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MS NOW host Symone Sanders Townsend suggests Byron Donalds is no true kinfolk

Remark came as Florida elected its first Black governor in a rare Republican win, critics reach back to Clarence Thomas and his high-tech lynching

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MS NOW’s Symone Sanders says ‘all kinfolk ain’t skinfolk’ after Donalds’ historic win MS NOW’s Symone Sanders says ‘all kinfolk ain’t skinfolk’ after Donalds’ historic win foxnews.com
Rep. Byron Donalds gives a thumbs up Rep. Byron Donalds gives a thumbs up foxnews.com
Symone Sanders Townsend Symone Sanders Townsend foxnews.com
DeSantis press conference DeSantis press conference foxnews.com

Symone Sanders Townsend, host of MS NOW, marked Byron Donalds' victory in Florida's governor's race with a phrase from her community: "all kinfolk ain't skinfolk." Donalds, a Republican, is the first Black governor Florida has elected. He won narrowly over Democrat David Jolly, one of his party's few bright spots on a night when Democrats swept the rest of the country, and will succeed the term-limited Ron DeSantis.

Sanders Townsend conceded the history. "It is a historic win. It is the first time Florida has elected a Black governor," she said, before explaining that Donalds "is making history, but he is going to continue the political direction" of DeSantis. Donalds had appeared that morning on "The Breakfast Club," where he was asked about "all kinds of policies and whatnot" and, in her words, "sounded similar to Ron DeSantis." Fox News observed that she appeared to mean the saying the other way around.

Tim Graham of the Media Research Center told Fox News Digital that the remark argued "that being a Black conservative is being a traitor to your race." In his reading, she "suggests that Gov. Ron DeSantis has been anti-Black in his policies, and so Donalds is going to continue this allegedly anti-Black agenda" — a message he said demanded political conformity from Black Americans. He compared the episode to the treatment of Clarence Thomas during his 1991 confirmation hearings, where Thomas described the proceedings as a "high-tech lynching." Fox News Digital reached out to Donalds for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Donalds has pushed back before. When Representative Jasmine Crockett of Texas criticized his marriage to a White woman in remarks that resurfaced in 2025, he responded on "The Joe Pags Show": "Don't talk about my wife. Keep my wife out of this. It ain't got nothing to do with her."