Byron Donalds at FAMU’s Town Hall (Provided By / Jorde Jones)
As Republican gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds campaigns to become Florida’s next governor, his vision for the state’s future could have direct consequences for Florida A&M University and its students, ranging from state funding, academic partnerships and workforce development.
In an exclusive interview with the FAMUAN, Donalds discussed his approach to FAMU funding, regulation of large-scale AI data centers, the future of FAMU’s pharmacy program following Florida State University’s recent acquisition of Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare and a $16.3 million federal grant FAMU lost amid federal budget cuts.
Donalds stated that he wants to increase FAMU’s state operating funding while holding the university and other state institutions to consistent performance standards.
“We want the goals to be consistent across the board. I’m not going to require FAMU to do one thing that I’m not going to require the other nine universities to do differently,” Donalds continued, stating that he wants to connect university funding to employment rates. “You want to make sure you’re not just looking at the 4-year graduation rate overall; you also want to see that when somebody graduates, did they move into the career that they studied for? That would be one of the things that you look at… That would go into how much funding this university gets.”
Donalds also mentioned at the townhall that he wants “children to be able to attend [Florida’s] universities but also be able to get degrees that allow them to be economically viable.”
“There are about five to six…degrees that have real economic power…engineering, finance, accounting, law, medicine, architecture and there’s a handful of others,” Donalds said.
He also described affordability and workforce education as central priorities of his campaign.
Donalds shared that while he was at FAMU, state basic operating funding was around $104 million, and that he believes it is now more than $165 million.
According to FAMU’s spending plan which was submitted to the Board of Governors in 2025, the operating budget of FAMU was 230 million.
When questioned on a terminated $16.3 million grant at FAMU stemming from federal budget cuts, alongside his previous statements, Donalds responded:
“My views are very consistent on public policy matter[s]. If you’re talking about grant funding… the question is, what else is the federal government doing? The president signed an executive order about finding ways for industry to work with HBCUs… so they can leverage research and find ways to have more revenue… come into the university. I know FAMU wants to become an R1 institution… We want to invest in that, so that stuff has nothing to do with the Stop WOKE Act,” Donalds explained.
Donalds also addressed student concerns stemming from the recent acquisition of Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare (TMH) by Florida State University. A deal that has left many FAMU students questioning whether they’ll be able to continue their programming at the hospital.
“We’re going to work with FSU to make sure that pipeline continues — FAMU’s Pharmacy program is something that has set FAMU apart in the state of Florida,” Donalds said.
FAMUAN reporters also followed up on another major point of contention for many young Floridian voters: AI data center development and the enormous amounts of electricity and water these facilities require.
After a recent unanimous vote by the Leon County Commission to pause development applications for large-scale data centers for 18 months, Donalds was asked whether he believes local Florida communities should have the right to reject a data center if it believes the project threatens its water supply or electric grid.
“My position is [that] local government should make those decisions; they’re the ones that issue building permits for these facilities. So, I think each community needs to make that decision and keep those requirements,” Donalds said.
Donalds added that Florida state law grants local city and county governments final authority meaning, “if a local community… decides that they’re not going to build one, the state of Florida will not preempt that decision.”
When asked about the record number of executions in Flroida from 2025 to 2026, —19 in 2025 and 16 in 2026— and whether his stance on the death penalty would differ from DeSantis’s, Donalds said:
Donalds stressed that inmates on death row deserve full due process and the opportunity to appeal. Distancing himself from Governor DeSantis’s aggressive execution pace, Donalds emphasized that he hasn’t reviewed those specific cases and pledged to evaluate each death penalty file on its own merits as governor.
You know, [Desantis], his cadence on following through on the death penalty, that’s something that he’s chosen to do. I’ve not looked at those cases. I think everyone is unique. You have to look at them individually for [who] they are, and that’s what I’m going to do as governor.”
When asked what separates him from his predecessors, and noting that despite Florida primarily being run by Republicans who haven’t initiated certain policies and goals in the past, Donalds answered:
“Just because we’re Republican doesn’t mean we’re all the same… we all have different agenda items that we try to tackle, especially in that time as governor,” Donalds said.
“For me, it’s affordability. I think specific to affordability that the state can control. If you’re looking at insurance, six years ago, Florida was not in an insurance crisis. Our insurance costs were a little bit higher than the rest of the country because we’re a peninsula, but they did not get out of control. What has happened in response to that, three years ago, the governor put in tort reform. We’re seeing premium rates decrease at the carriers in our state. That’s actually a good thing for the market conditions overall.
After Florida passed major legal reforms in late 2022 and early 2023 to limit insurance lawsuits, several home insurance companies stopped raising prices and even lowered rates for some homeowners. While Florida insurance is still among the most expensive in the country, the new rules helped slow down runaway price spikes and encouraged new insurance companies to move into the state, per Legal Reforms (SB 2-A & HB 837)
“We want to add on that with common sense reforms on the regulatory side, which I think are long overdue to push those [insurance] costs down. I think the reason why it wasn’t done in the past is because insurance costs were not what they are today. It’s about what are the issues happening today and how do you make those necessary adjustments to have the right policy for the people of Florida,” Donalds said.
The average home insurance premium in the Sunshine State is currently $8,471 per year for a policy with $300,000 in dwelling coverage, $300,000 in liability, a $1,000 deductible and a 2 percent hurricane deductible, Insurance.com reported.
Donalds ended the interview with a final pitch to voters.
“As governor, I’m going to manage the issues that are in front of me, it’s about affordability, kids being able to achieve success, people being able to sustain themselves in our state and build and build a great life for themselves.”