TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — The two main candidates running for Florida governor went head-to-head Monday night for their first and only debate ahead of the midterm elections.
The gubernatorial debate was held at the Sunrise Theater in Fort Pierce. It gave Republican Ron DeSantis and Democrat Charlie Crist a final chance to appeal to voters who will be casting ballots in the 2022 midterm elections.
Current Gov. DeSantis is seeking a second term in office as Florida governor. He was first elected in 2018, defeating Democrat Andrew Gillum to win the spot vacated by Rick Scott. Before he was elected as governor, DeSantis was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.
DeSantis is from Dunedin. He went to Yale University and later to Harvard Law School. The governor was a JAG officer in the U.S. Navy and served as an adviser to a SEAL commander in Iraq.
Crist, who grew up in St. Petersburg, has held several political offices, both at the state level and federal. Most recently, Crist represented Florida’s 13th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. He resigned in August after winning the Democratic nomination in the gubernatorial race. He was elected to Congress in 2016.
Before he was elected to the U.S. House as a Democrat, Crist was a member of the Republican Party. He served as Florida’s education commissioner and attorney general before being elected governor in 2006. He did not run for a second term, opting instead to run for U.S. Senate, a race he ultimately lost to current Sen. Marco Rubio. After his Senate campaign, Crist took a break from politics but later announced he joined the Democratic Party. He ran for governor in 2014 but lost to Rick Scott.
If you missed the gubernatorial debate Monday night, you can watch it back in the video player above.
