Inside Byron Donalds' Election Night watch party

Fox - 35 Orlando
8 followers
Nov 4, 2026
Tonight, we've got Fox 35's Marie Ettinger,
who is joining us live right now from the
Byron Donalds camp.
And Marie, what's the mood out there like right now?
This is one of those things where somebody asked me
that same question about an hour
ago, and I said,
It's mostly just reporters here that has changed drastically.
There are people coming in in droves right now,
and it is getting a lot more energetic
with those polls closing just a couple of moments ago,
and I'm not sure how well you
can tell.
I know it's pretty blocked off.
I'm here on a riser with a bunch of other news reporters
and journalists who are kind
of packed in pretty tightly to make sure
that we all have a clear view, so it's a little
bit difficult to show you,
but you can maybe see a little bit over here just showing off
off the number of people who are coming in to watch
This is something that they've been looking quite forward to,
and when I talked with some
of the attendees just a few moments ago,
they said what they're here for is to support the
person that they do believe is going
to be the governor by the end of the night.
They also said, for the most part,
what they're interested in is affordability for the state
of Florida.
That's the main thing that they're voting
for and voting on when they cast their ballot
for the governor.
It's going to be interesting to see what comes from this.
What was what was Byron Donald's schedule like today?
I know he voted earlier this morning.
Was he doing a bunch of campaign events today, Marie?
I don't know.
I do not even sort of know the answer to that, Garrett.
I'm not going to pretend that I do.
So we do know that he arrives to these things
a little bit later in the day.
He doesn't show up right at 7
and walk right through the doors the moment the polls close.
That was the same thing with his previous
watch party for the primaries.
But I'm not sure what he was up to after voting.
I know that he does plan to come here with his wife and his kids.
They were at his previous watch party as well
and actually gave a few speeches on his behalf,
talking about their upbringing.
And for his wife, Erica, they talked about how they got started.
His mother, I think, or some of his family members,
I believe, were here last time as well.
We know that his mother has been extremely important to his campaign.
He talks about her often,
about him being raised in a single-parent household.
He said how that experience
and that upbringing has really driven him to focus now on families
and making sure to keep things affordable for those families.
Which is, again, what people here say they're voting for.
All right.
It's going to be interesting to see what happens
as those numbers begin to come in.
We are watching things very closely.
Marie, we appreciate it.
We will check back in with you coming up in just a little bit.
