On his first day as the Democratic nominee for Governor, Charlie Crist has made it clear that he’s not interested in changing DeSantis supporter’s minds.
Former Florida Governor and Congressman Charlie Crist and Florida Agricultural Commissioner Nikki Fried competed for the Democratic nomination to face off against Governor Ron DeSantis.
Crist was favored throughout most of the race, but a poll was released last week from the University of Northern Florida that showed Fried ahead by a 4% margin, leading some to believe that the race was tightening.
In the end, Crist won by a whopping 24.5 percent margin with more than 95 percent of the vote in.
Last night, Crist posted a short but triumphant message saying that he was ‘proud’ to be the Democratic nominee for Governor.
I’m Charlie Crist and I’m proud to be your Florida Democratic nominee that will defeat Ron DeSantis this November.
— Charlie Crist (@CharlieCrist) August 24, 2022
While Crist is proud to be the Democratic nominee for Governor, it turns out that he is not particularly interested in getting support from Republicans, particularly Ron DeSantis supporters.
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“Those who support DeSantis should stay with him and vote for him, and I don’t want your vote. If you have that hate in your heart, keep it there.” Crist said on Wednesday.
Crist: "Those who support DeSantis should stay with him and vote for him and I don't want your vote. If you have that hate in your heart, keep it there." pic.twitter.com/S0B93bw52i
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) August 24, 2022
Conservative Twitter users quickly piled on to Crist, pointing out his hypocrisy and refusing to interrupt their opponent while he was making a mistake.
DeSantis Rapid Response Director Christina Pushaw said Crist’s ‘terms’ were acceptable.
charlie: your terms are acceptable
— Christina Pushaw 🐊 🇺🇸 (@ChristinaPushaw) August 24, 2022
The RNC pointed out that just yesterday, Crist said he ‘fights to unite’ while DeSantis divides people.
Now, he is telling DeSantis supporters that he doesn’t want their vote.
CRIST, yesterday: "Unite!"
CRIST, today: If you're a Republican, "I don't want your vote!" pic.twitter.com/IyzGlKx0x5
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) August 24, 2022
The Florida Republican Party, for their part, was ready to go on Wednesday morning with an attack ad against Crist, tying him to President Joe Biden.
The advertisement mentioned that Crist supported hiring 87,000 new IRS agents and avoided hot-button social issues, meaning it was likely aimed toward more moderate voters.
Charlie Crist votes with Biden 💯 of the time. He supported the hiring of 87,000 IRS agents to audit the middle class and his agenda to defund the police.
Charlie would do to Florida what Biden’s done to America. We can’t let that happen. pic.twitter.com/g0uKHrRw3p
— Florida GOP (@FloridaGOP) August 24, 2022
Without courting DeSantis supporters, Crist has virtually no path to victory in the state.
The most recent poll on the Florida Governors race conducted by Morning Consult has DeSantis up by eight percentage points. DeSantis had 51 percent of the vote, while Crist had 43 percent.
Crist would also be hard pressed to outpace DeSantis by registering new voters.
Since DeSantis was elected in 2018, Republicans have registered over 460,000 new voters in Florida, outpacing Democrats in voter registration for the first time in 2021.
During that same period, Democrats lost 12,000 voters on net.
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