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Raw oysters linked to 2 deaths in Florida

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A restaurant customer in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, has died of a bacterial infection after eating raw oysters. A Pensacola man died the same way this month. Both cases involved oysters from Louisiana.

Gary Oreal, who manages the Rustic Inn, told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel that the man who died had worked years ago at the restaurant famous for garlic crabs.

“Over the course of 60 years, we have served a couple billion oysters, and we never had anyone get sick like this guy did,” Oreal said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says Vibrio bacteria doesn’t make an oyster look, smell or taste any different. The agency said about 80,000 people get vibriosis in the U.S. each year, and about 100 people die from it.

Dr. Ade Bamgboye, an internal medicine specialist with HCA Florida Northwest Hospital, told CBS Miami most people can fight off an infection but it can be deadly for people with underlying conditions.

Inspectors from the Florida Department of Health checked out the restaurant’s kitchen and examined its oyster inventory the day after the man became ill, Oreal told the newspaper.

“We passed with flying colors and we were allowed to continue to sell oysters,” he said, adding the oysters being served currently are from Louisiana. “If there was a problem with the oyster bed we would know it because others would have gotten sick.”

The restaurant has a sign warning patrons about the risks of eating raw shellfish.

“Oysters are top of the mountain for dangerous foods to eat,” Oreal said. “I have eaten them my entire life, and will continue. But you are putting yourself at risk when you do it.”

The state health department says so far this year 26 people have become infected with the bacteria and six of them later died after eating raw shellfish, including oysters. In 2021, 10 people died out of 34 people sickened. In 2020, there were seven deaths among the 36 who became ill.

Last week, a man in Pensacola died after contracting the bacteria from oysters he bought at a market, the Pensacola News Journal reported . That oyster also came from Louisiana, officials said.

Infections linked to the bacteria are common in oysters and raw seafood during the summer months when water temperatures are warmer, University of West Florida professor Robert “Wes” Farr told the newspaper.

“Serious infection is rare, but the risk is still there,” Farr said.

Florida students return to schools reshaped by Gov. DeSantis’ anti-‘woke’ education agenda

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(CNN) After 15 years teaching second and third grade at Burney Elementary, a 350-student school 30 minutes outside Tampa, Emily Lee set up her classroom this month to welcome three- and four-year-olds for pre-K. It’s a change she has embraced, she said, a chance to get kids on the right path in their educational journey from a young age.

But as instruction began in most of Florida this past week, there are other changes that make Lee anxious about the new school year. Contentious laws went into effect during the summer recess that restrict how schools teach topics linked to race and sexual orientation. New avenues were created for parents to sue teachers and challenge instructional materials. Math textbooks have been culled for traces of critical race theory. Schools for the first time will have to observe “Victims of Communism Day,” during which high schoolers will be taught anti-communism lessons.
Lee is suddenly worried about the books she is putting in her classroom library — or whether to have one at all — and wondering if a parent will complain if a student with two moms shares stories from home during class time.

“There has never been this level of politics injected into our job,” Lee said.

Across the state, teachers like Lee are returning to classrooms that are now the focal point of an intensifying political divide. In the middle of the debate is Gov. Ron DeSantis , the state’s Republican leader and a potential 2024 presidential candidate, who has sought to remove what he calls “woke ideology” from the classroom.
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By leading the fight, DeSantis has tapped into the same parental angst over coronavirus classroom rules and school curriculum that fueled Republican Glenn Youngkin’s victory in Virginia last year, but to the nth degree. He has engaged in a full-scale effort to reshape school boards by endorsing about two dozen conservative candidates who vow to support his education agenda.
Recently, his administration told school districts to ignore new guidance from the federal government intended to protect transgender students from discrimination.

“We have drawn a very clear line in the sand that says our school system is for educating kids not indoctrinating them,” DeSantis said last month in a vigorous call to arms for parents to join him in his education fight.

