Democrat Charlie Crist began his quest to become Florida’s next governor by telling Republicans who don’t think like Liz Cheney that he didn’t want their vote.
And Crist didn’t get what he said he didn’t want. Republican incumbent Gov. Ron DeSantis cruised to re-election with 58 percent of the vote.
But hours before the polls closed, there was an amusing sign, at least to DeSantis’ team, of what the Democrat’s day was going to be like.
“CBS This Morning” on Tuesday morning offered a report on the election after dispatching its reporters to parts of Florida that Joe Biden carried in 2020.
“To our surprise,” said co-host Tony Dokoupil, “we did not run into a supporter of Ron DeSantis’ Democratic opponent — that would be Charlie Crist.”
That was after interviewing “dozens” of voters, Dokoupil said. He added that the only place the news crew was able to find Crist’s backers were at actual Crist rallies.
Dokoupil’s incredulous co-host, Gayle King, asked, “You only found Charlie Crist supporters at a Charlie Crist rally. It was really that difficult?”
“Yeah, it was really that tough,” Dokoupil conceded. At one point, he said, he simply tried to flag down several drivers at a stop sign to ask their preference for governor, and came up empty on Crist supporters.
“At another point, I went into a diner that wasn’t even on our list, this was meal four of the day, went to every table and couldn’t find one [Crist voter]” said Dokoupil.
“That’s anecdotal, that’s not scientific. Charlie Crist’s supporters are out there,” he noted. “But it does speak to the fact that Ron DeSantis, in the last four years, after just barely winning the governorship in 2018, has done a really strong job of consolidating support.”
CBS noted in a graphic at the end of the segment that Desantis voters told its journalists that they appreciated the governor’s policies on immigration and free speech.
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