MIAMI (AP) – U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist won the Democratic nomination for governor in Florida on Tuesday, setting him up to challenge Gov. Ron DeSantis this fall in a campaign the Republican incumbent sees as the first step toward a possible run in the White House. .
In selecting Crist, Florida Democrats sided with a candidate backed by many in the party establishment who saw him as the safest choice, even after losing their previous two statewide elections . The 66-year-old moderate, who served as Florida’s Republican governor a decade ago, hopes to woo suburban Florida voters as Democrats look to reverse a losing streak in a state that was recently seen as a perennial political battle.
Above all, the Democratic contest focused on DeSantis, who views his November re-election as a potential springboard for the 2024 presidential race. Considering the stakes, Democrats in Florida and beyond expressed a real sense of urgency to stop DeSantis’ momentum.
Crist denounced DeSantis as “abusive” and “dangerous” in his victory speech.
“Tonight, the people of Florida sent a clear message: They want a governor who cares about them and solves real problems, preserves our freedom, not a bully who will divide us and take away our freedom,” Crist declared. “This guy wants to be president of the United States of America and everyone knows it. However, when we defeat him on November 8th, that program is over. Enough.”
Crist won the Democratic nomination over Nikki Fried, the state agriculture commissioner. He ran a more progressive campaign and was particularly vocal in defending abortion and LGBTQ rights. The 44-year-old introduced herself as “something new” and hoped to become Florida’s first female governor. In a sign of the party’s slim position in Florida, she is currently the only Democrat holding statewide office.
“We will make Ronald DeSantis a one-term governor and a zero-term president of the United States,” he said as he conceded Tuesday, calling on his supporters to rally behind Christ.
DeSantis won his first election by less than half a percentage point, but soon became one of the most prominent figures in Republican politics. His no-nonsense approach to the pandemic and his eagerness to lean into divisions over race, gender and LGBTQ rights have resonated with many Republican voters who see DeSantis as a natural heir to former President Donald Trump.
From a raucous ballroom in Miami on Tuesday night, a fiery DeSantis refused to say the name of Christ and instead cast the general election as a contest against President Joe Biden and the ideology “was wake up”.
“We will never surrender to the awakening agenda,” DeSantis charged. “Florida is a state where the awakening is going to die.”
Florida’s contest concludes the busiest stretch of primaries this year, which featured contests in 18 states over just 22 days. In that span, Republicans from Arizona to Alaska have supported contenders who bought into Trump’s lies about stealing the 2020 election, a claim roundly rejected by election officials, the former president’s attorney general and the judges he appointed.
And for the most part, Democrats avoided brutal primary fights, with a few exceptions.
New York City Democrats picked Jerry Nadler over Carolyn Maloney on Tuesday in a congressional primary that featured two powerful House committee chairs vying for the same seat. North of the city, U.S. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, the Democratic congressional campaign manager, won a tough primary fight against a more progressive state senator.
Not far away in New York state, Democrats celebrated County Executive Pat Ryan’s victory in a special election to fill out the remainder of Democrat Anthony Delgado’s term. Delgado left Congress to become lieutenant governor of New York.
Republicans hoped to flip the swing district, which becomes a new sign that the red wave that many operatives expect this fall may weaken.
Indeed, Democrats enter the final weeks before the midterms with a sense of cautious optimism, hoping that the Supreme Court’s decision striking down a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion will energize the base of the party But Democrats still face huge headwinds, including economic uncertainty and the historical reality that most parties lose seats in the first half-term after winning the White House.
The dynamic is particularly difficult for Democrats in Florida, one of the most politically divided states in the US. His last three races for governor were decided by 1 percentage point or less. But the state has become increasingly Republican-friendly 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 registered voters. Fried is the only Democrat in office statewide. And Republicans have no primary competition for four of those five offices: governor, U.S. Senate, attorney general and chief financial officer, all of which are held by GOP incumbents.
U.S. Rep. Val Demings easily won the Democratic nomination to challenge Republican Sen. Marco Rubio this fall. Demings, a former police chief and prodigious political fundraiser, has a chance to become Florida’s first black senator.
While some Democrats are hopeful that Demings can unseat Rubio, the party’s national leadership is prioritizing competitive Senate contests in other states, including neighboring Georgia, Arizona and Pennsylvania.
Demings was upbeat as he reflected on his unlikely life story before a crowd of supporters.
“Together, I really believe that this daughter of a maid and janitor who shouldn’t be here tonight; I really believe that together we can do anything,” she said.
In the Florida 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 advocate in the race, capitalizing on Christ’s appointment of two conservative Supreme Court justices while he was governor.
The conservative-leaning court will soon decide whether the state legislature’s Republican-backed law to ban abortion 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 accept exemptions in cases of rape, incest or human trafficking.
Crist vowed Tuesday night to make abortion rights a priority.
“On the first day of my administration, I will sign an executive order protecting a woman’s right to choose,” he said.
Elsewhere in Florida, Trump protégé Rep. Matt Gaetz won his Republican primary in his Florida Panhandle district despite being under federal investigation in a sex-trafficking case. Gaetz is heavily favored to win a fourth term in November.
Florida is not expected to be among the most competitive states this fall given its shift to the right, but it may be the most expensive.
Crist has raised $14 million so far this election cycle, nearly twice as much as Fried. But he faces a fundraising juggernaut. DeSantis’ political operation has already raised more than $165 million since taking office, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. He is on pace to break the record for the most money ever raised by a gubernatorial candidate.
“Don’t let anybody tell you it’s going to be easy. For the next two and a half months, they’re going to throw everything they’ve got at us,” DeSantis said. He added: “I was elected less than four years ago, but we are warming up.”
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Reported Towns of Washington, Farrington of Tallahassee. Associated Press writers Anthony Izaguirre in Tallahassee, Curt Anderson in St. Petersburg and Marc Levy in Pittsburgh contributed to this report.
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