Teachers under the microscope

The remarks from DeSantis came at the inaugural summit of Moms for Liberty, a group that has mobilized women around the country to fight school boards over cultural touchstones, including curriculum they believe is pushing a liberal agenda or textbooks they say are inappropriate for kids. The conference held in Tampa featured a roster of Republican speakers and included panels that taught parents to monitor their kids’ teachers and school staff on social media and provided tips for reviewing library books.
Brandt Robinson , a history teacher at Dunedin High School, believes he has already been the target of some of these surveillance efforts. He said a student registered for his African American history class last year but left a few days later, after which the mother of the student filed an objection with the district based on the syllabus. Robinson said he had to turn over his course materials during a review.
“There’s no question there will be some teachers that will give just the facts and where you normally have a difficult discussion about our history or have students read excerpts from slave narratives, maybe that teacher won’t do that activity,” Robinson said. “It’s easy to throw around labels. Our governor often talks about communism and accuses teachers of indoctrination. That’s a very fearful kind of image and it brings me back to images of Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s.”
Opponents of these new laws also say they have distracted from other pressing issues facing school districts, including funding shortfalls. At least 18 school districts in Florida are asking voters this year to approve referendums to tax themselves to help pay for capital costs such as new schools and maintenance and to raise teacher salaries.
Andrew Spar, the president of the Florida Education Association, the state’s largest teacher’s union, said some teachers are quitting the profession instead of operating in this environment. He accused DeSantis and the groups supporting him of contributing to a teaching crisis that has, by the union’s count, left the state short 9,000 educators this fall.
“Why would you accuse teachers of doing things they’re not doing?” Spar asked. “These laws are based on lies. It adds to an overall climate that is turning teachers into villains.”
The DeSantis administration disputes that teachers are leaving over these laws and said the union overstates the number of vacancies. A more accurate figure will be available later this month once the state has day-one teacher vacancy data for every school district, said Alex Lanfranconi, spokesman for the Florida Department of Education.
Lanfranconi said the department worked overtime to approve 7,700 new teacher certifications since July 29. Earlier this year, DeSantis signed a bill that allows military veterans to teach without a bachelor’s degree. Though it passed the state legislature unanimously, the new law has become a lightning rod for criticism on social media.
“You give me somebody who has four years of experience as a [Marine] over somebody who has four years of experience at Shoehorn U and I will take the Marine every day of the week and twice on Sunday,” DeSantis said at a recent news conference.

Fierce divisions and immense confusion

Two new education laws that took effect July 1 have absorbed the brunt of the concern. One is a bill called Parental Rights in Education, which bans instruction of sexual orientation and gender identity in grades K-3 or in a way that is not “age appropriate” in other grades. Opponents dubbed the legislation the “Don’t Say Gay” bill , and its passage led to student walkouts, protests at the state capital and an objection from Disney, the state’s largest employer.
The second new law is the Stop WOKE Act. While the bill does not mention critical race theory, its intention was to prevent teachings that suggest a person is privileged or oppressed based necessarily on their race, sex or national origin.
In addition to fostering fierce divisions, opponents of the legislation say the new laws are also vague and have instigated immense confusion over what is now allowed. For example, the legislation did not define what is “age appropriate” instruction of sexual orientation.
Orange County discussed limiting LGBTQ “ally” symbols like rainbow lanyards and “Safe Space” stickers before informing teachers August 1 such items wouldn’t be banned. Miami-Dade County School Board has gone back and forth on whether to use a certain health textbook for sex education classes after some parents objected to references made to abortion and gender identity.
“The way bills were written was left open to interpretation and the interpretation is in favor of parents who want to sue us,” said Jessica Vaughn, a member of the Hillsborough County school board and a Democrat. “The result is schools and teachers are self-censoring.”
Bridget Ziegler, a Republican school board member in Sarasota County, said some opponents of the legislation are intentionally interpreting the new laws in ways that are inconsistent with what the statutes actually say in hope of drawing sensational coverage.
“People say books are being banned,” Ziegler said. “But it’s not about banning, it’s about vetting and ensuring the materials — whether it’s book, materials, magazine or assignments — that it hits the mark and is relevant from an instructional standpoint and appropriate.”
Much of the criticism, she said, “is highly out of line and intended to create a sense of fear. It’s being used as a political ploy, and it’s to the detriment of our kids.”
Adding to the uncertainty is that the state has not yet provided guidance for how schools must implement the Stop WOKE Act, said John Sullivan, spokesman for Broward County Public Schools. With more than 260,000 students, the Broward district is one of the 10 largest in the country.
Opponents are concerned schools will teach a watered-down version of history that glosses over some of America’s most troubling periods.
“We will continue to teach accurate and factual history,” Sullivan said, “and if we have to adjust anything based on guidance we will do so.”

