A contrast in messaging, not policy
Much still to be gained, as polls show 39% of GOP voters undecided.
Look for Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam to emphasize his deep Florida roots and knowledge of state issues while U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis highlights his support from President Donald Trump and Tallahassee outsider status when the two Republican rivals for governor debate for the first time tonight in Orlando.
Putnam and DeSantis will face off in a one-hour, nationally televised debate on Fox News at 6:30 p.m. during the Republican Party of Florida’s Sunshine Summit.
Recent polls by Fox News and NBC News show Putnam with a double-digit lead over DeSantis. But both polls show 39 percent of Republican voters are undecided ahead of the Aug. 28 primary. And DeSantis, praised by Trump on Twitter in December, hopes to make up ground after receiving Trump’s “full endorsement” last week.
DeSantis and Putnam have staked out similar conservative positions on many issues, but their campaigns offer stark contrasts.
Putnam, 43, is a fifth-generation Floridian with more than two decades in elected office, from
the Florida House to the U.S. House to consecutive terms as agriculture commissioner. He has built a massive campaign war chest from many of the state’s leading industries and recently rolled out endorsements from 45 of the state’s 67 sheriffs.
“The next governor of Florida needs to know Florida, needs to know every corner of our state, the diversity of our state, the challenges of our state,” Putnam said in May when he and DeSantis appeared at a Florida Family Policy Council dinner, the closest they’ve come to an actual debate so far.
“I believe that some of us really have a passion for state issues and some of us really have a passion for federal issues,” Putnam told the conservative Christian group.
Putnam and DeSantis did not share the stage at that event but took 30-minute turns answering questions from Frank Luntz, who frequently appears on Fox News to conduct focus groups.
DeSantis, when asked by Luntz to differentiate himself from Putnam, said: “I think the fact that I’ve done things like served in the military and served our country ... I thought it was important that I be willing to put my money where my mouth was.”
DeSantis, 39, is a Harvard Law graduate who served as a U.S. Navy attorney in Iraq and at the terrorist detention center at Guantanamo Bay before winning three congressional terms to represent a Northeast Florida district.
Campaigning last weeke nd on his h ome turf, FloridaPolitics.com reported that DeSantis slammed Put- nam as a “consummate career politician” and “the toast of Tallahassee, the insider class.”
DeSantis, according to the FloridaPolitics.com report, called himself “a blue-collar kid” who “had one of the best resumes in the country when I came out of school. I could have made a lot of money. Instead, I volunteered to serve in the Navy. Deployed to Iraq, served in Guantanamo, served in some of our bases here in Florida.”
Republican primary voters embraced the anti-Talla- hassee message when politically unknown businessman Rick Scott challenged Republican establishment favorite Bill McCollum for the party’s gubernatorial nomination in 2010. Florida Republicans also went against the state party establishment in the 2016 presidential race as former Gov. Jeb Bush never got traction in state polls before exiting the race and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio finished a distant second to Trump in the state’s presidential primary.
The gubernatorial primary will test Trump’s influ- ence with the GOP base. White evangelical Christians, for instance, are among the president’s strongest supporters, but the Florida Family Policy Council’s political arm recently endorsed Putnam over DeSantis.
“The next governor of Florida will need to be a proven leader who knows Florida, and no one in this race knows Florida better than Adam Putnam,” said attorney John Stemberger, the group’s leader. He called Putnam “a true conservative” with “the unique ability to engage in thoughtful and detailed discussion on policy matters and then also to turn right around and fly high to cast vision and inspire us all for the future.”
Putnam and DeSantis have also committed to an Aug. 8 debate in Jacksonville.