Byron Donalds says he’ll keep eye on Santa Ono if academic takes over UF presidency

U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds wants the Board of Governors to reject the selection of Santa Ono as the next President of the University of Florida.

But if they reject his advice, the Naples Republican says he will be watching Gainesville closely if he wins the gubernatorial election next year.

“We need to restart the search process. Too much has come out about Mr. Ono. I don’t know the man, but I will tell you, if he actually ends up becoming the president of the University of Florida, and I step in as the state’s next governor, we are going to be observing him very, very closely,” Donalds said Friday.

Donalds told Fox Business viewers the UF Trustees “really tried to go and and think about what’s going to be in the best interests of Florida going forward, the University of Florida, but there are way too many issues for this to just be a single candidate just going through the process.”

Weeks ago, the Republican Congressman urged the Trustees to “go back to the drawing board.”

But Board of Trustees Chair Mori Hosseini says the exiting University of Michigan President’s “values align perfectly with ours here in the great state of Florida.”

While he’s staying out of the hiring process despite concerns from the cultural right, Gov. Ron DeSantis says the potential new hire could get canned if he threatens Florida’s status as the place where “woke goes to die.”

“I don’t know the candidate,” DeSantis said of Ono, noting that people have pointed out a “lot of statements” Ono has made.

“But basically, I think the folks that were involved in the search after having interviewed him, spent time with them, it’s their judgment that he’s really kind of reached the limit on the campus leftism, and he would want to leave Michigan, where that is prevalent, to Florida, where it’s frowned upon, because he wants to be more in line with what Florida is doing and our policies. And they really believe that.”