After President Donald Trump endorsed U.S. Congressman Byron Donalds as his pick for Florida’s next governor, Governor Ron DeSantis said his wife (and one of his top advisors), Casey DeSantis, would be “a formidable candidate” if she chose to run for the 2026 governor’s race.
Conservative political pundit Candace Owens spoke this weekend with controversial MAGA-aligned social media influencer Andrew Tate, who was accused of human trafficking in Romania, about the race in Florida.
Note: After Romanian authorities lifted travel restrictions in February, Tate and his brother Tristan Tate arrived in Florida and an investigation into the brothers was opened by DeSantis’s Attorney General James Uthmeier. Governor DeSantis said the Tate brothers were not “welcome” in Florida.
Uthmeier said of the Tate brothers: “These guys are charged with pretty horrific offenses around the world. There are victims that have come forward around the world and we’re looking at possible victims and possible conduct that may have taken place on Florida’s soil.”
As seen in the video below with Owens, who called the Florida investigation “a witch hunt,” Tate has accused the Attorney General’s office of being influenced by the media and said, “They’re just trying to pin something on me because they don’t like me.” He complained that all of his electronic devices were taken from him at the airport.
Tate also told Owens that he received “a phone call from somebody very important who told me that the DeSantis crew are extremely concerned that I was gonna support Byron against his wife in the Floridian governor elections.”
Tate added: “I’m new to this. I don’t know anything about Floridian politics. I didn’t even know that DeSantis and Trump didn’t get along.”
Tate said: “Everyone’s telling me that ‘you’re a political pawn and you can motivate and activate the masculine youth and you’re gonna get them all to vote against his wife and that’s why they’re trying to take you out politically.’”
Tate says he’s “being told that I’m the one who’s going to be deciding the next governor of Florida,” and added, “I don’t know what’s going on,” and “it’s truly, truly incredible.”
Owens asked her followers on Facebook: “Is DeSantis going after Andrew Tate because he believes Tate would endorse Byron Donalds for Florida governor instead of his wife?” The majority of Owens’s YouTube subscribers are chastising DeSantis for the “witch hunt’ investigation and encourage Tate to sue DeSantis.
A few of Owens’s Christian followers argue that although the Tate brothers were not convicted of a crime and were allowed to leave Romania, that Americans should not try to paint them as martyrs. One replied: “True Christians don’t support him because of the awful things that have come out of his mouth about taking advantage of women and men. Just because he now tries to distance himself from that doesn’t mean we forgot. He hasn’t repented, he doesn’t appear to be remorseful. He currently doesn’t stand for our values. Period. God can save him and that day may come but that day isn’t here yet. Until then no Christian should align with him.”