佛罗里达州众议员查理·克里斯特(Charlie Crist)周二上午宣布，他打算返回州长官邸，这是他自2011年离开该办公室以来第二次试图返回该办公室。他是共和党州长罗恩·德桑蒂斯面临的第一个正式挑战者。
克里斯特在2007年至2011年担任佛罗里达州共和党州长，然后在2010年将政党登记改为独立。他于2012年成为民主党人，自2017年以来一直在国会代表佛罗里达州第13国会选区。
“我们将把今天与我们意见不同的人视为明天的盟友，而不是敌人，”克里斯特在周二宣布竞选的活动中说。“坦率地说，在美国政治中，佛罗里达的政治太不正派、太没有礼貌，改变这一点首先要改变高层的态度。与这位州长和塔拉哈西的共和党领导层不同，我们将倾听佛罗里达同胞的心声。”
他补充说:“德桑蒂斯州长和共和党领导人完全不知道普通佛罗里达人需要什么，也不真正关心什么。”
他的竞选视频强调了他作为州长和国会的成就，他指出他投票通过了冠状病毒救助立法。但他也对德桑蒂斯发起了攻击，德桑蒂斯因在佛罗里达州处理冠状病毒而在全国受到抨击。
克里斯特说:“我和拜登总统合作，为我们的学校获得更多的疫苗、更多的武器和资金，让它们安全开放，但今天佛罗里达州的州长只关注他的未来，而不是你的未来。”
“他不在乎，除非你能给他写一张竞选支票，否则你不存在。事实是，无论你住在我们州的哪个地方，如果你是民主党人、共和党人或独立派人士，你都应该得到比这更好的待遇，”他补充道。
他不是唯一一个想挑战德桑蒂斯的民主党人。佛罗里达州第十区的民主党众议员瓦尔·戴明斯含糊其辞地发了一条推特竞选风格的视频周二早上，在克里斯特预计发起他的竞选活动的几个小时前。她公开表示，她正在考虑竞选全州范围的职位——要么是参议院，要么是州长。佛罗里达州农业和消费者服务专员尼基·弗里德是目前在阳光州担任全州职务的唯一民主党人，他也是被认为是在试探出价。
克里斯特在这个州有很长的政治历史。他在20世纪90年代的大部分时间里都是州参议员，后来又去了一些全州范围的办公室，包括司法部长和州教育专员。2010年，他作为独立候选人在参议院竞选共和党参议员马尔科·卢比奥失败，随后在2014年作为民主党人竞选州长。他输给了共和党现任参议员里克·斯科特。
国家共和党参议院委员会现任主席斯科特(Scott)抨击了克里斯特的过往记录，他在推特上发布了一段视频链接，该视频由一个名为“让我们开始工作”的组织付费，旨在宣传保守派，最初是在周一发布的，抢先于克里斯特的声明。
“哪个州长把佛罗里达带到了谷底?“查理·克里斯特，”旁白说。“更糟糕的是，他没有留下来收拾残局。他跑了。他试图去华盛顿。查理·克里斯特:圆滑的政客，糟糕的州长
克里斯特退出共和党的部分原因是他和前总统巴拉克·奥巴马在总统任期早期在佛罗里达州的拥抱。
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“我还不知道。但是在迈尔斯堡的那一天，我兴致勃勃——见了奥巴马(已经够糟糕的了)，拥抱了他(更糟糕的是)——结束了我作为一名共和党政治家的生活。我再也不会在以前的派对上有未来了。令我震惊和失望的是，我很快就会发现，我的两党希望和梦想被大大夸大了，而且毫无希望地过时了，”他在2014年的自传中写道。
Rep. Charlie Crist, former governor of Florida, announces bid for old job
Rep. Charlie Crist, D-Fla., announced Tuesday morning his intent to return to the governor's mansion -- his second attempt at the office since leaving it in 2011. He's the first official challenger facing Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Crist was the Republican governor of Florida from 2007 to 2011 before switching his party registration to Independent in 2010. He became a Democrat in 2012 and has been in Congress representing Florida's 13th Congressional District since 2017.
"We'll treat those that disagree with us today, as our allies of tomorrow, not our enemies," Crist said at an event announcing his run Tuesday. "There's too little decency and civility in Florida's politics, frankly in America's politics, and changing that starts with changing the attitude at the top. Unlike this governor and the Republican leadership in Tallahassee, we will listen to our fellow Floridians."
"Governor DeSantis and the leaders of the Republican Party have simply lost touch with what regular Floridians need and truly care about," he added.
His campaign video highlights his accomplishments as governor and in Congress, where he pointed to his vote to pass coronavirus relief legislation. But he also launched attacks against DeSantis, who has come under fire nationally for his handling of the coronavirus in Florida.
"I worked with President Biden to get more vaccines and more arms and funding for our schools, to get them open safe, but today Florida has a governor that's only focused on his future, not yours," Crist says.
"He doesn't care, and unless you could write him a campaign check, you don't exist. The truth is, no matter where you live in our state, if you're a Democrat or Republican or an Independent, you deserve better than that," he adds.
He's not the only Democrat thinking about challenging DeSantis. Democratic Rep. Val Demings of Florida's 10th District ambiguously tweeted out acampaign-style videoof her own on Tuesday morning, hours before Crist was expected to launch his campaign. She has said publicly she is considering a run for statewide office -- either for Senate or the governorship. Florida Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services Nikki Fried, the only Democrat currently holding statewide office in the Sunshine State, is alsothought to be exploring a bid.
Crist has a long political history in the state. He served as a state senator for most of the 1990s, then moved on to a number of statewide offices, including attorney general and state education commissioner. He ran an unsuccessful Senate campaign as an independent against Republican Sen. Marco Rubio in 2010, before later launching a gubernatorial bid as a Democrat in 2014. He lost that race to the Republican incumbent and now-Sen. Rick Scott.
Scott, the current chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, attacked Crist over his track record, tweeting a link to a video paid for by a group called Let’s Get To Work that promotes conservatives and originally posted it Monday -- preempting Crist's announcement.
"Which governor took Florida to the bottom? Charlie Crist," the narrator says. "What's worse, he didn't stay to fix the mess. He ran away. He tried to go to Washington instead. Charlie Crist: slick politician, lousy governor."
Crist's exit from the Republican Party was in part catalyzed by a hug n Florida between him and former President Barack Obama early in his presidency.
"I didn’t know it yet. But that high-spirited day in Fort Myers—meeting Obama (bad enough) and greeting him with a hug (even worse)—ended my viable life as a Republican politician. I would never have a future in my old party again. My bipartisan hopes and dreams, I would discover soon enough to my shock and disappointment, were vastly overstated and hopelessly out of date," he wrote in an autobiography in 2014.
