Florida Gubernatorial Candidate named in lawsuit alleging assault

The suit focuses on a 2022 incident between Donalds and a Collier County School Board Member

House Lawmakers On Capitol Hill FILE PHOTO: WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 20: U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) leaves a closed-door House Republican meeting at the U.S. Capitol on October 20, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images/Getty Images)

By Greg Rhodes

Florida Gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds has been named in a lawsuit alleging assault. The incident dates back to a 2022 incident between Donalds and a Collier County School Board Member, Kelly Mason.

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The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday, was first reported by the Daily Mail. In the suit, Kelly Mason alleges that Congressman Donalds cornered her in a grocery store in Naples and verbally assaulted her in 2022. The confrontation was videoed by Mason’s at the time 13-year-old daughter, a video that has made the rounds online since that time.

In a statement to WDBO, the Byron Donalds camp said:

“This is a baseless, politically motivated attack and shameful publicity stunt designed to damage Byron Donalds in the 2026 election. This individual has a long history of unsuccessful litigation against the Donalds family -- the Daily Mail is the perfect gossip rag to give this airtime. Floridians deserve better than this tabloid nonsense.”

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Mason had previously involved Byron Donalds wife in a lawsuit filed in June of 2022. That suit is still active and has a judicial hearing scheduled for November of this year.

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