{"id":318373,"date":"2026-06-24T18:20:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T18:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/318373\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T18:20:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T18:20:11","slug":"ron-desantis-urges-gop-gubernatorial-debates-because-florida-is-a-difficult-state-to-get-known-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/318373\/","title":{"rendered":"Ron DeSantis urges GOP gubernatorial debates because Florida is a ‘difficult state to get known in’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gov. Ron DeSantis<\/a> continues to advocate for debates<\/a> among leading gubernatorial candidates, arguing they deserve a platform sanctioned by the Republican Party of Florida<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think you should have debates. I think that\u2019s important. This is a difficult state to get known in. And to be able to be broadcast where people can kind of see these candidates, oftentimes for the first time, can be very valuable,\u201d DeSantis said in Bradenton.<\/p>\n

While 11 Republicans have qualified for the Governor\u2019s race, only four have been treated as major candidates by the media: Lt. Gov.\u00a0Jay Collins, U.S. Rep.\u00a0Byron Donalds,\u00a0James Fishback, and former House Speaker\u00a0Paul Renner.<\/p>\n

Of those candidates, only Donalds has met the \u201c10\/10\/10\u201d thresholds the state party set for a debate. That includes 10% support in the party\u2019s internal poll, $10 million in contributions, and 10,000 individual donors.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re going to say other candidates can\u2019t do any other debate but our debate, well, you\u2019ve definitely got to do the debate, right? So it has not been, I think, done properly,\u201d DeSantis said. \u201cVoters can make decisions about how they think of all that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

DeSantis has rejected the criteria for weeks now. He said it was \u201cridiculous<\/a>\u201d that the party didn\u2019t want the \u201ccandidates to mix it up<\/a>.\u201d He also said Saturday\u2019s\u00a0\u201cSunshine State Showdown<\/a>\u201d offered a \u201cgreat opportunity<\/a>\u201d to have candidates face off.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople signed up thinking that they\u2019d have this debate. And they said no candidate can do any other debate except our debate,\u201d DeSantis said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then they say, \u2018Oh, well, only one guy can debate. So we\u2019re not going to have a debate.\u2019 I mean, I think people feel that that\u2019s a bait and switch. And the party\u2019s job is not to try to engineer an outcome. The party\u2019s job is to, you know, inform Republican voters and try to increase participation.\u201d<\/p>\n

As he has before, DeSantis credited in his remarks Wednesday his June 2018 debate with former Agriculture Secretary Adam Putnam as galvanizing support in his direction. Yet he omitted the importance of President Donald Trump\u2019s endorsement in lifting him from congressional obscurity to parity with a statewide official.<\/p>\n

Trump is with Donalds this cycle.<\/p>\n

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

Donalds has rejected calls for debates that would only \u201celevate<\/a>\u201d struggling opponents, noting that he has majority support in polls with other candidates in single digits.<\/p>\n

Despite his bluster, DeSantis doesn\u2019t seem to believe any Donalds alternative can win.<\/p>\n

Asked Wednesday if anyone had enough time to catch up to the front-runner, DeSantis told the reporter to \u201cask political people about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The also-ran candidates can\u2019t seem to come together for unsanctioned debates, which compounds the problem. Collins says he will only debate if Donalds is on stage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. Ron DeSantis continues to advocate for debates among leading gubernatorial candidates, arguing they deserve a platform sanctioned…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":318374,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7380,8052,445,28,30,29,28912,5187,7381,412,127701],"class_list":["post-318373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-2026-governors-race","tag-bradenton","tag-byron-donalds","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-james-fishback","tag-jay-collins","tag-paul-renner","tag-ron-desantis","tag-sunshine-state-showdown"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318373","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=318373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}