{"id":65184,"date":"2026-04-24T20:23:40","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T00:23:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=65184"},"modified":"2026-04-24T20:23:43","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T00:23:43","slug":"u-s-representative-byron-donalds-held-a-campaign-rally-this-morning-april-24-at-the-reececliff-family-diner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/u-s-representative-byron-donalds-held-a-campaign-rally-this-morning-april-24-at-the-reececliff-family-diner\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Representative Byron Donalds held a campaign rally this morning, April 24, at the Reececliff Family Diner"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">U.S. Representative Byron Donalds, a front-runner for the 2026 Republican nomination for Florida Governor, held a campaign rally this morning, April 24, at the Reececliff Family Diner in Lakeland.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img data-dominant-color=\"575550\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"168\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/download-1-10.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-65185 not-transparent\" style=\"--dominant-color: #575550; aspect-ratio:1.7858803832201655;width:407px;height:auto\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" id=\"p-rc_b8e3a9cd30e2bd1f-27\">Donalds was joined by Polk County Sheriff <strong>Grady Judd<\/strong>, who endorsed the Congressman earlier this year.<sup><\/sup> The event focused on several key pillars of Donalds&#8217; platform as he seeks to succeed Governor Ron DeSantis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Key Highlights from the Rally<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Property &amp; Insurance Reform:<\/strong> Donalds addressed Florida\u2019s housing crisis, proposing &#8220;automatic&#8221; permit approvals for citizens rebuilding homes after hurricanes. He argued that the current 6-to-10-month wait times for permits add unnecessary financial burdens on residents.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Law Enforcement Support:<\/strong> Sheriff Grady Judd praised Donalds for being &#8220;tough on crime,&#8221; emphasizing that public safety is the foundation of the state&#8217;s economic success.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Addressing the Past:<\/strong> Donalds spoke candidly about his youth, including arrests at ages 18 and 20. He stated he has &#8220;owned up to those mistakes&#8221; and used his personal story to highlight the importance of faith and self-improvement.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Economic Vision:<\/strong> He promised to make the &#8220;Florida Dream&#8221; accessible to young people by cutting red tape and focusing on workforce growth.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Campaign Context<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" id=\"p-rc_b8e3a9cd30e2bd1f-32\">Donalds currently holds a significant lead in Republican primary polling.<sup><\/sup> A recent Emerson College survey placed him at <strong>46% support<\/strong>, well ahead of other declared candidates like Lieutenant Governor Jay Collins.<sup><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The diner, a staple in the Lakeland community for decades, served as a symbolic backdrop for Donalds\u2019 &#8220;retail politics&#8221; approach, targeting Polk County&#8217;s influential conservative voter base.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>U.S. Representative Byron Donalds, a front-runner for the 2026 Republican nomination for Florida Governor, held a campaign rally this morning, April 24, at the Reececliff Family Diner in Lakeland. Donalds&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65185,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDRcL2Rvd25sb2FkLTEtMTAud2VicD9maXQ9MzAwJTJDMTY4JnNzbD0xIiwidHh0IjoiVS5TLiBSZXByZXNlbnRhdGl2ZSBCeXJvbiBEb25hbGRzIGhlbGQgYSBjYW1wYWlnbiByYWxseSB0aGlzIG1vcm5pbmcsIEFwcmlsIDI0LCBhdCB0aGUgUmVlY2VjbGlmZiBGYW1pbHkgRGluZXIiLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImRvaXMiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.vSZYg1GAnp7N8S0RdIChULWxXdvWsfbjapWy3QBwsGcMQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjZcLzA0XC9kb3dubG9hZC0xLTEwLndlYnAiLCJ0eHQiOiJVLlMuIFJlcHJlc2VudGF0aXZlIEJ5cm9uIERvbmFsZHMgaGVsZCBhIGNhbXBhaWduIHJhbGx5IHRoaXMgbW9ybmluZywgQXByaWwgMjQsIGF0IHRoZSBSZWVjZWNsaWZmIEZhbWlseSBEaW5lciAiLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImRvaXMiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.8ddpgCZwyYxtYq9HaKsM6mRbR0DjilwS9y-GcMBNm4IMQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[15],"tags":[14457,14470,14469],"class_list":["post-65184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-april-24","tag-at-the-reececliff-family-diner","tag-u-s-representative-byron-donalds-held-a-campaign-rally-this-morning"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65184"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65186,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65184\/revisions\/65186"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}