DeSantis spokeswoman Christina Pushaw said the law is clear in that it requires the teaching of facts, not theories.
“That includes the facts about slavery, Jim Crow laws, and the Civil Rights Movement,” Pushaw said. “African-American history is American history, and it’s required to be taught under Florida law.”

Critics of Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law say it will damage LGBTQ students, parents and teachers

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Miami (CNN) Todd and Jeff Delmay know how to fight for the things they cherish most: the right to marry one another and the ability to grow their family.

Now the couple, who were one of the first same sex couples to be legally married in 2015 in Florida, face another challenge, in the form of HB 1557, or the “Parental Rights in Education” bill, signed into law Monday by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Todd is running for Florida House District 100 and Jeff is the co-chair of Equality Florida , one of the organizations that sued this week in federal court to block the law’s implementation. The couple were plaintiffs in Equality Florida’s lawsuit to secure marriage equality in 2014 in Florida.
Dubbed by opponents as the “Don’t Say Gay” law , it says that “classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.”
Supporters of the bill say it’s needed so parents can have more oversight over what their students are learning at school and believe LGBTQ-related topics should be left for families to discuss at home.
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Opponents say it would negatively impact an already marginalized community. They point to data showing that LGBTQ youth reported lower rates of attempting suicide when they had access to LGBTQ-affirming spaces .
“It’s the life we imagine for ourselves — being able to grow up, marry and have a child — and we’ve been able to have that and we’re showing kids the example that you can have a life like that or any life that you choose,” Todd Delmay told CNN. “But we have to be willing to allow them to see that from the youngest ages, just like we allow them to imagine being a firefighter or a doctor.”
The Delmays aren’t the only ones with such concerns. Middle school teacher Meghan Mayer worries about the conversations she won’t be able to have with her students. CJ Walden, a high school senior, fears his peers will be forced “back into the closet,” And Kim Hilton, a professor, believes schools may travel back in time and LGBTQ educators will be far and few.
The bill is scheduled to take effect in July and comes as conservatives nationwide are pushing for and passing bills that critics say would further marginalize members of the LGBTQ community and limit support from their allies in the classroom .
On Thursday, two LGBTQ rights advocacy groups, students, parents and a teacher in Florida filed a federal lawsuit challenging the state’s new law , making it the first legal challenge in motion to block the bill’s implementation and enforcement.
The lawsuit calls the Parental Rights in Education bill an “unlawful attempt to stigmatize, silence and erase LGBTQ people in Florida’s public schools.”

Many unanswered questions

The Delmays live a life with their 12-year-old son Blake that’s no different than a lot of other families, they say. They get him ready for school, take him to birthday parties, make sure his homework is done.
“I think there’s a very specific idea that people have in their minds of what it means to be LGBTQ,” Todd said. “And when I think about our lifestyle … it’s pretty much like a lot of other parents.”
Jeff Delmay, left, and Todd Delmay were the second same-sex couple to be married in Florida, on January 5, 2015.

Jeff Delmay, left, and Todd Delmay were the second same-sex couple to be married in Florida, on January 5, 2015.

Blake just celebrated a birthday in the classroom with Jeff and Todd present. With the new bill, Jeff worries whether he and Todd will be allowed to participate in school events. He thinks their presence as a couple may create a “weird energy” for teachers and leave Blake’s peers with questions that educators won’t be able to fully answer.
“To me, those little moments that are so sweet and so normal and so part of our everyday lives … there’ll be a little anxiety around it unnecessarily,” Jeff said.
“We’ve been amongst children who know Blake and once they know that Blake has two dads and you kind of explain to them the situation, they’re fine with it,” he said. ” … They just know Blake has two dads and his dads love him and he has two loving parents and that’s it. That’s all they needed to know.”

