Florida Democrats choose Charlie Crist to challenge DeSantis
MIAMI — U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist on Tuesday won the Democratic nomination for governor in Florida, putting him in position to challenge Gov. Ron DeSantis this fall in a campaign that the Republican incumbent is eyeing as the first step toward a potential White House run.
Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Val Demings seized the Democratic nomination to challenge Republican Sen. Marco Rubio this fall. Demings, a former police chief and prodigious fundraiser, has a chance to become Florida’s first Black female senator.
In selecting Crist in the race for governor, Florida Democrats sided with a candidate backed by many in the party’s establishment who viewed him as the safest choice, even after he lost his last two statewide elections. The 66-year-old served one term as a Republican governor more than a decade ago before becoming a Democrat. His moderate stances could appeal to voters in Florida’s teeming suburbs, as Democrats seek to reverse a losing pattern in a state that was recently seen as a perennial political battleground.
In his victory speech, Crist decried DeSantis as “abusive,” “dangerous” and a “bully.”
“Tonight, the people of Florida clearly sent a message: They want a governor who cares about them and solves real problems, preserves our freedom, not a bully who divides us and takes our freedom away,” Crist declared. “This guy wants to be president of the United States of America, and everybody knows it. However, when we defeat him on Nov. 8, that show is over. Enough.”
Crist defeated Nikki Fried, the state agriculture commissioner, who staked out a more progressive campaign and was particularly vocal in defending abortion and LGBTQ rights. The 44-year-old cast herself as “something new” and hoped to become Florida’s first female governor. In a sign of the party’s meager standing in Florida, Fried is the only Democrat holding statewide office.
But the race ultimately centered on the political future of DeSantis, who emerged from a narrow victory four years ago to become one of the most prominent figures in GOP politics. His resistance toward public safety restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic and eagerness to lean into divides over race, gender and LGBTQ rights have resonated with Republican voters who see him as a natural heir to former President Trump.
The Florida governor has proven ruthless, relentless and skillful at exploiting the culture war for political gain.
From a raucous ballroom in Miami, a fiery DeSantis declined to say Crist’s name Tuesday night and instead cast the general election as a contest against President Biden and “woke” ideology.
“We will never, ever surrender to the woke agenda,” DeSantis charged. “Florida is a state where woke goes to die.”
DeSantis’ reelection effort is widely assumed to be a precursor to a presidential run in 2024, adding to a sense of urgency among Democrats to blunt his ascension now.
The Florida contest concludes this year’s busiest stretch of primaries, which featured races in 18 states over 22 days. In that span, Republicans from Arizona to Alaska have supported contenders who embraced Trump’s lies that the 2020 election was stolen, an assertion roundly rejected by elections officials, the former president’s attorney general and judges he appointed.
For the most part, Democrats avoided brutal primary fights — with some exceptions.
New York City Democrats on Tuesday picked Jerrold Nadler over Carolyn B. Maloney in a congressional primary that featured two powerful House committee chairs competing for the same seat. To the north of the city, U.S. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, the Democratic Party’s congressional campaign chief, won a tough primary fight against a more progressive state senator.
In upstate New York, Democrats celebrated county executive Pat Ryan’s victory in a special election to fill the remainder of Democrat Anthony Delgado’s term. Delgado left Congress to become New York’s lieutenant governor.
Republicans had hoped to flip the swing district; the result there is a sign that the red wave many operatives predict this fall may be weakening.
Democrats are entering the final weeks ahead of the midterms with a sense of cautious optimism, hoping the Supreme Court’s decision overturning a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion will energize the party’s base. But Democrats face tremendous headwinds, including economic uncertainty and the historical reality that most parties lose seats in the first midterm after they’ve won the White House.
The dynamics are especially challenging for Democrats in Florida, one of the most politically divided states. Its last three races for governor were decided by 1 percentage point or less. But the state has steadily become more favorable to Republicans in recent years. For the first time in modern history, Florida has more registered Republicans — nearly 5.2 million — than Democrats, who have nearly 5 million. Republicans have no primary competition for governor, U.S. Senate, attorney general and chief financial officer — all held by GOP incumbents.
Democrats hope that Demings, who defeated a little-known candidate in Tuesday’s Senate primary, can unseat the state’s senior U.S. senator, Rubio, this fall. But for now, the party’s national leadership is prioritizing competitive Senate contests in other states, including Georgia, Arizona and Pennsylvania.
Demings sounded an optimistic note as she reflected on her life.
“Together, I really do believe this daughter of a maid and janitor who is not supposed to be standing here tonight — I really do believe that together we can do anything,” she said.
Tuesday’s primary elections feature two top Florida Democrats squaring off for the right to face Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. Rep. Matt Gaetz faces a primary and Rep. Val Demings is vying to take on Sen. Marco Rubio.
In Florida’s governor’s race, the Supreme Court’s abortion decision animated the final weeks of the Democratic primary. Fried promoted herself as the only true abortion rights supporter in the race, seizing on Crist’s appointment of two conservative Supreme Court justices while he was governor.
The conservative-leaning court will soon decide whether the Republican-backed state Legislature’s law to ban abortions after 15 weeks is constitutional. Florida’s new abortion law is in effect, with exceptions if the procedure is necessary to save the pregnant woman’s life, to prevent serious injury or if the fetus has a fatal abnormality. It does not allow exemptions in cases of rape, incest or human trafficking.
Crist said that he is “pro-choice” and highlighted a bill he vetoed as governor in 2010 that would have required women seeking a first-trimester abortion to get and pay for an ultrasound exam.
“It is a woman’s right to choose,” Crist told the Associated Press. “My record is crystal clear. And for my opponent to try to muddy that up is unconscionable, unfair and unwise.”
DeSantis and Fried spent several hours together Tuesday morning during a Cabinet meeting at the Tallahassee statehouse. They kept things cordial during the event, as they heard reports from agency heads on state finances, contracting and other matters.
DeSantis shook Fried’s hand as the meeting concluded and told her “good luck” before criticizing her campaign and predicting her loss in brief remarks to reporters.
“I think that you know she had an opportunity as being the only Democrat elected statewide to exercise some leadership and maybe get some things done, and instead she’s used her time to try and smear me on a daily basis — that’s all she does,” DeSantis said of Fried.
Fried told reporters she thought the governor had scheduled the meeting as a way to sideline her during her final day of campaigning.
“Of course it’s not a coincidence,” she said of the timing. “I think that he is scared of me winning tonight, so he’s doing everything in his power to keep me off the campaign trail today.”
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