SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. – With the Florida primary now decided, the race to November for gubernatorial candidates Charlie Crist and Ron DeSantis is underway in earnest.
Crist celebrated his victory at a restaurant in downtown St. Petersburg on Wednesday.
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The former governor defeated Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, with 60% of the vote Tuesday night.
Crist told his supporters on Wednesday there’s still a lot of work to be done for the gubernatorial race against incumbent Gov. Ron DeSantis.
“The guy who’s anti-democracy, I’ll be pro-democracy. He’s anti-women. I’ll be pro-women. He’s anti-African American. I’m pro-African American. I’m pro-Floridian and he is for the hard bright, red beat vote,” the Democrat said.
Votes
%
Charlie Crist(D)
Cadance Daniel(D)
Nicole "Nikki" Fried(D)
Robert L. Willis(D)
(0 / 129)
Fried already threw her support behind Crist following his victory.
“We have to beat Ron DeSantis, and I will do everything in my power, including supporting Charlie, to get out the vote and to make sure that we win. That is how important this election is,” Fried said.
DeSantis spoke to his supporters in South Florida Tuesday night and said he’s confident he’ll win another term.
“We’ve accomplished an awful lot in Florida, more than anybody thought was possible when I got elected less than four years ago,” DeSantis said.
The governor is making several campaign stops in Florida on Wednesday. He’ll be in Seminole, Duval, and Hillsborough counties as part of his Keep Florida Free tour.
“We are going to be running awfully hard all across this state and we are going to generate the biggest Republican turnout this state has ever seen in a governor’s race,” DeSantis said on Tuesday.
DeSantis, along with Sen. Marco Rubio and a slew of Republican candidates who won their primary races, stopped in Geneva Wednesday afternoon, impressed with his party’s voter turnout at the polls.
“I’m excited that we’ve been able to win some elections yesterday, get some good nominees,” DeSantis said. “You know, we didn’t have a primary for me. And my philosophy is you always run hard. It doesn’t matter, but it’s always better to run unopposed.”
DeSantis also touted some of his recent accomplishments in his time as governor at the Seminole County tour stop.
“When you elect people, you don’t know always what you’re gonna get. Most people that run for office, they tell you all these great things. They get in there and they don’t follow through on what they said. Well, I can tell you since I’ve been governor, everything I said I would do, we have done,” DeSantis said. “...I think we can get people to come out to vote who’ve never even voted in the governor’s race before.”
DeSantis will also be speaking in Miami-Dade County Wednesday afternoon “to rally and unite Republicans for victory in November up and down the ballot to keep Florida RED.”
Crist and DeSantis will also face Libertarian candidate Hector Roos, no party affiliate candidates Carmen Gimenez and Jodi Jeloudov, and write-in candidates Piotr Blass, Kyle Gibson and James Thompson in the Nov. 8 general election.