DeSantis and Crist have fiery debate over Critical Race Theory, inflation and pandemic lockdown policies

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis went head to head with Democratic challenger Rep. Charlie Crist over in downtown Fort Pierce located on Florida’s Treasure Coast just north of Palm Beach and south of the Kennedy Space Center.

The debate, which was originally scheduled for Oct. 12 was delayed due to the wrath of Hurricane Ian, which left some communities on the state’s western coast in ruins was intense and even raised heated responses from the audience who broke decorum rules with both cheers and name calling from time to time.

Among the issues covered were critical race theory in education, inflation, Florida housing prices, hurricane response, and how DeSantis handled the COVID-19 pandemic.

The moderators noted that after the Florida encountered a huge migration of northerners, the  cost of living has increased significantly. Specifically, Florida has faced a massive housing price spike that has in some cases literally doubled the price of houses in hot markets such as Boca Raton.

There have also been recent rising costs for energy costs and property insurance, which Crist used against his opponent as he highlighted the spike occurred under DeSantis’s leadership.

DeSantis insisted that the real cause of the spikes were stemming from President Joe Biden’s energy policies and lashed out against the White House for catering to OPEC+ and Venezuela instead of utilizing the nation’s domestic energy resources.

Crist also accused DeSantis of “running for president,” implying the Florida governor was running a shadow campaign and being too busy to focus on Florida residents.

The former Republican turned Democrat said DeSantis was prioritizing his future national political endeavors before proposing the state revive a fund for housing affordability fund the state’s legislature previously ended.

DeSantis then fired back that Crist, who previously served as the state’s Republican governor after he was lieutenant governor under Jeb Bush voted with Biden “100% of the time.

The two candidates also criticized one another’s approach to the pandemic.

“You're the only governor in our state's history to lock down our schools,” Crist said to his Republican opponent. "You don't just shut down at the outset" and then open it up when it becomes “politically convenient."

To counter Crist’s critical comments, DeSantis revealed to a letter Crist sent to him pushing for tighter lockdown policies.

On Hurricane Ian, Crist took aim at DeSantis for presiding over what transformed into one of the worst storm’s in the state's history, saying it took the governor too long to react.

DeSantis said he took all the possible pre-landfall preparations and said Crist's campaign sought donations from storm victims while the Democrat took refuge from the storm by abandoning the state and instead “hiding out in Puerto Rico.”

DeSantis touted the fact that amid inflation the state now has its “largest budget surplus in history” and arguing it would help fund large-scale tax cuts. Crist said the governor should have passed those tax cuts earlier, to which DeSantis fired back that Crist previously passed the state's largest tax increase when he ran the state.

The debate then turned to education with the debate’s Moderators focused on the Stop WOKE Act and Parental Rights in Education Act.

Crist answered questions on what he felt about DeSantis’s education agenda, accusing the Republican of turning the state’s schools into a “political war zone.”

DeSantis said he proudly stood by his record on education and criticized to Crist's opposition to his policies, which have proven to be largely popular. DeSantis said using classroom environments and academic places of trust to tell eight-year-olds that they may have been born in the wrong body was “inappropriate” and that Crist was “waging the culture war” by opposing his bills.

Stemming from the education debate, the two candidates then got into the merits for and against Critical Race Theory.

DeSantis said Florida law mandates the “teaching all of American history, including slavery,” which he supported. “I'm proud of our history. I don't want to teach kids to hate our country,” he stated.

Crist simply said, “we ought to teach facts in our schools,” asserting that Critical Race Theory was a simple accounting of history as opposed to political identity theory.

Currently, a Florida Atlantic University poll has DeSantis polling 11% ahead of Crist who is hoping to return to Tallahassee after having served from 2007-2011 and losing the Republican primary in the 2010 senate race which was won by now Sen. Marco Rubio. He now serves as a Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives.