“Our values haven’t changed, and the heart and soul of Cracker Barrel haven’t changed,” Cracker Barrel said.
But Congressman Byron Donalds, a prominent leader, is taking issue with the design, partly because Cracker Barrel played a significant role in his journey to faith. He tweeted this week:
“In college, I worked at @CrackerBarrel in Tallahassee. I even gave my life to Christ in their parking lot. Their logo was iconic and their unique restaurants were a fixture of American culture. No one asked for this woke rebrand. It’s time to Make Cracker Barrel Great Again.”
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Congressman Donalds has stood out among the influencers who have supported Donald Trump’s rise to the top. And some liberal media outlets have even called him “the most influential Black Republican in MAGA.” But to label him like that misses the larger point: Byron Donalds is a Tea Party originalist, constitutional conservative, and one of the best messengers out there.
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In CBN’s nearly one-hour interview with Donalds, which took place before the Cracker Barrel rebranding, he hit on a number of topics. Being a finance guy, cutting spending is on top of the list, a key to America’s future.
“There are members in both chambers who would say, ‘Oh, we can’t cut, let’s do that later,'” Donalds tells CBN News. “The problem is, there is no later. There is now…this town has never cut spending. Ever.”
“I’m not going to be intimidated by your yelling,” says Donalds. “If you want to have a constructive conversation, let’s do that. I’m all for that but if you want to yell, there’s the door. You can get out, and then we’ll continue…I could be political and just tell everybody what they want to hear but I’m not in this for politics. I’m in this to put the country in the right spot.”
How he even got to this spot in his life is compelling. Raised by a single mom on the mean streets of Brooklyn, New York, life wasn’t easy. “My mom just did everything that she could,” Donalds tells CBN News. “She really believed in me, believed in really my abilities…she laid a great foundation, a no excuses foundation, like, that’s her. She’s no excuses. Dot your I’s, cross your T’s, nothing’s going to be easy.”
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And it wasn’t. When his mom lost her job, his grandma had to step in to help pay for private schools because they saw potential. Still, trouble came when Donalds went off to college in Florida. First came a charge for marijuana possession. Those charges were dropped. Then, a couple of years later, he pled no contest to felony theft for depositing a bad check. Those charges were eventually expunged from his record. “I’m not proud of it. Never have been proud of those mistakes,” says Donalds. “But in life, it’s not really how you fall down, it’s how you get up.”
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Reprinted with permission from cbn.com. Copyright © 2025 The Christian Broadcasting Network Inc. All rights reserved.