‘When you deny one kid, you’re denying all kids’

If Kim Hilton had visible gay women in her childhood or a safe teacher in her school growing up, the professor told CNN she would have understood her sexuality at a much younger age and “without a doubt” not have married a man.
Hilton, who identifies as queer, grew up in a Catholic community; her children attended Catholic schools and she taught at a Catholic high school. She now teaches beginning level chemistry classes at Florida SouthWestern State College’s Collier Campus.
After her divorce, Hilton said six Catholic students at her children’s school, who identify as gay, reached out to her for support.
“They felt safe to come to me and talk to me about it,” she said. “But I was the only one and that made me sad and that’s why I’m getting very scared about this Florida bill, because we’re going to lower that population of visible LGBTQ educators,” she said.
“And I know that bill doesn’t say that but we all know, we can’t be that ignorant to that … it’s going to scare educators to try and hide their identity, or do the best they can to hide their identity and it’s going to be most damaging to those students,” she added. “I know it firsthand, because I saw it in the community I lived in.”
Through her TikTok videos, where Hilton is known as “Chemical Kim,” she said she’s been able to connect with young people around the world who have told her that they feel seen and validated through her presence.
Kim Hilton -- or as her TikTok audience knows her, "Chemical Kim" -- during one of her many educational videos on the platform.

Kim Hilton — or as her TikTok audience knows her, “Chemical Kim” — during one of her many educational videos on the platform.

Meghan Mayer, a middle school reading teacher in Sarasota, began her teaching career seven years ago. She said she works hard to let her students, particularly her LGBTQ+ students, know that she’s their ally.
“I’m straight. I’ve never gone through what my LGBTQ+ students have, but I know that they’re at a higher risk of bullying, they are higher risk for suicide, and I can never imagine what they’re going through,” she said. “The only thing that I can do is just try to be someone on this campus who they know that I’m going to support them and be in their corner.”
Meghan Mayer moved her Pride flag from inside her classroom to her window so students passing by could see it and know they have an ally, she said.

Meghan Mayer moved her Pride flag from inside her classroom to her window so students passing by could see it and know they have an ally, she said.

The contents of the bill are vague, Mayer said, making it difficult to have any discussions about experiences her students are having.
“During lockdown, we were heroes, right? Like it was ‘Praise the teachers, they’re amazing, look at what they can do,’ and now it’s like they have to make a bill to make sure that they’re (teachers) not talking about things that they’re probably not talking about anyways,” Mayer said.
“I just think that it’s an attack not only on teachers, especially teachers who are LGBTQ+, but it is attack on our kids,” she said. “And you know, when you deny one kid, you’re denying all kids.”

‘Condemning the LGBTQ+ community to death’

Amari White, 15, was surprised to see all the support from peers at her high school in Largo a few weeks ago as they showed up during the lunch break to protest the bill.
White, who identifies as transfeminine, said that while her mom is supportive of her, she felt more comfortable being open about her identity at school. Now, she feels she’ll avoid talking about it altogether.
Amari White said her school's protest against the "Don't Say Gay" bill showed her support is much closer to home than she thought.

Amari White said her school’s protest against the “Don’t Say Gay” bill showed her support is much closer to home than she thought.

Gender identity and sexual orientation are two different concepts, and the issue arises when people can’t understand the differences, White said.
“People think about it too much as like a sexual intimate feeling,” she said, “Rather than just understand that it’s just an attribute of a person … this person prefers boys over girls, this person uses she/her pronouns … I don’t think people can look at it that simple and they’re trying to erase it because they think it’s a lot more than just that.”
CJ Walden, a high school senior in Boca Raton, said that when he first heard about the bill he was “baffled.” So when the opportunity to testify in front of the Florida Senate knocked on his door, he was prepared.
Walden, who identifies as gay, said he came out officially in the eighth grade and was met with endless bullying and harassment. It has not wavered since, he said.
While Walden has a supportive family, he worries for his peers who may choose to “step back in the closet if they are wanting to continue to hide who they area,” he said.
CJ Walden is the vice president of the board of directors of PRISM, a group aimed at providing LGBTQ+ youth in South Florida education and support.

CJ Walden is the vice president of the board of directors of PRISM, a group aimed at providing LGBTQ+ youth in South Florida education and support.

“This bill is condemning the LGBTQ+ community to death,” Walden said. “If you’re telling a child that is gay or whatever sexuality, that they’re going to hell, or that they need to be quiet and not share with the class, that’s just going to cause so much inner trauma and conflict and if they don’t have a support system to turn to … what do you think is going to happen with this child?”
“They’re either going to pretend to be someone that they’re not or they’re going to go through depression and anxiety and even possible self-harm and suicide attempts,” he said.
It’s estimated that at least one LGBTQ youth between the ages of 13 and 24 attempts suicide every 45 seconds in the United States, according to The Trevor Project , a suicide prevention and crisis intervention group for LGBTQ youth.
“I don’t know that the fight will completely be won by the end of our lives,” Todd Delmay said. “The inspiration that the next generation is giving us that our son and other youth that will take on that fight … if we show them how it’s done and that you never give up, I think they’ll make it.”

