PERSON: Byron Donalds

U.S. House of Representatives

Member of Congress

Byron Lowell Donalds (born October 28, 1978) is an American politician and financial professional serving as the U.S. representative for Florida’s 19th congressional district since 2021. His district includes much of Southwest Florida.

Born and raised in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, Donalds attended Florida A&M University and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in finance and marketing from Florida State University in 2002. Before entering politics, Donalds worked in the finance, insurance, and banking industries. He represented the 80th district in the Florida House of Representatives from 2016 to 2020.

Donalds was elected to Congress in 2020, defeating Democratic nominee Cindy Banyai. In the January 2023 Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives election, he was nominated for the speakership in the fourth through 11th rounds of voting. Several months later, Donalds was a candidate in the third nomination for the October 2023 Speaker of the United States House of Representatives election.

Ideologically places in the conservative wing of the Republican Party, He was a member of the Tea Party movement and unsuccessfully ran for the U.S. House of Representatives in 2012. In January 2021, Donalds voted to object to the certification of electors from Arizona and Pennsylvania in the 2020 presidential election. Donalds says that he does not “personally” believe Joe Biden is a “legitimate” president of the United States, but he says Biden is nevertheless the president, albeit the worst one in his opinion.

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