DeSantis, Crist Debate Gets Heated over Hurricanes, Guns, COVID, Education

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis traded barbs with Democratic candidate Charlie Crist during Florida’s first and only gubernatorial debate.

The Monday night debate was hotly contested between the two candidates, with Crist continuously accusing DeSantis of wanting to divide Florida on polarizing policies while DeSantis conflated Crist with Biden-era policies that he said have contributed to record-high inflation rates.

DeSantis currently holds a lead over his opponent by 8.1 points, according to FiveThirtyEight, making Monday’s debate essential to Crist’s chances of being the governor with only two weeks left until midterm voting on November 8.

Charlie Crist, Democratic gubernatorial candidate for Florida, walks with his running mate Karla Hernandez-Mats during a campaign stop at the Evelyn Greer Park on October 17, 2022, in Miami, Florida. Crist on Monday debated Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis with roughly two weeks left before the midterm election. Joe Raedle/Getty Images Lessons from Hurricane Ian

The moderator asked the candidates if they thought anything needed to change in the state’s response to Hurricane Ian, which devastated the southwest corner of the peninsula in late September and is now considered the deadliest hurricane the state has seen in over 87 years.

Crist said during his response that DeSantis was “AWOL” prior to Ian making landfall, and said the governor had attended a football game a few days before the storm hit.

DeSantis said that relief programs had been activated across the state in “record time,” including repairing the bridges of Pine Island and Sanibel Island within just a few weeks. DeSantis also called out Crist for “hiding out in Puerto Rico” during the storm, adding that the congressman hadn’t been “helping his community” in Florida.

“And then when he got back, what did he do?” DeSantis said. “His campaign was soliciting campaign contributions from storm victims. That is unacceptable, and that’s not what a leader would do in a time of despair.”

COVID-19 Responses

DeSantis defended his response to the COVID-19 pandemic, saying that he kept Florida “free” by reopening schools and businesses and mentioned that Florida elementary schools were testing at the top in the country in categories like math and reading.

Crist, however, fired back that DeSantis opened up the state “too early,” and said that Florida should have mimicked some of the standards set by other states.

“Ron, I wouldn’t pat yourself on the back too much about your response to COVID,” Crist said. “We’ve lost 82,000 of our fellow Floridians.”

“And when you look at the Thanksgiving table, one of those empty seats is probably one of those people of many families watching tonight,” Crist added.

Polarizing Education Policies

One of the repeated themes from Crist during the debate was that DeSantis’ goal was to “divide” Floridians on hot-button issues, such as educational policies like Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill and bans on biological males playing in women’s sports.

DeSantis defended his position on many of these issues, saying that he was “simply defending the parents and students” by enacting laws that forbid elementary school teachers from discussing gender issues, for example.

Crist used these policies as instances of DeSantis creating “culture wars,” and blamed DeSantis for not pouring enough into Florida teachers at the same time.

“9,000 teachers and staff have left Florida because of the way [DeSantis] has treated public schools in our state and it’s wrong,” Crist said. “We are the third-largest state in America, and his administration is paying our teachers 48th out of 50 states.”

Agreement on Gun Laws

The candidates ended the debate on a point of agreement, with both Crist and DeSantis saying that Nikolas Cruz, the shooter who in 2018 killed 17 students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, should have received the death penalty.

DeSantis went on to promise to ask the Florida state legislature to amend the statute that allowed one juror in Cruz’s case to block him from receiving the death penalty.

“When you murder in cold blood 17 innocent people, there’s no other punishment that meets the gravity of the crime,” DeSantis said.

DeSantis also spoke on how he responded to the Parkland shooting, which included holding the county sheriff accountable for lack of action and implementing additional active-shooter training for law enforcement. The governor also mentioned families of victims of the Parkland shooting that he has become “close to” since his response.

Fred Guttenberg, who lost his 14-year-old daughter in the Parkland shooting and has since become outspoken about the governor and other state Republicans, tweeted that it was “interesting” to hear DeSantis “mention Parkland families by name that he became friends with.

“Proud to know that he could not mention my name,” Guttenberg added.

Newsweek reached out to the campaigns of DeSantis and Crist for comment.