden hikes, Donalds described how a capital gains tax increase could have a major impact on families trying to sell a home and how corporate tax increases could affect small businesses.
Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, by a single mother, Donalds is now married and has three young sons.
Part of the reason he ran for Congress was a desire to “expand” the Republican Party.
“Our ideas, policies — I mean, they just work,” Donalds said. “But what’s lost kind of in translation is that minority voters or people of color or however you want to phrase it sometimes don’t feel there’s home for them in our party. And I always felt like it was my responsibility, in part, to change that narrative.”
“It’s incumbent on my party to just spend time engaging people in urban corridors and in minority communities and actually putting a person to the policies, bringing a person to the politics, as opposed to letting media do it,” he said.
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Donalds caught COVID-19 in October and has so far declined to get the vaccine despite Pelosi requiring that lawmakers continue to wear masks on the House floor until all of them are vaccinated.
“Why do I need to go vaccinate myself from a virus I’ve already gone through?” he said. “If I decide to get a vaccine, it’s not going to be because of what Nancy Pelosi says. That’s a personal decision I think everybody needs to make.”
