For Charlie Crist to have any chance at prying Florida from the iron grip of Ron DeSantis in the November gubernatorial election, he’ll have to hammer on the issue of abortion.
Certainly there are other critically important topics for the state’s leading Democrat to talk with voters about too — affordability, for one, something Republicans have had no real impact on, despite desultory efforts in areas like homeowners’ insurance. Voters would likely leap at anyone from either side who had a solution that gives them concrete and substantial relief on the cost of living right now.
But abortion isn’t just about what Floridians want. It’s about what Floridians are losing. A woman’s right to choose, the right to personal autonomy — those are rights Republicans have taken away from women at a breathtaking clip in the past few months. And that’s likely to be highly motivating when it comes to voter turnout — often the defining factor in an election — and especially for women, many of whom have rightly felt disenfranchised by the current, anti-abortion administration.
Just to review, the Republican-dominated Florida Legislature passed a 15-week abortion ban in March, one that doesn’t even allow exceptions for incest, rape or human trafficking. DeSantis signed it into law in April. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned 50 years of law when it struck down Roe v. Wade. And there continues to be talk of even stricter anti-abortion legislation in the “free state” of Florida if DeSantis is reelected.
All of that means abortion is weighing ever more heavily in Democratic voters’ decisions for the fall midterms, as evidenced by a national survey by the Pew Research Center conducted in the first two weeks of August. It indicated that a majority of voters, 56%, see abortion as very important in their vote, up from 43% in March. Almost all of the increase is coming from Democrats.
And it’s the same when you ask Floridians. A University of North Florida poll found in February that 57% of Floridians opposed the Legislature’s push to pass the 15-week ban. And that was before Roe was reversed.
For Crist, this is an opportunity — and a challenge. He’s avowedly pro-choice, gets a 100% rating in Congress from Planned Parenthood and has been endorsed by NARAL, the National Abortion Rights Action League. He told the Editorial Board he’d sign an executive order his first day in office to protect a woman’s right to choose.
But he hasn’t always been so clear in his stance, which Nikki Fried, his opponent in the Democratic primary, seized on in one of her more effective arguments. Specifically, during Crist’s failed bid for the U.S. Senate in 2010, he said he would fight for “pro-life legislative efforts.” But recently, Crist told the Editorial Board that he has a different, broader meaning for the term “pro-life” and supports reproductive rights.
We have no doubt that he’ll act in ways that are fully pro-choice if elected — he has more than answered that question — but word games cannot get in the way if he hopes to generate the enough excitement among Democrats and independents to overcome a political behemoth like DeSantis.
If Crist’s position evolved over time, he should just say it; voters can understand that. He was also a Republican and now says the party became unrecognizable, so he left. Again, that’s understandable. It might even make him more relatable. It certainly won him the primary.
DeSantis is endlessly flogging the “woke” argument in Florida, and that will continue. No doubt he’ll also go after Crist for changing parties. But none of those topics are where Democrats should be aiming their firepower.
Republicans are out of step with the majority of people in the state on abortion. Crist, as the new standard-bearer for Democrats, has to lead the charge to remind voters of that, without sidestepping or parsing words on his previous position.
Democrats have a real moment here. It’s up to Crist to make sure he doesn’t squander it.
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