Charlie Crist won the Democratic nomination for Florida governor’s office in Tuesday’s primaries. He will now face Ron DeSantis, the incumbent, in the upcoming midterm elections in November.
Crist was challenged by Nikki Fried, the commissioner of Florida’s agriculture department. The Congressman won at least 59% of the votes in the primaries, according to CNN reports.
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Hours before polls closed in Florida, DeSantis predicted his challenger for the midterms but stopped short of using Representative Crist’s name. Instead, he criticised Fried.
“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 basically try to smear me on a daily basis”, Florida governor DeSantis said.
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 previous two statewide elections.
The 66-year-old already 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 political battleground.
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Florida has been a challenging state for Democrats, and reports suggest that the odds may be in favour of DeSantis in the upcoming elections. The state has made a dramatic shift towards conservative candidates after the 2020 elections.
The recent reversal of the Roe v. Wade precedent was also put on the ballot by Fried, who presented herself as the only supporter of abortion rights in the Florida elections. Fried banked on Crist’s appointment of two conservative Supreme Court justices while he was governor.