Migrants will rebuild Florida by Ron DeSantis 1:28
(CNN Spanish) --
Florida's gubernatorial race faces much more than two candidates for governor: it faces a stronghold of the Republican Party who could become a candidate for the Presidency in 2024 and a Democrat with a very unusual trajectory who has the mission to gain control of the state and also stop the career of his opponent.
In other words, the race pits Ron DeSantis, the incumbent Republican governor, against Charlie Crist, a longtime state politician who went from Republican to independent to Democrat and now seeks to reclaim Florida for Joe Biden's party.
DeSantis, a controversial but popular governor
DeSantis was elected to the House of Representatives in 2012 and won re-election in 2016. During his years in Congress, he became one of the main supporters of President Donald Trump and a key player in the Republican Party.
Back then he was loyal to some of the Trump administration's most contentious issues, for example by repeatedly criticizing investigations into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
In 2019 he assumed the governorship of Florida and since then he has not stopped occupying the headlines, with controversial positions that have earned him strong criticism but a popularity that many would envy.
During the pandemic, which hit Florida hard, DeSantis lifted restrictions earlier than most states and consistently opposed mandatory mask mandates.
He did not stop there: he also blocked the requirements for vaccines against covid-19 from private employers on the grounds that this protected individual rights and freedoms.
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The governor waded into the sensitive issue of educational programs, supporting a law that opponents have dubbed "Don't Say Gay" that limits certain classroom discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity.
The measure earned him a strong dispute with Disney, to which he decided to cut freedoms.
DeSantis and Trump at a conference in Florida in July 2020. (Credit: Saúl Loeva/ AFP/ Getty Images)
The DeSantis administration also acted on abortion.
Since July, a law has been in force that prohibits abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, except in cases of "serious risk" for pregnant women and of a fetal anomaly that is fatal if two doctors confirm the diagnosis in writing.
The law was challenged in court, where it was temporarily paused, but the state appealed and the rule is in place while the litigation continues.
On the immigration front, he has been a fierce critic of the Biden government and this August he decided to send two planes with immigrants to Martha's Vineyard, in Massachusetts, in line with the policy of his peers in Texas and Arizona of filling buses with immigrants and dispatching them in the direction north.
During his tenure, DeSantis has had to deal with several catastrophes in the state, such as the collapse of a building in Surfside that claimed 98 lives in Miami and the impact of Hurricane Ian, which devastated the southwest coast of the state.
(Biden, by the way, called the Republican's work in the face of the cyclone "pretty remarkable.")
As Midterm Election Day Approaches, Trump-DeSantis 2024 Rivalry Leaks To Public
Crist, the Democrat with one of the most unusual careers in American politics
(Credit: Octavio Jones/Getty Images)
Crist is an instantly recognizable face in the state.
He was part of the Republican Party for decades.
He has served as a state legislator, education commissioner, and state attorney general.
In 2006 he managed to win the gubernatorial race as a Republican, but later fell out of favor with his party for committing a capital sin: supporting Barack Obama in 2009.
He ran for the Senate in 2010 but, with the support of the Tea Party, Marco Rubio managed to beat him to the race.
Before losing those primaries, as anticipated, he left the party and continued the campaign as an independent.
He did not win a seat.
In 2012, Crist announced his affiliation with the Democratic Party.
It was no surprise to Republicans, who had already seen him campaigning for Obama's re-election and speaking at the Democratic National Convention.
He then returned to the gubernatorial race in 2014 to face his successor, then-Governor Rick Scott.
He was 64,000 votes away from regaining his old post.
In 2016, he set his sights on the House of Representatives, where he has served three terms.
DeSantis vs.
Crist, a career with implications beyond Florida
In the August primary election, Democrats chose the veteran over Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, who was running to become the state's first female governor and campaigned on the slogan "something new."
In choosing Crist, they bet on a well-known, inoffensive candidate who would give them the best chance of unseating a divisive Republican (a nearly identical playbook to Biden's for defeating Trump in 2020).
But his task is not easy.
DeSantis had amassed $132 million for the general election by August, a record sum for a non-self-financing gubernatorial candidate, and he has galvanized the Republican base more than any GOP politician other than Trump.
In that instance, his party surpassed the Democrats in the number of registered voters in Florida for the first time.
And, with an eye on 2024, DeSantis' position among Republicans seems solid: a poll released in June gave him 39% support as the Republicans' first choice for the Presidency, ahead of Trump who got 37%. .
In that context, DeSantis goes from being an old Trump ally to possibly his main rival.
With reporting from CNN's Ángela Reyes, Steve Contorno, Gregory Krieg, Dan Merica, Tierney Sneed, Veronica Stracqualursi, Devan Cole and Tina Burnside.
Ron DeSantis
