Charlie Crist and Nikki Fried to take part in only TV debate before Democratic primary
TALLAHASSEE – With rising tension between them, Charlie Crist and Nikki Fried will exchange political fire and campaign pitches tonight in the first and only televised debate in the race for the Democratic nomination for governor.
The hour-long debate is set to be broadcast at 7 p.m..on many NBC affiliates across Florida and in Spanish on Telemundo stations. It will also be streamed on nbc6.com and telemundo51.com.
The contest between Crist and Fried will be settled by registered Democrats in the Aug. 23 primary. But the temperature is likely to be turned up to boil in this lone TV exchange. Nearly 5 million registered voters are Democrats.
Fried, the state Agriculture Commissioner, so far has repeatedly jabbed Crist for only agreeing to one TV debate — a marked contrast to four years ago, when a more crowded Democratic field took part in five debates leading to primary day.
Fried wanted more debates.
“Charlie, what are you scared of?” Fried posted in a Tweet Wednesday morning, which also contained a zoom call video of her conversation with rapper Luther Campbell and Black leader and attorney Stephen Hunter Johnson.
In the video, she went on to lash out at Crist for policies he promoted as a former Republican governor, Cabinet member and state senator, before he switched parties and later was elected in 2016 as a Democratic member of Congress from St. Petersburg.
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“I’m not going to have to remind you (about) when he stood in the Senate chamber holding up chains… when he passed some of the most harsh crime bills where people still today are sitting in jails and prisons,” she said.
'Chain gang' still rattles
Crist earned the nickname “Chain Gang Charlie” in the 1990s when he sponsored legislation reviving prison work crews.
The Crist campaign rarely engages with his opponent. But this week, it struck back at Fried who apologized for a social media digital ad, which showed a photo of Crist holding chains on the Senate floor, while another panel labeled Fried “our justice champion,” showing her flanked by a Black women’s leader.
The Crist campaign said the Black leader, Cortes Maria Lewis James, had not endorsed Fried and that her organization, Women’s March Florida, demanded taking down the ad. In a statement, the Crist side said the spot was designed to “disingenuously secure Black votes.’
Fried acknowledged the ad was “racially insensitive,” and Tuesday night tweeted that she called James to apologize.
But for a Democratic primary race that seems to be drawing only passing attention from many Floridians, the TV debate is probably the best chance to personally take stock of the contenders.
DeSantis faces winner
The winner will face Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis in November. DeSantis has no primary opponent.
Since last month’s U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning the constitutional right to abortion, Fried also has been questioning Crist’s support for abortion rights, citing his frequent claims over a 30-year political career that he is “pro-life.”
While Fried, 44, has presented herself as the Democrat most trusted to fight a Republican-controlled Legislature likely to push for strict abortion limits in Florida, Crist has earned 100 percent approval ratings from the National Abortion Rights Action League during his three terms in Congress.
Public polling has been scant in the Fried-Crist race. But each side has publicized their own internal surveys which show sharp contrasts — with Crist touting a double-digit lead over Fried, while she contends that her polling shows the contest is basically a dead heat.
Crist, who turns 66 on Sunday, also has won endorsements from the state’s large labor unions, including the AFL-CIO, Florida Education Association and the Service Employees International Union, which can prove vote-driving forces in Democratic politics.
He’s also backed by the environmental Sierra Club. Fried, generally, has earned endorsements from smaller organizations, but included are the Florida College Democrats, the Democratic Environmental Caucus and the Democratic Black Caucus of Florida.
Among the stations airing Thursday’s debate live: NBC 6/WTVJ in Miami-Fort Lauderdale; WPTV 5 in West Palm Beach; WESH 2 in Orlando; and WBBH 2 in Fort Myers. Jacksonville’s WTLV 12 plans to air a recorded broadcast of the debate beginning at 9 p.m.
John Kennedy is a reporter in the USA TODAY Network’s Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jkennedy2@gannett.com, or on Twitter at @JKennedyReport