By choosing Crist, Florida Democrats sided with a candidate supported by many in the party establishment who saw him as the safest choice, even after he lost the previous two statewide elections. The 66-year-old moderate, who served as Florida’s Republican governor a decade ago, is hoping to woo voters in Florida’s crowded suburbs as Democrats try to reverse the losing streak in a state that was recently seen as a perennial political battleground. Above all, the Democratic showdown focused on DeSantis, who sees his re-election in November as a potential springboard to a 2024 presidential run. Given the stakes, Democrats across Florida and beyond expressed a real sense of urgency. of urgency to dampen DeSantis’ momentum. Crist blasted DeSantis as an “abusive” and “dangerous” “bully” 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 divides us and takes away our freedom,” Crist said. “This guy wants to be president of the United States of America and everyone knows it. However, when we defeat him on November 8th, this show is over. Enough.” Crist won the Democratic nomination over Nikki Fried, the state agriculture commissioner. She ran a more progressive campaign and was particularly vocal in her advocacy of 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 tenuous position in Florida, she is currently the only Democrat holding statewide office. “We’re going to make Ronald DeSantis a one-term governor and a zero-term president of the United States,” she said as she conceded Tuesday, calling on her supporters to rally behind Crist. DeSantis won his first election by less than half a percentage point, but soon became one of the most prominent figures in GOP politics. His no-nonsense approach to the pandemic and his willingness to bend to divisions over race, gender and LGBTQ rights resonate 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 De Sandys refused to say Crist’s name and instead cast the general election as a contest against President Joe Biden and “woke” ideology. “We will never surrender to the awakening agenda,” DeSantis charged. “Florida is a state where wakefulness goes to die.” The Florida contest caps off the busiest series of primaries this year, which included contests in 18 states in just 22 days. During that time, Republicans from Arizona to Alaska supported candidates who bought into Trump’s lie that the 2020 election was stolen, a claim that election officials, the former president’s attorney general and the judges he appointed have roundly rejected. And for the most part, Democrats have avoided brutal primary battles — with a few exceptions. New York Democrats on Tuesday picked Jerry Nadler over Carolyn Maloney in a congressional primary that featured two powerful House committee chairmen vying for the same seat. North of town, U.S. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, the Democratic congressional campaign chief, won a tough primary against a more progressive senator. Not far away 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 lieutenant governor of New York. Republicans had hoped to flip the swing district, which is becoming a new sign that the red wave that many entrepreneurs expect this fall may be weakening. Indeed, Democrats are entering the final weeks before the midterm elections with a sense of cautious optimism, hoping that the Supreme Court ruling overturning a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion will energize the party’s base. But Democrats still face huge headwinds, including economic uncertainty and the historical reality that most parties lose seats in the first midterm after winning the White House. The dynamic is particularly difficult for Democrats in Florida, one of the most politically divided states in the U.S. The last three gubernatorial races have been decided by 1 percentage point or less. But the state has become steadily 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 registered voters. Fried serves as the state’s only Democrat. And Republicans have no primary competition for four of those five positions—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 female senator. While some Democrats hope Demings can unseat Rubio, the party’s national leadership is prioritizing competitive Senate races in other states, including neighboring Georgia, Arizona and Pennsylvania. Demings was upbeat as she reflected on her unlikely life story in front of a crowd of cheering supporters. “Together, I really believe this daughter of a maid and doorman who’s not supposed to be here tonight — I really believe that together we can do anything,” she said. In the Florida governor’s race, the Supreme Court’s decision on abortion has breathed life into the final weeks of the Democratic primary. Fried promoted herself as the only true abortion rights supporter in the race, capitalizing on Crist’s appointment of two conservative Supreme Court justices while he was governor. The conservative court will soon decide whether the Legislature’s Republican-backed law banning abortions after 15 weeks is constitutional. Florida’s new abortion law is in effect, with exceptions if the procedure is necessary to save the life of the pregnant woman, to prevent serious injury, or if the fetus has a fatal abnormality. It does not allow exceptions in cases of rape, incest or human trafficking. Crist promised 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 Matt Gaetz won his Republican primary in Florida’s Panhandle despite being under federal sex-trafficking investigation. Gaetz is heavily favored to win a fourth term in November. Florida isn’t expected to be among the most competitive states this fall, given its swing to the right, but it could 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 behemoth. DeSantis’ political business has already raised more than $165 million since taking office, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. He is poised to break the record for the most money ever raised by a gubernatorial candidate. “Don’t let anyone tell you it’s going to be easy. In 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’ve just warmed up.”
People reported from Washington, Farrington from 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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