COCONUT CREEK, Fla. – Mixed-martial arts champion Jorge Masvidal introduced Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday during a reelection campaign rally at the American Top Team club in Coconut Creek.
DeSantis is running against U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist, a former Republican governor turned Democrat who has the endorsement of President Joe Biden.
“People know that I have been willing to take the punches for them, being willing to stand up for the people you represent and take the hits on their behalf,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis also released a “So God Made a Fighter” television advertisement on Friday, which appeared to be based on ABC News Radio broadcaster Paul Harvey’s 1978 “So God Made a Farmer.”
A narrator says, “And on the eighth day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, ‘I need a protector.’ So God made a fighter.”
On Tuesday afternoon, after a rally in Miami Gardens, Biden and Crist attended an event at a private residence in Golden Beach. Biden delivered a statement referring to Florida’s gubernatorial election as “one of the most important” in the country because Crist is “running against Donald Trump incarnate.”
“These guys are extreme in the extreme,” Biden said.
Biden accused DeSantis of “demonizing” the LGBTQ+ community and of attacking women’s “basic fundamental personal rights.” He also said, “This is not your father’s Republican Party” and he mentioned there is an influence by “white supremacists” and their promotion of antisemitism.
DeSantis plans to hold a “Don’t Tread on Florida” rally on Sunday at the Florida Gulf Coast University campus in Fort Myers. He will not be at the rally Sunday in Miami-Dade County with Sen. Marco Rubio and former President Donald Trump.
Crist’s “Choose Freedom Bus Tour” with Karla Hernandez-Mats, a teacher and union leader from Miami-Dade County, will stop at the Tradition Town Hall on Saturday in Port St. Lucie.