![\"\"](\"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/ByronDonalds.Portrait.Final_.Web_.jpg\" "\\"ByronDonalds.Portrait.Final.Web\\"")
<\/a>There are six candidates seeking to succeed Connie Mack IV in the US Congress.\u00a0 The district includes much of Lehigh Acres, everything south of Lee Blvd.\u00a0 Only one of the six has shown an interest in Lehigh voters.\u00a0 The only one to participate in Politics in the Park<\/a> was Byron Donalds. Byron came and met the voters of Lehigh Acres and stayed after his talk to visit with anyone with a question.\u00a0 Byron decisively won the straw poll<\/a>\u00a0 at that event with 52% of the vote.\u00a0 That victory was followed by a straw poll win among members of the Lehigh Acres Community Council.<\/a><\/p>\n Recently the Greater Lehigh Acres Chamber of Commerce held its first Celebrity Waiter Dinner<\/a>.\u00a0 The event was to support the Chamber Scholarship fund.\u00a0 This was another chance to meet the Lehigh Acres community, and help raise funds for a worthy Lehigh Acres cause.\u00a0 Byron was the only candidate there taking an interest in Lehigh Acres.<\/p>\n Byron was raised in a single parent household in Brooklyn, New York.\u00a0 He is the best source for his personal story: \u00a0Journey to Liberty<\/a>.\u00a0 He talks about the transition from a childhood in an area where being a Democrat was a way of life to a Republican in Southwest Florida.\u00a0 The story may explain why Byron is comfortable with all people in every setting.\u00a0 He\u2019s not been picked to run by power brokers, or the son of a congressman, or a talk show host.\u00a0 He is a regular citizen.<\/p>\n Lehigh Acres is not the only place others have avoided.\u00a0 Early in the campaign there were a couple congressional forums attended by all six.\u00a0 Since then, four of the other five have to attend forums hosted by differing community groups.\u00a0 They seem to prefer to have their TV ads and mail talk at voters rather than to personally talk with them.<\/p>\n Most recently, these four did not come to McGregor Baptist Church.\u00a0 At the end of that forum, Byron talked about their failure to attend.\u00a0 His remarks are on YouTube, aptly entitled \u201cWe Have a County to Save<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Byron\u2019s willingness to meet and connect explains his over 300 volunteers, 9,200+ Facebook<\/a>\u00a0 connections on three pages, and 10,200+ twitter<\/a> followers.\u00a0\u00a0 There is more at Citizens for Byron Donalds<\/a>.\u00a0 Please take a look.\u00a0 The final thought here though, he\u2019s the only one interested in Lehigh Acres.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" To the people of Lehigh Acres by David Shestokas, There are six candidates seeking to succeed Connie Mack IV in the US Congress.\u00a0 The district includes much of Lehigh Acres,… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,61],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11021"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11021\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}