Miami, Oct. 24 Republican Ron DeSantis, current Florida governor and candidate for re-election, and his rival, Democrat Charlie Crist, held a debate Monday in which they showed their opposing views on issues such as immigration protection or abortion, and in which the former has avoided answering if he will run for the presidential elections of 2024.
In the only face-to-face between the two candidates before the November 8 midterm election, held in Fort Pierce, Southeast Florida (USA), DeSantis did not respond when the Democratic candidate asked him more once. if it went. to serve his four-year term as governor if he is re-elected.
The doubt is related to the fact that his name was named as a possible Republican candidate in the general election of 2024, but DeSantis never spoke directly during a debate that had a very excited audience, more typical of a demonstration than an event. television.
The governor went to the debate underpinned by the large advantage given by polls on voting intentions, in the last of which he leads the Democrat by eleven percentage points, and hence the direct attacks of Crist today, in search of a reversal of voting trend.
Favoritism towards DeSantis is also reflected among Hispanics in the state, where he is ahead by a seven-point difference, largely thanks to the vote of Cuban-Americans, according to a poll commissioned by Telemundo / LX News.
Therefore, DeSantis was in no hurry to sweeten controversial acts such as the September shipment of about fifty undocumented Venezuelans from San Antonio, Texas to the seaside resort of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, a transfer paid for with more than $ 600,000 from state coffers and which led to at least three causes.
“What we did was put this issue at the forefront of the discussion,” the governor said in the debate moderated by CBS reporter Liz Quirantes, where she claimed that “millions and millions” of undocumented immigrants cross the southern border of the United States. United States, a crisis that has linked to the fentanyl trafficking in the country.
Crist, who today described the move as “a horrible political gimmick”, had previously called for a federal investigation to ascertain the legality of this undocumented migrant shipment, given that the payment for the air freight came from a rumor. of 12 million dollars. approved by the state legislator for the transportation of irregular immigrants who were in the state.
“She likes to divide,” said the Democrat, who at another time accused the governor of politicizing education with laws such as a ban during his tenure on talking about gender identity in state public schools up to third grade.
The Democrat, who was governor of Florida (2007-2011) as a member of the Republican Party, has called himself “the candidate of unity” and has alluded in several sections to the achievements of his government.
Having assured in the past that if he won the election he would immediately sign an executive decree to protect abortion in Florida, Crist today defended that women have the right to choose.
On June 24, the United States Supreme Court ended the right to abortion established in Roe vs. Wade of 1973, which established federal legal and constitutional protection for women who wanted to voluntarily terminate pregnancy, a landmark ruling that now leaves its legislation in the hands of state governments.
DeSantis has promoted and signed a bill restricting abortion in this state after 15 weeks of pregnancy, with some exceptions not including cases of rape or incest, and after the Supreme Court’s decision, he promised that his government would it would be used to “broaden the protections for life”.
Asked this evening about which week abortion should be banned, given that Republican governors in other states tend towards a total ban, the governor did not answer the question and was proud of the measure he implemented in Florida.
The debate took place about two weeks before the mid-term elections, in which Congress and Senate seats are renewed at the federal and state levels, as well as other public offices such as state governors.
Similarly, as in many other parts of the country, early voting began this Monday in several Florida counties, on a day when, according to official data, so far more than 1.1 million Floridians have already voted and submitted. your card in the mail. EFE
lce / rt
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