Florida voters on Tuesday propelled a Trump-endorsed congressman and the African-American mayor of Tallahassee on toward November’s general election in the race to replace Rick Scott as governor, setting up a clash of ideologies in the nation’s largest swing state.
On the right: U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis, a 39-year-old conservative, Harvard-educated Iraq War veteran who rode presidential tweets and FOX News interviews to a resounding primary win over Agricultural Commissioner Adam Putnam.
And on the left: Andrew Gillum, a 39-year-old liberal who with the help of progressive political organizations surged in the last weeks of his campaign to upset a better-funded field.
The surprise matchup figures to be a pure test of partisan strength between a member of the ultra-conservative Freedom Caucus and a Democrat who scored his party’s nomination with the help of Democratic-Socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders. Voters will choose between a candidate in DeSantis who wants to build Trump’s border wall and believes “people should have a right to pursue the healthcare that they want,” and one in Gillum who wants to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement and create a Medicare-for-All system.
“In a lot of ways it’s the perfect matchup,” said Democratic political consultant Ben Pollara. “My big fear about DeSantis has been that he’s this avatar of the Trump wing of the party. Is being that person enough to beat a center-of-the-road Democratic candidate? This is a base-versus-base year and I like the way that Andrew fires up the base.”
Get the Exclusive
04.29.2025