After winning the Florida Republican gubernatorial primary, Rep. Ron DeSantis said Wednesday that voters would “monkey this up” if they elected his African-American opponent, Andrew Gillum, to be governor.
The remark provides a controversial beginning to what will be a closely watched general election for the Florida governorship, which pits DeSantis, who has closely aligned himself with President Donald Trump, against Gillum, a progressive backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Calling him “an articulate spokesman” for the far left, DeSantis said during an interview on Fox News when asked about his opponent Gillum, “The last thing we need to do is to monkey this up by trying to embrace a socialist agenda with huge tax increases and bankrupting the state.”
Gillum would become the state’s first black governor if he were to win in November.
“It’s very clear that Mr. DeSantis is taking a page directly from the campaign manual of Donald Trump,” Gillum told Fox News’ Shepard Smith hours later.”
“Was that racist or a figment of speech?” Smith asked, referring to DeSantis’ comment.
Gillum didn’t answer the specific question, instead responding, “I’m not going to get down in the gutter with DeSantis and Trump. There’s enough of that going on.”
Information from CNN.com contributed to this report.
