Florida GOP Governor’s Race Heats Up as Debate Plans Change

Ryan talks to Publisher of Southeast Politics Janelle Irwin-Taylor about the latest developments in Florida’s Republican gubernatorial primary, including the decision to replace a planned debate with candidate stump speeches.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Ryan Gorman Show podcast presented by Verah and Farah
Accident attorneys from Tampa.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Let's bring in the publisher of Southeast Politics, Janelle Irwin Taylor,
joins us this morning. You can check out all of
her work and a whole lot more at Southeast politics
dot com and of course she's on X two at
Chanel Irwin fl. So, Janelle, what is going on with
the Florida Republican Party. Lots of drama over potential debates
for this race for governor.

Speaker 3 (00:30):
Yeah, So the Republican Party of Florida is rather than
having candidates for governor have a debate where you know,
they're on the same stage and they're answering the same
questions and they're engaging with one another, really giving voters,
you know, a more broad profile of the issues and
all that sort of stuff, they're having candidates individually speak,

(00:54):
So no no debating, just a stump speech essentially, which
anybody who's ever seen a stump speech knows you don't
really learn anything now about anybody from them. And the
reason that they're giving is that the Republican Party of
Florida has a you know, debate threshold that candidates have
to meet in order to debate. One of those is

(01:15):
that they have to be polling at ten percent support.
And here's the kicker in this governor's race. The only
candidate who is polling above ten percent is Byron Donald.
So that would mean that nobody else gets to debate him.
So what are you going to do to put him
on a stage by himself? I get why people have
their hair on fire about this, because it's like, you

(01:36):
got to let us actually see these people engage with
one another. But I will remind your listeners that the
Commission on Presidential Debates it's threshold for participation is fifteen percent,
So the ten percent is actually lower than what I
would say the gold standard is for these sort of things.
So really the question becomes, because there's only one candidate

(01:57):
polling above that threshold, democracy at the service, even though
the rules are the rules. So you know where you
land on that. I guess, as anybody's guess.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
Look, there's about according to some of the latest polling,
about thirty percent of voters undecided on this race. I
also think you don't just have like a bunch of
no name candidates who are in this race. I mean
talk about Lieutenant governor, the former House Speaker Paul Renner.
I could do without James Fishback, even though he's actually

(02:30):
pulling better than those two. But I mean, you've got
some real players in Florida politics who are in this race.
I think it's outrageous that there wouldn't be a debate
with the top four candidates here to see how they perform.
And honestly, I think it's kind of on Byron Donald's
to push for a debate. I mean, I know he's

(02:52):
the front runner. I know politically that that would make
a lot of sense, But really I think he, if
he's that confident he's going to roll to the three,
should be saying I'm willing to debate, and he's not
saying that.

Speaker 3 (03:04):
Yeah, and you just laid out all of the important
nuance that makes this an actual issue, right, and that
really is that these are not tomato cans. No, they're
not pulling as well as Byron Donald's, not even close.
They're not raising as much money as Byron Donald's, not
even close. But these are candidates who are still raising
millions of dollars. They're not as many millions of dollars,

(03:26):
but they're still serious candidates. Do any of them stand
a chance of winning in a GOP primary against Byron
Donald's Probably not without some sort of outside influence. That
really kind of flips the script on Trump controlling the
Republican Party. But this whole issue really demonstrates how much
power Trump still has over the Republican Party because Byron

(03:46):
Donalds is his guy and nobody wants to make Trump mad.

Speaker 2 (03:50):
Yeah, it doesn't look good. And you had Paul Renner,
the former House speaker, who wants to get in a debate.
He said, we look like we're the Florida Democrats here
with how chaotic this is all gotten. And that is
not a position the Florida the Pelican Party wants to
be in looking like the Democrats here in Florida, like
they don't have it together, and that kind of is

(04:11):
what it looks like. And you also have this battle
now between Governor DeSantis and the Republican Party here in
the state because he's saying that there should be debates,
which I think he's right. The publisher got that should.

Speaker 3 (04:25):
That should say something because he hasn't even endorsed anyone.

Speaker 2 (04:28):
Yeah, mm hmm, exactly right. The publisher of Southeast Politics
Janell Irwin Taylor with us this morning again. You can
find all of our working a whole lot more at
Southeast Politics dot com and you can follow her on
next to at Chanel Irwin FL. Janell really appreciate it,
Thanks so much.

Speaker 3 (04:43):
Always a pleasure.

Speaker 2 (04:45):
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Speaker 1 (04:46):
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