Watching Nikki Fried and Charlie Crist together in their one and only televised debate before the Democratic gubernatorial primary, two things become clear:
First, Crist — a former Republican governor now serving in Congress as a moderate Democrat ? has the right combination of experience, compassion and character to challenge Gov. Ron DeSantis in the November election. He demonstrated that again Thursday night, talking about the often painful decisions that led him away from his once-secure role as an established star in the GOP pantheon.
The second lesson is this: His campaign should have welcomed the opportunity to put the two candidates side-by-side more often.
Fried attacked Crist relentlessly on his party switch and tried to blame him for many of the problems Florida currently faces. But her jabs didn’t carry the sting she intended, especially since Crist, for once, took the opportunity to push back against distortions of his record on issues like abortion.
It was a spirited exchange, and in the end, Crist emerged as the Democrat with the best chance of defeating DeSantis. That’s the real goal, and it’s urgent. As Crist noted, DeSantis has “torn Florida apart.”
Crist is the candidate who can put it back together.
A journey of personal growth
People watching Crist in the 1990s would barely recognize him circa 2022. As a callow state senator, he brandished shackles on the Senate floor in a bid to revive chain gangs, and chased headlines in a near-comical attempt to embarrass Lawton Chiles, Florida’s legendarily wily governor.
But he also gained a reputation for treating opponents with courtesy — and proved, time and again, that he was really listening when they talked. That led to principled and often surprising stances, including votes against abortion restrictions and challenges to the environmental practices of the state’s powerful utilities. That slow evolution continued after he won his first statewide election; as education commissioner, he put some careful guardrails on Gov. Jeb Bush’s then-radical proposals for public schools.
Next, Crist served as attorney general — and flexed that agency’s muscles in new and unexpected ways. He expanded the power of his office to protect consumers, and took on some of the state’s most powerful players: Electric utilities, telecom giants, insurance companies and more. Again and again, he challenged the powerful interests who believed GOP support was their entitlement.
As governor, his evolution accelerated — and the increasing distress among his GOP base began to multiply. The new governor checked off many conservative boxes, including decisions he’d come to regret — such as his choice to put far-right ideologue Charles Canady on the Florida Supreme Court. But Crist knew he was angering powerful interests when he signaled his opposition to Republican red-meat issues like gay adoption bans (which he initially supported, but came to see as unjust), and embraced then-President Obama’s economic stimulus plan.
One action stands out.
Florida’s felony disenfranchisement law, a relic of the Jim Crow era that blocked hundreds of thousands of Floridians from voting, came to Crist’s attention during his run for governor. Other states had long since abandoned the practice of stripping felons of essential civil rights, but Florida still required a laborious and time-consuming process to regain the right to vote. As governor, Crist shifted the rules, creating a nearly automatic path to rights restoration for non-violent offenders. More than 150,000 people regained their rights during his administration, one of the biggest civil-rights expansions in state history.
Republicans knew — as did Crist — that many of those new voters were likely to register as Democrats. Crist was putting fairness and decency above the interests of his own party.
This, along with the famous “hug” from President Obama at a press conference celebrating the economic stimulus that Crist supported, would cost him. In the 2010 U.S. Senate race — once seen as a slam-dunk Crist win — tea-party-infused support gradually shifted from Crist to former state House Speaker Marco Rubio. And Crist formally left the GOP, finishing his Senate campaign as an independent before finally joining the Democratic party and running first for governor (losing to Rick Scott) and then for Congress.
Fried likes to portray this shifting political affiliation as evidence of pandering and political self-interest. Once you know the details, an opposite picture emerges. Crist distanced himself from GOP priorities, was harshly punished — but came back to public service anyway, and found a new home among Democrats. Since becoming a member of Congress, he’s amassed a near-perfect record of voting with Democratic leadership and supporting President Joe Biden’s agenda.
Yes, there were times when Crist shifted to claim a political advantage, or tried to play both sides of the fence. But there’s a clear arc here as well, of a man who became troubled at the path he was expected to take — and was courageous enough to balk.
A sharp contrast
We can’t help but contrast that to Fried’s full-throated claims of progressivism, painted against her own record.
She’s been most active on the issue of medical marijuana, and many of her supporters seem to think that, as governor, she’d quickly introduce full legalization of pot. She hasn’t set the record straight, so we will: As governor, Fried will be bound by the Florida Constitution, which authorizes marijuana use for medical purposes only.
Beyond that, it’s clear that Fried understands the urgency of the current race, and she correctly identifies DeSantis’ cruelest and most divisive actions. THere’s no doubt she’d do a better job than DeSantis.
We are concerned about her ability to match rhetoric with action, however.
Fried heads the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, which has jurisdiction over landlord-tenant issues and amusement ride safety, two issues that have cried out for action in recent months. In explaining why her office didn’t step up, she says that state law tied her hands. All she could do was forward complaints to other agencies.
But that didn’t stop Crist when he thought insurance companies were gouging Floridians, or electric utilities were unjustly hiking bills for homeowners. It didn’t stop him from defending ex-felons that previous Democratic governors had been comfortable overlooking. He found ways to act. He made a difference.
That’s the kind of attitude Florida’s next governor will need. DeSantis and legislators have stacked the deck in favor of powerful interests and against the priorities of the people. They’ve blocked local governments from protecting their constituents. They’ve written laws that make it easy for ideologues to cripple school boards and county commissions with expensive litigation. Undoing this damage will take ingenuity and experience. Crist has those qualities in abundance.
The final test
That leaves one question: Electability. Does either Democrat stand a chance against DeSantis, who’s sitting on a mountain of cash and has proven to be one of the wiliest, most cutthroat political operatives the state has seen?
We think Crist does. Countless Republicans are frightened for Florida’s future under Ron DeSantis. They have seen him lash out against anyone who defies his will — gay teenagers, Black Floridians, physicians sounding the alarm about COVID, even big corporations like Disney. They believe that for DeSantis, Florida is nothing more than a waystation to greater destinations, and they have no idea who he’ll target next.
These voters? They know Charlie Crist. They trust him. They’ve voted for him, multiple times.
Florida needs a decent, principled, justice-driven governor to heal the damage of the past four years. And Florida Democrats need someone who has a shot at defeating Ron DeSantis.
Charlie Crist is that champion, and Democrats should make him their nominee.