Gen Z won’t stay quiet on Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill

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(CNN) Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill overcame its final legislative hurdle on Tuesday, when the state Senate voted to pass the measure . Now, it’s headed to the desk of Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has indicated his support for the bill.

Even as it is poised to become law, young people in the state won’t let the legislation pass silently.
Members of Generation Z (defined as people born between 1997 and 2012) have for weeks led major demonstrations and school walkouts in protest of the bill , which would make it more difficult for teachers to discuss sexual and gender identity in primary public school classrooms. The legislation would also require administrators to alert parents of students who initiated conversations about the aforementioned topics.
Teens have traveled to Tallahassee, Florida’s capital, to meet with lawmakers and plead their cases against the legislation, formally called the “Parents Rights in Education Bill.” They were aware of the odds that the bill could pass, which now seems all but guaranteed. The current generation of students fighting for the generation following them, though, remains undeterred.
“We wanted to show our government that this isn’t going to stop,” said Will Larkins , a Florida teen who organized a massive walkout at his central Florida high school. “The people are the ones in powers [sic] and what they’re doing doesn’t represent us, especially marginalized groups.”
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They’re planning mass protests

Students across the state have walked out of their classrooms in protest of the “Don’t Say Gay” bill this month.
Larkins on Monday led a walkout of more than 500 students at Winter Park High School, many of whom chanted, “We say gay!” as they vacated their desks at 9 a.m.
A protest of a similar size took place in Palm Coast, but the consequences for one student were severe: High school senior Jack Petocz, who organized walkouts statewide and led his own at Flagler Palm Coast High School, said he was suspended “indefinitely” after he distributed Pride flags at the demonstration.
“I am proud of who I am and I am proud of all of those protesting these regressive bills,” said Petocz, who’s a political strategy associate for nonprofit Gen-Z for Change, in a statement posted on Twitter. “We must let our politicians know that no matter how hard they try, they cannot suppress our identities or silence our voices. Gen Z will not stand idly by as our rights are stripped from us.”

They’re leveraging social media

Petocz’s suspension and subsequent statement quickly made national news — which drew more eyes toward his cause. He’s also made TikToks with tens of thousands of likes and comments from the Gen-Z for Change account , from which he and his fellow student colleagues educate users and get the word out about walkouts.
Stars such as Ariana Grande have reposted videos from student-led rallies against the “Don’t Say Gay” bill to show their support.
And after Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Chapek refused to condemn the legislation , current and former employees — including Disney Channel stars — criticized the company and called on it to reconsider its political donations. (In a company email, Chapek said the company has donated to both Republican and Democratic legislators in the state, and that the company supports its employees who are LGBTQ but doesn’t think that corporate statements “change outcomes or minds.”)
Joshua Rush, who played Disney Channel’s first out gay character on the series “Andi Mack” and came out as bisexual in 2019, said that while he was “heartened” to hear Chapek say the company will evaluate its donations, “the facts are clear: queer kids in America are under attack by a far-right agenda funded partly through corporate donations.
“Disney’s involvement in that machine is unacceptable,” he tweeted this week, in response to former co-star Lilan Bowden’s tweet asking Disney to “take action against this hateful bill.”

They’re traveling to Florida’s capital

Teens have traveled to Tallahassee with LGBTQ organizations including Equality Florida and Safe Schools South Florida to meet with legislators. Javi Gomez, a senior at Miami’s iPrep Academy, testified against the “Don’t Say Gay” measure in Tallahassee last month. He told CNN in February that he was nervous to speak to lawmakers and scared, too, that the bill might pass, but that “this battle is only beginning.”
Dozens of students were bussed into Tallahassee on Monday, the day before the Senate’s vote on the bill. Standing on the steps of the Capitol or inside, under its rotunda, many of them held signs in support of trans and queer students or chanted.
In earlier appearances before Congress, high school student CJ Walden told the Miami Herald, he felt as though lawmakers were ignoring him and his fellow student speakers who’d asked them to reconsider the “Don’t Say Gay” bills, but he won’t stop speaking out.
“We will not be quiet,” he told the Herald. “We will always exist. Even if the law goes into effect.”

