MS NOW's Capehart Plays Race Card on Republican Byron Donalds' Florida Guv Run

The Weekend 8-22-26

On Saturday’s The Weekend on MS NOW, co-host Jonathan Capehart turned the Florida governor’s race into an indictment of white Republican voters. 

Capehart gleefully noted that despite being endorsed by President Trump, Congressman Byron Donalds failed to crack 50% in the Republican primary. And he cited a Tampa Bay Times piece indicating that Donalds did worse in the GOP primary in heavily white districts than in more diverse ones. 

Turning to Florida politics maven Marc Caputo, Capehart asked: 

“How difficult is this race going to be for Congressman Donalds? Is it going to be more difficult for him than it would be for a white Republican? Let’s be real.” 

Capehart's "let's be real" was the tell. He was begging Caputo to buy into his intimation that Florida's white Republicans are racist. Caputo didn't rise to Capehart's bait: "It might be. I can't say. I don't want to forecast it."

Problem for Capehart's theory: Donalds represents Florida’s 19th Congressional District, centered on Naples and the affluent southwest coast. The district is heavily white and solidly Republican. Those same voters have repeatedly sent him to Congress. So much for Capehart's racialized portrait of white Republicans. 

Capehart’s only poll reference was the Democratic-aligned Hart Research survey done for the Democratic Governors Association. He highlighted the crossover numbers that helped the “Jolly can compete” narrative: Jolly drawing 18% of registered Republicans versus Donalds’ 7% among Democrats. 

He offered no public polling averages that show Donalds ahead, and no mention of the prediction markets that continue to price Donalds as an approximately 80% favorite.

Instead, viewers got a racialized reading of the primary that put the onus on white Republican voters, an invitation to “be real” about their alleged reluctance to support black candidates, and selective data from a Democratic poll.

Capehart loaded the spin, carefully ignoring Donalds winning the primary, his heavily white Naples district, Florida’s recent Republican dominance, the public polls, the prediction markets, and a $100 million war chest that dwarfs Jolly’s.

The segment began with light-hearted banter about Caputo being the show's favorite "Florida Man." Caputo specified that he had never brought an alligator into a Circle K. 

Note: Before the panel shifted to Florida's gubernatorial race, co-host Eugene Daniels defended the decision of Angie Nixon, winner of Florida's Dem senatorial primary, to join the DSA: 

"If you're someone—she's an organizer—an organizer who runs in politics, starts joining different groups, joining so that it's better, easier to organize, right? You have people on the ground who are going to help you." 

Sorry, Eugene, but you don't join a group unless you're broadly aligned with its policies. If a Republican candidate joined the Proud Boys, would you let him off the hook if he said he'd only done so to gain their organizing help? Rhetorical question. 

Here's the transcript. 

MS NOW 
The Weekend 
6/22/26 
7:24 am EDT 

EUGENE DANIELS: You are the ultimate Florida Man, and you have, as long as I've known you, you have— 

JACKIE ALEMANY: In a positive way. 

DANIELS: In a good way. In a good, positive way. 

MARC CAPUTO: I haven't taken an alligator into a Circle K, so. 

ALEMANY: Yeah, I don't think, I don't think I've seen you on the crime blog recently. 

DANIELS: No, he hasn't. Not recently or in the past, to be clear. 

JONATHAN CAPEHART: I am fascinated by what happened in the Republican primary. So, a couple things happened in the Republican primary, Congressman. Byron Donalds was endorsed by President Trump, a big supporter of President Trump, and yet he could not even crack fifty percent in a Republican primary. That's one. 

And two, here's a headline from the Tampa Bay Times: “How Congressman Byron Donalds Did With White Voters.” Donalds lost seventeen counties across Florida, in sixteen of them, at least ninety-two percent of Republican voters are white in counties where GOP members are more diverse. He beat Collins in thirty-nine out of forty. 

How, how difficult is this race going to be for Congressman Donalds? Is it going to be more difficult for him than it would be for a white Republican? Let’s be real. 

CAPUTO: It might be. It might be. I can’t say, I don’t wanna forecast it. 

. . . 

CAPEHART: There was a Hart Research poll, which we should say that is conducted, the Hart Research, you know, they do polls for, they work, do work with Democrats. 

They say that Jolly, David Jolly, the Democratic nominee, is receiving eighteen percent of registered Republicans, more than twice Donalds’ seven percent among Democrats. 

Real fast, how do you think that will play into David Jolly’s chances against Byron Donalds? 

CAPUTO: That’s part of the ingredients for him. The other part of the ingredient for a Jolly win, if it happens, is if he wins independents by twenty points and if Byron Donalds gets fewer than sixty percent of the white vote. 

DANIELS: David Jolly was just a Republican, so that’s why it’s so interesting. He came on our show the day after he had said he was gonna be a Democrat. Marc Caputo, Marc Caputo, my favorite Florida Man. Thank you for coming on The Weekend again.