Nicki Minaj says she felt “on a deeply maternal level” a post celebrating Byron Donalds and John James, two Black Republicans running to become the first Black governors of Florida and Michigan.
Minaj quote tweeted a post from conservative account @DPrello, which claimed the two men are on course to make history and that the media has stayed quiet about it because they are Republicans. “Those of us who have eyes to see will celebrate them,” Minaj wrote. “I’ve met them both. They are both exceptionally engaging speakers & just overall great well rounded guys.” She went on to thank Trump and added that Mike Rogers, Michigan’s Republican Senate candidate, “is exceptional, too.”
The post landed the same weekend Minaj joined Trump onstage at a rally in Port Huron, Michigan, where she led the crowd in chants for Rogers and James and told Trump she would support him “forever and ever.” Back in August, she endorsed Donalds days before Florida’s Republican primary, telling her fans, “Barbz please support him however you can.”
Donalds ran with it. Appearing on Fox News, he argued that if he or James were running as Democrats, every outlet in the country would be talking about how historic their campaigns are. The claim that the media has been silent does not hold up, though. Outlets including NBC6 in Miami and TheGrio have reported that Donalds would be Florida’s first Black governor and James would be Michigan’s.
The bigger problem for both men sits with Black voters themselves. A Mason Dixon poll of Florida voters shows Democrat David Jolly winning 76% of Black voters to Donalds’ 10%. A St. Pete Polls survey puts Donalds a little higher at 14%, still far short of the 20% he has said he wants. In Michigan, an October poll found Black voters backing Democrat Jocelyn Benson over James 73% to 6%.
Much of that comes down to Trump. Donalds has spent years as one of Trump’s most loyal defenders. He stood outside the Manhattan courthouse during Trump’s 2024 criminal trial to back him, and he was floated as a possible running mate that same year. In 2020, he credited Trump’s gains with Black voters to his “swag.” Trump returned the favor by endorsing Donalds for governor early, clearing his path through the Republican primary.
Donalds also has a history with Black voters that he has not been able to shake. At a 2024 Trump campaign event in Philadelphia aimed at winning Black men, he said, “During Jim Crow, the Black family was together.” Jim Crow refers to the laws that legally enforced segregation and blocked Black Americans from voting across the South for nearly a century. The comment drew immediate backlash from Black Democratic leaders, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and Jolly has made sure voters remember it this election season.
Sean Freeder, director of the Public Opinion Research Lab at the University of North Florida, said the chance to elect Florida’s first Black governor is not enough to move most Black voters away from Democrats. A clear majority of Black voters oppose most of Trump’s policies, he said, and they see Donalds as part of that agenda.
Donalds’ own campaign seems to know it. His team recently made Trump less visible on its campaign website, a move Jolly called an attempt to distance himself from Trump while courting Black voters. Donalds has also built a Florida Coalition of Black Leaders, made up of pastors, police officers, lawmakers and business owners, to make his case in churches, barbershops and on college campuses.
The math still matters to him. Jolly has said the race could come down to the roughly 10% of Black voters in Florida who remain undecided, and polls show Donalds leading Jolly statewide by seven to eight points. In Michigan, James trails Benson in recent polling.
Minaj does not live or vote in Florida or Michigan, but she has made herself one of the loudest celebrity voices in both races. Election Day is November 3.
