OFF THE TRAIL

Maskless Florida Candidate Tests Positive for COVID-19 Hours Before Rally With Trump

Byron Donalds was photographed without a mask at an indoor campaign event with South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem and Trump aide Corey Lewandowski last week.

South Florida congressional candidate Byron Donalds tested positive for the coronavirus shortly before he was set to join President Donald Trump at a Fort Meyers rally on Friday afternoon. In a Facebook post, Donalds said he was given a rapid test just before the rally, as per White House rules, and it came back positive. He then took a PCR test to confirm the result. “I currently feel fine,” he wrote, adding that he would quarantine at home. Donalds, currently a member of Florida’s House of Representatives, had posted photos of himself in the last week, without a mask on, mingling with voters, door-knocking and moderating an event with South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem and Trump aide Corey Lewandowski. He met with Trump in the Oval Office on Sept. 24. “We have notified the organizers of the events I have attended in recent days,” he wrote in his Friday post.