To defeat Ron DeSantis, Florida Democrats are coalescing around Charlie Crist and the Joe Biden playbook

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Miami Gardens, Florida (CNN) Fifteen minutes into a recent Sunday service, a man in a trim pinstriped suit with coiffed white hair and a blue disposable mask strolled to the front row of The Fountain church and began nodding along to a live and loud contemporary gospel band.

“Is that Charlie Crist?” Virginia McNair, a local retiree, whispered from a few rows back at this predominantly Black church. “My favorite.”
It was Charlie Crist — that instantly recognizable, enduring enigma of Florida politics — in his element: campaigning. At age 65, Crist, currently serving his third term in the US House, is running for governor, a job he first won in 2006 as a Republican, left after losing a 2010 US Senate race as an independent, and failed to win back in 2014 as a Democrat. And he’s doing it the only way he knows how: by trying to shake every hand in the state. In 36 hours, he attended the Sunday service, spoke to parents of children killed by gun violence, huddled with Nicaraguan refugees, lunched with Haitian American Democrats and toured Cuban American businesses in Little Havana with his new fiancée.

Democrats in Florida, entirely shut out of state government for more than two decades, are desperate for power to slow the state’s rightward lurch , but they face a fundraising juggernau t and rising GOP star in Gov. Ron DeSantis . Meanwhile, the country is souring on President Joe Biden , and some Democratic candidates are distancing themselves from their standard-bearer heading into the midterm elections.

Crist, though, is not just embracing Biden, he is channeling the President’s campaign playbook. Like Biden in 2020, he’s running on reestablishing civility, a bet that enough independent and moderate GOP voters are exhausted by the divisive politics of the incumbent Republican administration. Crist is playing up his bipartisan background — at times, even leaning into his Republican roots — in hopes voters will rally around a familiar face with a track record of working across the aisle.
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A year ago, Crist’s entrance into the race was met with a sigh from many state Democrats ready for younger blood and fresh faces. But as mail ballots for the August 23 primary are sent out in many Florida counties, party forces have coalesced around Crist’s strategy. With about five weeks left before the primary, Crist has built a solid fundraising advantage and has endorsements from more than 100 elected Democratic officials and the backing of labor unions and progressive leaders alike.
Crist on Thursday released his first statewide ad of the campaign focused on DeSantis — not his main primary opponent, state Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried . In another sign Crist is already readying for the general election, his campaign has made an eight-figure reservation of airtime for the fall, CNN has learned.

“Whoever has the best chance is who we have to nominate,” said state Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith, an Orlando Democrat and LGBT leader who endorsed Crist last month. “The stakes are just too high.”
Biden framed the 2020 race as a ” battle for the soul of America .” Crist, who has mentioned the Golden Rule at campaign stops for more than a decade, framed the race as “not right versus left, it’s right versus wrong.”
“There’s a similarity, of course,” Crist told CNN. “Good experience, caring heart — I think people are hungry for that.”
“But I’m a Floridian,” he added. “And, God bless the President, but he’s from Delaware.”
Thomas Kennedy, a Miami activist and Democratic National Committee member known for disrupting DeSantis events, said he thinks Crist is a good foil for DeSantis, a conservative favorite who has brought former President Donald Trump ‘s confrontational style to Tallahassee.
“People are tired of the toxicity and partisanship,” Kennedy said at the event where Crist vowed to help Nicaraguan immigrants gain temporary protected states to remain in the US. “There’s so much meanness in the state right now. He’s similar to Biden.”
Not everyone is on board. Fried, the lone Democrat in statewide elected office, has built her campaign around the promise “Something new.” Her allies are quick to point out that Crist as the Democratic nominee in 2014 couldn’t beat then-Gov. Rick Scott and that though Biden’s strategy proved successful in his 2020 race, he lost Florida to Trump by a healthy margin. Fried, meanwhile, won office four years ago in a cycle that saw all other Democrats running statewide lose.
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome, and our party has a history of that insanity,” said Evan Ross, a Democratic consultant and Fried supporter with deep ties to South Florida’s large Jewish community. “Charlie Crist would be the pinnacle of it. If we’re crazy enough to nominate him, I think it will be one of our worst losses in state history.”
Crist dismissed 2014 as a bad year for Democrats everywhere. He noted that he lost the race by less than 1 percentage point and has since outperformed the top of the Democratic ticket three times en route to winning his purple-hued House seat in the Tampa Bay area. Crist’s advisers have also vowed a robust campaign by Democrats this year, unlike 2020 when Democrats acknowledge Biden was more focused on other battleground states.
Asked what he had learned from his last statewide defeat, Crist responded: “Go to north Florida more.”
But even some Crist supporters question if his brand of politics can win a head-to-head battle against DeSantis, who is seeking a blowout victory to bolster his resume before a possible 2024 run for president .
“All of Charlie’s success was by being nice. And that works until it doesn’t. The Republicans, they don’t play around,” said John Morgan, an Orlando lawyer and longtime friend of Crist. “There’s not a mean bone in Charlie’s body. DeSantis is a brawler with brass knuckles in one hand and a switchblade in the other.”
CNN has reached out to DeSantis’ campaign for comment.

