GOP Candidate Slammed After Sharing Absurdly Sexist Reason Why Roads Should Be Repaired

Florida Republican Representative Byron Donalds was called out after making a sexist remark at a campaign rally about why women need roads to be fixed.

Donalds is currently campaigning for Florida's governorship. He is President Donald Trump's preferred candidate in Florida and would be the state's first Black governor if elected to succeed the term-limited Ron DeSantis.

While speaking at a rally, he discussed upgrades to public roads and commented on why fixing roads would be beneficial for women in particular:

“Everybody gets frustrated when it just takes longer to get from point A to point B."

"And looking at the ladies in the room this afternoon, we want to make sure that you continue to have your hair looking good. So you can get to the beauty salon as quick as you can.”

You can hear what he said in the video below.

We're pretty certain women need to use roads for all the reasons anyone uses them, not just to get their hair done.

Donalds was quickly criticized.

A prominent Trump ally who was reportedly considered for Trump’s 2024 vice-presidential shortlist before the nomination ultimately went to JD Vance, Donalds made affordability, lower property taxes and reduced insurance costs central to his campaign.

Donalds has run television ads concentrated on David Jolly, the former Republican congressman who won the Democratic nomination. Jolly has said that Donalds "has sold the governor’s mansion to the highest bidder and the special interests across the state have been happy to play ball.”

Donalds recently ran one ad that deceptively edits remarks Jolly made about gender-affirming care. The ad uses brief clips of Jolly discussing gender-affirming care and claims he supports “gender changing surgeries on kids.” It also features Jolly saying, “We embraced it, the medical pathways, the gender-affirming care.”

But the ad leaves out important context. Jolly was quoting another person when he made the remarks about gender-affirming care during a 2025 podcast interview. He did not say in that exchange that he supported gender-affirming surgeries for children. Jolly has said that medical decisions involving transgender youth should be made by families in consultation with doctors.