Crist was already the governor of Florida from 2007 to 2011. He was also a FUCKING REPUBLICAN.

Ah, but he was gay. So that means all his economic policies don't matter and Floridians should rally around a brave, strong, independent Log Cabin Fiscal Conservative in his effort to privatize every school in the state better than the evil DeSantis wants to.

Desantis is gonna wreck this guys asshole

The most recent independent polling in the race found DeSantis leading Crist by 8 percentage points. The Republican governor won 50 percent of support from respondents in a University of North Florida poll conducted from August 8 to 12, while Crist secured only 42 percent of the vote.

Other polling has similarly found DeSantis with a lead over Crist. A Cherry Communications poll conducted from August 4 to 15, sponsored by the Republican-leaning Florida Chamber of Commerce, found DeSantis winning 51 percent of the vote, compared to Crist's 43 percent.

I should always be worth noting that Florida Republicans have been refining the art of strategic disenfranchisement for decades. This, combined with turning itself into a hot-house of reactionary retirement communities, pretty much guarantees the state is locked into Hard-R Republicanism in any foreseeable future election.

What's not foreseeable is the demographic consequences of the state into the next twenty years, as all those olds die off and climate change wrecks the shit out of its coast line. Florida is a cornerstone of the national real estate economy and a lot of the conservative appeal comes from the fact that it always seems to have an endless supply of cheap money.

But it was also ground zero for the worst of the '08 recession. It has the most to lose from cuts to Medicare and Social Security. And its a gas-guzzler, exceptionally prone to suffer in the face of high energy prices.

Can the state stave off the impact of material conditions for another generation? Or is the bill finally going to come due? I have to wonder of Florida is just going to mimic the Tory-controlled UK government and continuously double down on failure until nobody wants to live there anymore.