Retail politics 101

On the Saturday before his church appearance, Crist donned a traditional Cuban guayabera shirt and roamed the festive streets of Little Havana in Miami wide-eyed and curious, despite it being an iconic stop for past Florida campaigns, including his own. A Cuban band had serenaded him and Arizona Sen. John McCain there in 2006. He paraded through it in a convertible in 2007. He opened a campaign office there in 2014.
Inside a Cuban coffee shop, Crist watched a worker roast beans and then introduced himself to patrons, including Matt Granat, a graphic designer from Palm Beach Gardens, who had identified the former governor from across the room. Out of earshot from Crist, Granat told CNN he was leaning toward voting for Fried.
Crist and his fiancée, Chelsea Grimes, watch as coffee beans are roasted at La Colada Gourmet in Little Havana in Miami on July, 9, 2022.

Crist and his fiancée, Chelsea Grimes, watch as coffee beans are roasted at La Colada Gourmet in Little Havana in Miami on July, 9, 2022.

“She strikes me as someone who has been a thorn in the side of DeSantis,” Granat said. “He’s switched parties, so I’m not sure about him.”
Ten minutes later, Crist returned after meeting a dozen other people and handed Granat a bumper sticker. “Matt, I want you to have this.”
Granat looked impressed: “Wow, he remembered my name.”
“You need name ID to do this thing in a state this size,” Crist later told CNN. “It’s hard to be recognized unless you’ve done what I’ve done.”
As Crist leans on old connections and a personal touch, Fried has built on an online following through late-night Twitter chats with her audience, sharply edited videos highlighting Crist’s Republican past and capturing viral moments on the campaign trail. The two will debate for the first and only time on July 21.
“Charlie has been doing this for 30 years. He has relationships that go back decades,” Fried said. “And a lot of my relationships are newer and people know I’m not a typical Democrat, meaning I stand up for things differently, I talk differently and I don’t play internal party politics. And unfortunately that’s what Charlie does. I don’t play games. He offers positions to people, he cuts deals, and I’m not willing to do that.”
Crist reacts after trying an iced coffee drink at La Colada Gourmet in Miami on July, 9, 2022.

Crist reacts after trying an iced coffee drink at La Colada Gourmet in Miami on July, 9, 2022.

Fried has seized on the Democratic outrage over the US Supreme Court eliminating the federal right to an abortion to jump-start a campaign that has been beset by staff shake-ups, lackluster fundraising and an ethics complaint over past income disclosures. She said that as a woman, she is uniquely situated to capture this reinvigorated wave of energy from Democratic voters.
“I’m talking to a lot of women from across the state,” Fried said. “They’ve all turned to me with a collective voice, saying, ‘You have to win, you’re our protector and our fighter.'”
Crist, meanwhile, has a complicated and conflicting history on abortion. He has called himself “pro-life” in the past. He explained to a Florida television station earlier this year, “I’m still pro-life, meaning I’m for life. I hope most people are.” He recently said he regretted appointing to the state Supreme Court a pair of justices who have ruled to uphold abortion restrictions.
Yet, Crist has been a reliable vote for abortion rights in the House, and he has secured endorsements from Barbara Zdravecky, the former CEO of Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida, and Alex Sink, the state’s former elected chief financial officer who founded an organization that recruits and trains Democratic women who support abortion rights to run for office.
“I just think he’s certainly best prepared to be governor and do the things we need him to do,” said Sink, who lost a bid to succeed Crist as governor in 2010. “But also he’s best prepared to win and raise the money to wage the fight against DeSantis.”
State Rep. Anna Eskamani , an outspoken advocate for abortion rights, was publicly dismissive of Crist’s gubernatorial run when he first announced in May of last year, tepidly calling him “better than DeSantis.” But Crist worked to convince her of his progressive bona fides. They held events together to oppose a state bill that would curb residential solar power and to fight DeSantis’ tax policies. Eskamani was surprised how many people who showed up knew Crist.
“That name ID, of course, it can trigger different emotions, there’s that trust there and it reminds me of Joe Biden,” she said. “I definitely didn’t predict we would be there, but this is Florida.”

