# FL Governor's race -- for Crist's sake. . **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [May 4, 2021, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fl-governors-race-for-crists-sake/941398 "2021-05-04T22:53:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2021, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fl-governors-race-for-crists-sake/941398/1 "2021-05-04T22:53:44Z")
Former Republican . . . then Independent . . . then Democrat [Charlie Crist is jumping in the Governor’s race](https://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2021/05/04/floridas-crist-becomes-first-prominent-democrat-to-challenge-desantis-1380022). I really hope this isn’t the best that Florida Democrats can do, they really need some fresh blood and innovative ideas if they’re going to reverse Florida’s increasing trajectory into the safe GOP column. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2021, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fl-governors-race-for-crists-sake/941398/2 "2021-05-05T01:20:35Z")
I’m willing to be educated, since I don’t know all that much about Florida politics, but I’m not sure the demographic that a Democrat running in Florida needs to appeal to actually _likes_ fresh blood and new ideas all that much. Honestly, “pragmatic moderate who has already won a statewide election” seems like a not-bad idea. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2021, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fl-governors-race-for-crists-sake/941398/3 "2021-05-05T02:11:09Z")
Nikki Fried is also running but so far she’s running a campaign to be Governor of Twitter. Maybe the campaign will shape up and quit being so very online. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2021, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fl-governors-race-for-crists-sake/941398/4 "2021-05-05T04:08:39Z")
I’m not sure that’s inherently a bad strategy in 2021. The trend was already to spend more time online even before the pandemic. She could be playing more to try and get younger, more tech savvy people to come out in higher numbers. I mean, if you said what you just said on Twitter, it would be prime “ok boomer” material—they’d think you were out of touch. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2021, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fl-governors-race-for-crists-sake/941398/5 "2021-05-05T04:31:47Z")
I’m not criticising her for using social media, my criticism is that she’s trying to appeal to lefty Twitter. Twitter isn’t real life. For example, retweeting David Hogg. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2021, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fl-governors-race-for-crists-sake/941398/6 "2021-05-06T22:10:56Z")
> [@dalej42](#): > > Nikki Fried is also running but so far she’s running a campaign to be Governor of Twitter. Mr. Crist, Ms. Fried, and Ms. Demings are the frontrunners on the Democratic side. 2018 Democratic nominee Mr. Gillum from Talahassee fell from grace and won’t be running again. I doubt Mr. Nelson will be coming back from NASA, which is as I understand it his dream job. There are a slew of dark horse candidates, too. ~Max ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2021, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fl-governors-race-for-crists-sake/941398/7 "2021-05-06T22:19:42Z")
Here’s an early poll from ‘Victory Insights’, source for most of the news articles today: > **[FLGov\_PollReport\_05-04.pdf](https://irp.cdn-website.com/07e08705/files/uploaded/FLGov_PollReport_05-04.pdf)** > “Florida Governor Ron DeSantis holds a narrow lead in > hypothetical matchups versus potential Democratic > challengers Charlie Crist, Nikki Fried, and Val > Demings. Among the three Democrats, Crist is > certainly the most dangerous.” ~Max ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2021, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fl-governors-race-for-crists-sake/941398/8 "2021-05-07T00:18:19Z")
> [@Fretful\_Porpentine](#): > > I’m willing to be educated, since I don’t know all that much about Florida politics, but I’m not sure the demographic that a Democrat running in Florida needs to appeal to actually _likes_ fresh blood and new ideas all that much. Honestly, “pragmatic moderate who has already won a statewide election” seems like a not-bad idea. I suspect this is correct. Crist is a known quantity, and even Democratic voters in Florida tend to like the known. It would also be tough to pin “socialist” on him, given his GOP background. Of course the GOP-dominated Florida legislature is doing their level best to restrict voting to white Republicans; we’ll see how well they succeed. Their efforts could matter more to the final result than does the identity of the actual Democratic candidate. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2021, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fl-governors-race-for-crists-sake/941398/9 "2021-05-07T00:24:16Z")
And Nikki Fried continues to be a joke. The new Florida voting bill is horrible, but naturally she goes way overboard and compares Florida to China >