{"id":618023,"date":"2026-06-13T12:09:40","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T12:09:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=618023"},"modified":"2026-06-13T12:09:40","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T12:09:40","slug":"desantis-rips-on-florida-gop-for-trying-to-engineer-an-outcome-in-primary-for-governor-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=618023","title":{"rendered":"DeSantis rips on Florida GOP for trying to \u2018engineer an outcome\u2019 in primary for governor"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/div>\n

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis slammed Florida GOP officials on Friday for cancelling this election season\u2019s Republican primary gubernatorial debate.<\/p>\n

The Republican Party of Florida announced earlier on Friday that there won\u2019t be a GOP gubernatorial debate at the upcoming Sunshine State Showdown, scheduled for June 27 in Hollywood, because Trump-endorsed candidate Rep. Byron Donalds is the only candidate who\u2019s met the debate qualifications.<\/p>\n

The required qualifications include scoring at least 10 points in a GOP party poll and raising over $10 million from at least 10,000 donors, according to the Florida Phoenix<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a state as large and diverse as Florida, with its multiple media markets and complex political landscape, this remains a reasonable and accessible threshold,\u201d Republican Party of Florida executive director\u00a0Bill Helmich said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\n

The @FloridaGOP<\/a> has released the debate thresholds.<\/p>\n

As I was the 1st to post earlier this week, the thresholds are similar to the National GOP.<\/p>\n

It includes a 10% polling threshold, donation threshold, and signature threshold.<\/p>\n

All completely STANDARD.<\/p>\n

Only Donalds met them. pic.twitter.com\/oSsdvEP3Ex<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Robert J Salvador (@RobertJSalvador) June 12, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Asked about this decision while speaking about Medicaid fraud during a press conference in West Palm Beach, DeSantis accused party officials of trying to \u201cengineer an outcome\u201d in the gubernatorial primary race.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere should be a debate,\u201d he said. \u201cThey said they were going to do a debate. They didn\u2019t put out the criteria publicly.\u00a0I don\u2019t think the RPOF ever voted on any type of criteria. I\u2019ve heard secondhand what the criteria was. I wouldn\u2019t have qualified when I ran in 2018 for what they were trying to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so it\u2019s counterproductive when you try to engineer an outcome because you need a coalition of voters to do well. And this may be a tough cycle for Republicans if you look at some of the indicators, the way things are trending. And so having an open process and having people be able to have their say is always better than to try to engineer an outcome,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

DeSantis also critiqued the idea that the party itself should be in charge of debates.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t need the party to control it \u2014 they have no authority to control debates,\u201d he insisted. \u201cWe did a debate when I was running 2018. We did one on Fox News and had nothing to do with the [party]. \u2026 And so you can do something like that having nothing to do with the party.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, the party has a very limited role. It\u2019s really \u2013 it should be a candidate-driven process and not for people to be making decisions who voters have never voted into those positions to begin with,\u201d\u00a0 he concluded.<\/p>\n

\n

FL\u2019s @GovRonDeSantis<\/a> criticizes the @FloridaGOP<\/a>\u2018s debate criteria, saying the party should not \u201cengineer an outcome\u201d in the governor\u2019s primary:<\/p>\n

\u201cThere should be a debate\u2026 having an open process and having people be able to have their say is always better.\u201d https:\/\/t.co\/8QMoiTDYz0<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/aEWM3pd3gE<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Forrest Saunders (@FBSaunders) June 12, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Adding to the controversy is the fact that the Florida GOP had earlier offered a Sunshine State Showdown speaking slot to candidate James Fishback, who\u2019s been accused of antisemitism over his fierce criticism of Israel. Then, after complaints began to flood in, including from Jewish Rep. Randy Fine, the party reversed course.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter conversations with numerous Republican leaders, grassroots activists, and stakeholders from across Florida, it has become clear that entertaining Mr. Fishback\u2019s overtures to participate in official Republican Party activities was a mistake,\u201d party chair Evan Power said in a statement reported by Politico<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Power also cited Fishback\u2019s \u201cantisemitic and racist attacks on members of our party.\u201d<\/p>\n

Responding via a statement to Politico, Fishback said that the \u201csame Republican Party of Florida that refuses to host a debate is now mad at me for agreeing to a debate with CBS News in Jacksonville on July 15th. What a joke.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that he intends to hold his own rally on the same night as the GOP state convention.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guarantee that we\u2019ll have more people there than them,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\ud83d\udea8\" BREAKING: James Fishback breaks Florida GOP rules, announcing he\u2019ll join unsanctioned debate hosted by Jacksonville CBS affiliate.<\/p>\n

This puts his standing with the Republican Party in jeopardy. We reached to RPOF for comment. pic.twitter.com\/R0cm7secvY<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Florida\u2019s Voice (@FLVoiceNews) June 12, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Former Florida House Speaker Paul Renner, another GOP gubernatorial candidate, told the Phoenix that the whole process has \u201cbeen rigged from the start.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis slammed Florida GOP officials on Friday for cancelling this election season\u2019s Republican primary gubernatorial debate. The Republican Party of Florida announced earlier on Friday that there won\u2019t be a GOP gubernatorial debate at the upcoming Sunshine State Showdown, scheduled for June 27 in Hollywood, because Trump-endorsed candidate Rep. Byron Donalds is… Continue reading DeSantis rips on Florida GOP for trying to \u2018engineer an outcome\u2019 in primary for governor<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":618003,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[18,19,10,21,12,11,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-618023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cancel-culture","category-censorship","category-civil-liberties","category-election-integrity","category-equal-justice","category-free-speech","category-religious-freedom","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=618023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618023\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/618003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=618023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=618023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=618023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}