Leaning on Black voters

Much as Biden did, the Crist campaign is banking that his familiarity with Black Floridians will carry him through the primary. Black voters make up 30% of registered Democrats in the state and have been instrumental in determining the party’s nominee in past elections.
Despite earning the moniker “Chain Gang Charlie” for championing the return of chained prison work crews as a state senator in the 1990s, Crist has built long-standing connections with African American and Caribbean American state leaders. At the lunch with Haitian American Democrats, state Rep. Marie Paule Woodson, who was born in Haiti, gave a full-throated backing of Crist and laid out the stakes for November.
Crist places campaign bumper stickers around a table before the Haitian American Democratic Club of Broward luncheon in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on July 10, 2022.

Crist places campaign bumper stickers around a table before the Haitian American Democratic Club of Broward luncheon in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on July 10, 2022.

“If you don’t wake up and help Charlie be the next governor, every single one of you will be sitting in the back of the bus,” she said.
Crist backs legalization and decriminalization of marijuana and has promised to restore the voting rights of felons who have served their sentences. But as he positions himself for the general election, Crist has also sought to distance himself from some of the more divisive rhetoric on policing from his party’s left flank.
At a breakfast hosted by Florida Parents of Murdered Children, a predominantly Black advocacy group for families victimized by homicide, Crist received an unexpected turn at the lectern, when he called on the room to recognize a table of police officers. He promised as governor to put funding into law enforcement to stop “these horrible crimes that happen all over our country.”
“We know that sometimes, you know, strange things have happened in law enforcement like in Minneapolis, and George Floyd, but you’re good,” Crist said to the table. “You’re good.”
Aramis Ayala , Florida’s first Black state attorney and the event’s keynote speaker, appeared stunned by Crist’s remarks. Ayala, who earned a reputation as a reformer, once published a list of officers who couldn’t be trusted to testify in criminal cases. During her turn at the microphone, she called out the “mass incarceration of Black and brown people.” By then, Crist was on his way to his next event.
Asked by CNN about Crist’s remarks, Ayala, who is running for Florida attorney general, said: “Each person has to have their own message. If he’s the governor, he has to explain what he’s going to do, and I must explain what I would do.” She declined to say which Democratic candidate she intends to vote for in August.
Fried has earned the endorsement of the Democratic Black Caucus of Florida and the Florida College Democrats, signaling that her campaign has gained a foothold with the party’s grassroots.
Camara Williams, a Florida attorney and community organizer, recently hosted both candidates on his Black culture and politics podcast. He told CNN he was unimpressed by Crist’s folksy one-liners and thought the Democrat was relying on a dated mentality for getting Black voters to the polls. Crist said he would bring former President Barack Obama to campaign for him .
When Williams suggested some Black voters think DeSantis has helped their economic standing by keeping businesses open during most of the pandemic, Crist scoffed.
“Doubtful,” Crist said. “Not for you.”
“I’ve heard Black voters say that,” Williams responded.
“That’s crazy, man,” Crist replied. He ultimately cut the interview shorter than the requested hour.
Williams this past week endorsed Fried. The two clicked during a wonky 70-minute interview that touched on Black farming, generational wealth and marijuana policy. In an interview last month with CNN, Williams said he felt Crist lacked authenticity and was underestimating DeSantis.
“He may hold a fond place in some African American voters’ hearts, but if you think that’s going to bring tailwinds to get people interested in your campaign, you’re wrong,” Williams said. “DeSantis will do a good job of messaging to a certain sector of Black voters because of economics. You have to address that.”

Crist shrugged off the criticism. Black voters know him, he insisted.
“I’m sorry he feels that way,” Crist said of Williams. “He has a right to his opinion. But he doesn’t know me.”