Byron Donalds picks Bryan Ávila for LG instead of Ana Maria Rodriguez

Byron Donalds finally has a running mate. And surprise, surprise: He found him in Hialeah.

One week after winning the Republican primary for governor — and with just 70 days until the November election — Donalds came to Miami Tuesday to announce that State Sen. Bryan Ávila would join him on the GOP ticket as his candidate for lieutenant governor.

Not North Florida. Not Orlando. Not Jacksonville.

Miami. Again.

We’ve been the hub for lieutenant guvs for a bit now. In fact it’s become a Republican tradition to pick them here. Jeanette Nuñez was a state rep when DeSantis chose her for his second post and Carlos Lopez-Cantera was the property appraiser and a former state rep when he was chosen by former Gov. Rick Scott in 2014.

And Annette Taddeo was picked by Charlie Crist in 2014, so both running mates were from the 305.

Donalds unveiled Ávila at the historic Freedom Tower, the former processing center for hundreds of thousands of Cuban refugees fleeing Fidel Castro’s communist regime. Subtle, it was not.

Because the selection of Ávila — a Hialeah-born son of Cuban exiles, Florida Army National Guard captain and 12-year veteran of the Florida Legislature — looks very much like Donalds planting a giant Republican flag in Miami-Dade and declaring that he intends to keep the county red in November.

It also gives Donalds something else he needs going into a general election against Democrat David Jolly — who chose his running mate, former Congresswoman Gwen Graham, weeks ago: A Cuban-American running mate who can deliver the Republicans’ favorite South Florida argument — socialism! communism! Cuba! — authentically, emotionally and, when necessary, en español.

“My parents fled communist Cuba and left behind a home and business,” Ávila said Tuesday. “They knew what happens when government takes over.”

And then came the money line: With Donalds as governor and Ávila as lieutenant governor, he promised, “socialism will never find a home in the state of Florida.”

Ay, por favor. Like it was waiting for a condo at Brickell Key.

But nobody can say the backdrop wasn’t perfect.

Donalds called Ávila — who must be very happy now that he wasn’t appointed to the Miami-Dade Commission in District 6 to replace Kevin Cabrera — a “proven warrior” and “conservative fighter,” emphasizing both his military service and his decade-plus in Tallahassee.

And that second part may matter more than the campaign rhetoric suggests.

Donalds has served in Congress since 2021 and spent four years in the Florida House before that. Ávila, however, has practically grown up in the Legislature. He was elected to the House in 2014, served the maximum eight consecutive years there, rose to speaker pro tempore and then moved to the Senate in 2022, where he has chaired the powerful Finance and Tax Committee.

In other words, Donalds gets somebody who knows where the bodies are buried in Tallahassee. Figuratively, people. Figuratively.

Ávila also gives Donalds an interesting bridge to Gov. Ron DeSantis after a Republican primary that often felt like a proxy war between DeSantis’ Florida operation and Donald Trump’s MAGA machine.

Donalds is Trump’s guy. No question about that. He beat Ron’s guy.

But Ávila has been a reliable DeSantis soldier.

He carried the governor’s controversial “Stop WOKE Act” in 2022 and this year sponsored legislation regulating massive data centers and protecting residential ratepayers from getting stuck with their electricity costs. DeSantis signed that legislation.

So Donalds managed to choose somebody sufficiently MAGA for Trump World without poking the DeSantis wing of the Florida GOP in the eye.

Indeed, DeSantis immediately gave Ávila his blessing Tuesday, calling him a “good dude” and praising his service in the National Guard. Other Republicans quickly piled on with congratulations.

Translation: Everybody play nice. We have an election in November.

Why Miami? Because Miami matters again. The geography here is impossible to ignore.

Donalds is from Southwest Florida. Ávila is Miami-Dade. Donalds is Black. Ávila is Cuban American. Donalds brings Congress and the national MAGA profile. Ávila brings Tallahassee, Hialeah and the Cuban-American political machinery of South Florida.

And Donalds didn’t exactly discover Ávila Tuesday morning.

Ávila has been co-chair of Veterans for Byron since September and stood beside Donalds in Hialeah in May when the campaign launched its “Latinos for Byron” coalition.

This relationship was being cultivated for months.

And why wouldn’t it be?

Miami-Dade, once the dependable Democratic motherlode that statewide candidates used to bank before heading north, has undergone a stunning political transformation. DeSantis won the county in 2022. Trump won it in 2024. Republicans overtook Democrats in voter registration.

Donalds himself won 58% of the Republican gubernatorial primary vote in Miami-Dade last week, outperforming his roughly 48% statewide showing.

So this isn’t necessarily about rescuing Donalds in Miami. It’s about running up the score.

And perhaps making sure that the Republican gains among Cuban and other Hispanic voters aren’t temporary Trump-era anomalies.

The GOP ticket can now walk into Hialeah, Doral, Westchester, Miami Lakes and southwest Miami-Dade with somebody who speaks the language — literally and politically.

That’s valuable.

Especially because Democrats showed signs of life here in last week’s primary. Miami-Dade Democrats cast about 114,600 ballots compared to about 92,000 Republicans — roughly 25% more — although, of course, the two parties had completely different primary contests and turnout motivations.

Nobody should confuse Miami-Dade with the Republican Panhandle just yet.

There’s another reason the choice is smart.

Ávila isn’t only a culture-war conservative. He sponsored this year’s proposed constitutional amendment aimed at dramatically reducing property taxes for Florida homeowners, an issue likely to be huge in November. He has worked on property insurance. And he carried the data-center legislation designed to prevent enormous new electricity users from passing infrastructure costs onto regular ratepayers.

That last one is particularly convenient. Donalds got hammered during the Republican primary over his ties to tech interests and his support for data centers. Ávila can now stand next to him and say: Yeah, but somebody has to make sure these things don’t jack up your FPL bill.

Nice little political Band-Aid there.

And Ávila can talk affordability while Donalds talks Trump.

Or freedom. Or socialism. Or whatever word polls best that week.

Jolly wasted almost no time congratulating Ávila before immediately making clear that he doesn’t intend to run against him.

“This race won’t come down to Byron Donalds’ relationship with Avila,” Jolly said. “It will come down to Byron’s relationship with Donald Trump.”

There you have the general election in one sentence.

Donalds and Ávila want this race to be about freedom versus socialism, taxes, affordability, parental rights and continuing the conservative Florida that Republicans have built during nearly three decades of control in Tallahassee. Jolly wants the election to be a referendum on Trump.

And Miami-Dade could be one of the places where we find out which argument works better.

There is, however, one little Miami political mystery left behind. Because Ávila wasn’t the only Cuban-American state senator from Miami-Dade under serious consideration.

State Sen. Ana Maria Rodriguez was very much in the mix. In fact, just hours before Donalds’ announcement, the speculation had narrowed enough that both Ávila and Rodriguez were being publicly identified as leading South Florida possibilities. Rodriguez herself confirmed that she was being considered, saying she was “honored and humbled” and would help Donalds however she could.

Rodriguez would have checked many of the same boxes.

Cuban American? Check. Miami-Dade? Check. Tallahassee experience? Check. Conservative? Check.

And she would have given Donalds something Ávila doesn’t: a woman on the Republican ticket.

Yet Donalds chose Ávila. Why?

Maybe it’s the military service. Maybe it’s Ávila’s longer legislative résumé. Maybe it’s his relationship with DeSantis. Maybe it’s his work on property taxes and data centers. Maybe Donalds simply trusts him more after having Ávila embedded in his campaign for nearly a year.

Or maybe there is another reason that hasn’t come out yet.

Because in Miami politics, Ladra has learned that the person who gets picked is interesting.

But sometimes the better story is the person who didn’t.

Rodriguez did not return calls and a text from Ladra.

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Byron Donalds picks Bryan Ávila for LG instead of Ana Maria Rodriguez added by Ladra on August 27, 2026
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