{"id":306889,"date":"2026-06-14T04:13:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T04:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/306889\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T04:13:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T04:13:11","slug":"let-the-candidates-mix-it-up-ron-desantis-keeps-pressure-on-evan-power-for-gop-gubernatorial-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/306889\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Let the candidates mix it up.’: Ron DeSantis keeps pressure on Evan Power for GOP gubernatorial debate"},"content":{"rendered":"

A lopsided Governor\u2019s race on the Republican side may yet be getting some drama, as Gov.\u00a0Ron DeSantis<\/a> and Florida GOP Chair Evan Power<\/a> are sparring about the party\u2019s decision to discourage debates between candidates for Governor<\/p>\n

The decision is due to a lack of contenders meeting the party\u2019s criteria: 10% support in the Republican Party of Florida\u2019s own poll; more than $10 million raised; and more than 10,000 donors.<\/p>\n

DeSantis jumped into a thread<\/a> Power had on X where he said candidates would be allowed to speak at the Sunshine Showdown, but not to engage each other in debates.<\/p>\n

In a rare public rebuke, DeSantis said Power \u201cshould not be insulting the intelligence of Republican voters.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA debate was promised and these ridiculous criteria are being used to renege on that promise and to engineer a preferred outcome. Why not just take 90 minutes, find a tv partner, and let the candidates mix it up? The only reason why you wouldn\u2019t is if the party hierarchy is serving outside interests instead of the best interests of the voters,\u201d DeSantis added.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Lt. Gov.\u00a0Jay Collins\u00a0quickly retweeted DeSantis.<\/p>\n

\u201cCouldn\u2019t agree with our Governor more. Let\u2019s not insult the voters\u2019 intelligence. Debates are not going to be the end all be all for this race. That said, if Byron Donalds <\/a>can\u2019t show up to one, and if he keeps hiding behind the RPOF, voters need to take notice,\u201d Collins said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you,\u201d said James Fishback. \u201cEnough is enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

During a press conference Friday,\u00a0DeSantis criticized the party<\/a>\u00a0for discouraging debates.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, the party has a very limited role. (It) really should be a candidate-driven process and not for people to be making decisions who voters have never voted into those positions to begin with. So line up something with TV, line up something, radio, all these different forms. there\u2019s a whole host of ways that you can do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

After that press conference, former House Speaker Paul Renner<\/a> wondered if the Florida GOP had become \u201cthe Democrat party.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat have we become?\u201d<\/p>\n

DeSantis has criticized Donalds for months, saying the Trump-aligned Congressman wasn\u2019t any help in fights DeSantis spearheaded in recent years.<\/p>\n

Donalds says he is \u201cnot concerned.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A lopsided Governor\u2019s race on the Republican side may yet be getting some drama, as Gov.\u00a0Ron DeSantis and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":306890,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[128058,51922,28,30,29,28912,5187,7381,412,128231],"class_list":["post-306889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-debates","tag-evan-power","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-james-fishback","tag-jay-collins","tag-paul-renner","tag-ron-desantis","tag-sunshine-showdown"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/306890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}