Florida's gubernatorial race lines up as one with "a huge amount of national implications" that can affect the political direction of other states and the presidential race in 2020, according to Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., who says he is running against "a far-left socialist," Andrew Gillum.
"I want to make Florida even better than it is," DeSantis told Sunday's "The Cats Roundtable" on 970 AM-N.Y. "He wants to turn Florida into Venezuela."
". . . If a guy like Gillum is successful in winning the state of Florida, that's going to start a far-left movement that's going to spread through states – and that's going to lead into 2020. So, there is a huge amount of national implications here."
The governorship is being vacated by Republican Rick Scott, who is challenging Sen. Bill Nelson's, D-Fla., seat this November. It is a classic battleground state, and lines up one classically ideological to the major parties, DeSantis says.
"This Andrew Gillum, he is on the far-left socialist fringe," DeSantis told host John Catsimatidis. "He's a Bernie Sanders-, a Ocasio-Cortez-type of candidate. He wants to raise taxes in Florida 40 percent. He wants a single-payer healthcare system in Florida, which would bankrupt the state. He wants to abolish ICE, and doesn't believe in doing any type of immigration enforcement."
DeSantis, meanwhile, says he is the pro-business candidate in Florida and electing Gillum as governor "would repel investment."
"If you have Gillum, and say 'this Bernie Sanders-style guy is there,' I think the investment in Florida will decline dramatically," DeSantis said. "It’s the equivalent of just shooting ourselves in the foot as a state.
". . . Andrew Gillum would make Florida uncompetitive."
DeSantis told Catsimatidis he seeks to keep Florida's population and economic growth, while keeping taxes down to avoid the blue state exodus of other high-tax states like New York.
"We have more people in Florida then the state of New York, population-wise now, and yet our budget for the state is roughly half the budget for New York State – and yet New York continues to raise taxes, and they just can't make it work," DeSantis said.
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