Ron DeSantis Holds Double-Digit Lead over Democrat Challenger Charlie Crist

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis smiles during a press conference, Thursday, Sept. 22, 2022, in M
AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell
Hannah Knudsen

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is leading Democrat challenger Charlie Crist by ten percentage points, a recent Sachs Media Group survey found.

The survey, taken mere weeks ahead of the 2022 midterm election, found the Republican governor leading the Democrat by ten percentage points — 52 percent to 42 percent. Six percent remain unsure — not enough to compromise the governor’s lead.

Notably, DeSantis enjoys more support from the Republican base (94 percent) than Crist enjoys from Democrats (84 percent). 

But among independents, DeSantis takes the clear lead, 59 percent to Crist’s 38 percent — a difference of 21 points:

DeSantis acknowledged during a campaign stop over the weekend that “a lot” of independents are on the GOP side in Florida but are not formally registered as Republican over fears of scrutiny. In addition to that, for the first time ever, Republicans will have over 300,000 more registered voters at the time of the midterm election than Democrats in the Sunshine State.

“And even though we’ve never had an election in Florida history [where] we’ve had more Republicans than Democrats, this November, we will now have over 300,000 more Republicans than Democrats,” he announced, prompting cheers and applause adding that the GOP has seen “massive gains in Miami-Dade” and “major gains in Palm Beach.”

During that same speech, DeSantis reminded Floridians how close the state came to having a very different future, as the governor defeated Democrat Andrew Gillum by less than half of a percentage point in 2018.

“That could have gone the other way” resulting in a “a much different future,” he said, warning Floridians against taking Florida freedom for granted.

“Freedom is very fragile. As we’ve seen, we just lived through an era where there were states in this country forcibly shuttering churches while they allowed liquor stores in strip clubs to operate,” he said, asking for support in the upcoming election.

The first and only debate between DeSantis and Crist will occur October 24 at 7 p.m. Eastern.

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