A new political action committee formed by Florida Voice for the Unborn, an anti-abortion group, has formally endorsed Republican Congressman Byron Donalds in the race for Florida Governor, pointing to his staunchly anti-choice record in the U.S. House and the Florida Legislature.
Donalds, a 47-year-old Brooklyn native running against former Republican-turned-Democrat David Jolly, for instance, praised the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the constitutional right to abortion under Roe v. Wade in 2022, supported cutting off Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood last year, and has voted against efforts by Congressional Democrats to expand abortion access and protect reproductive rights.
“Florida Voice for the Unborn PAC will work tirelessly over the next two months to promote Byron Donalds’ candidacy by mobilizing grassroots pro-life advocates throughout the state,” said Andrew Shirvill, chair of the new PAC, in a statement.
Shirvill, today based out of Tallahassee, formerly served as a former assistant attorney general in Michigan before he was fired in 2010 for “conduct unbecoming a state employee” after harassing and defaming a gay student at the University of Michigan online. He founded Florida Voice for the Unborn, an anti-abortion lobbying group, in 2020. He’s also listed as the group’s executive director.
According to Politico, many members of Florida Voice for the Unborn were initially more supportive of former Florida House speaker Paul Renner for governor in the Republican gubernatorial primary election on August 18. After Donalds easily emerged victorious from the primary, however — with Renner finishing fourth with less than 10 percent of the vote — the anti-abortion group is now reportedly riding with Byron.
Shirvill, for his part, said in a statement that he personally voted for Donalds in the primary and is happy with Donalds’ decision shortly after to pick Florida Sen. Bryan Avila — also an anti-abortion Republican — as his running mate.
“It is now time for Florida’s vibrant grassroots pro-life movement to unite in support of Byron Donalds’ gubernatorial candidacy and help ensure that Donalds defeats his radical pro-abortion Democrat opponent,” Shirvill declared.
Jolly, in reality, is hardly radical. In the Democratic primary election, Jolly was easily the more moderate candidate, as a former Republican hoping to appeal to the state’s larger number of Republicans and independents. And he’s campaigned as such, focusing on affordability issues that resonate with cost-burdened voters across the political spectrum.
On the abortion rights front, Jolly (in his previous life as a Republican) was known for being anti-abortion and stated that he believed “life begins at conception” as recently as 2016.
However, that was before Jolly, 53, left the Republican Party in 2018 and switched his party affiliation to the Democratic Party in 2025, just ahead of filing his candidacy for Florida Governor.
Over the course of his campaign, Jolly has said he firmly opposes Florida’s current six-week abortion ban and is supportive of restoring access to abortion through “viability,” or about 23 to 24 weeks of pregnancy. His campaign website describes Jolly as “explicitly pro-choice.”
“Reproductive freedom means trusting people to make deeply personal decisions about pregnancy, health, and family based on their own values, circumstances, and health, not having government restrict those choices,” Jolly’s website reads. “Florida should be a place where people are trusted and free to make their own decisions, with access to safe care protected. Freedom, if it means anything, has to mean this: trusting people, especially when it matters most.”
Abortion rights restrictions are associated with higher rates of maternal mortality and birth-related complications, and may reduce access to OB-GYN providers, due to the legal uncertainties for healthcare professionals surrounding abortion bans and the moral quandary of feeling unable to provide a standard of care.
“It really is difficult to sit back and feel like your hands are tied and that you can’t help them,” said Dr. Alecia Fields, an OB-GYN from Kentucky — where abortion is completely banned — speaking to the PBS News Hour earlier this year. “You can’t do anything. You can sit with them, you can hold space with them, you can support them, but you can’t do anything for them.”
Notably, however, reproductive rights has not been a central issue on the campaign trail.
As Byron Donalds slams Jolly for being “radical” and comically affiliates Jolly with “socialism” — we’ve heard that one before from the GOP — so-called “Data Center Donalds” is facing heat himself over his lukewarm position on hyperscale data centers and the sizable campaign contributions his campaign has received from industry actors who stand to profit from their development.
The Republican Party still holds a 1.5 million voter registration edge over the Florida Democratic Party, which has been widely criticized by national pundits for failing to turn the tide on the Sunshine State’s further pivot to the right in recent years.
Independents or No Party Affiliated voters, even so, make up a sizable portion of Florida’s registered voter base, representing nearly 25 percent of registered voters in Florida as of Aug. 11.
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