Rep. Charlie Crist (D-FL) on Tuesday came out victorious in Florida’s Democratic gubernatorial primary, edging out Nikki Fried, the state’s agriculture commissioner, according to a new Axios report.

The sixty-six-year-old Crist, who was elected Florida’s governor in 2006 after serving as the state’s attorney general, will now have the monumental task of taking on Gov. Ron DeSantis in November’s highly anticipated general election.

“This guy wants to be President of the United States of America. However, when we defeat him on November 8, that show is over,” Crist said in his victory speech.

“This is the most consequential race in the history of our state. And when we win in November, we will send shockwaves across this country,” he continued.

Meanwhile, after Fried conceded, she told her supporters: “We are going to make Ron DeSantis a one-term governor, and a zero-term president of the United States. We Democrats have to come together like never before.”

As reported by CNN, it appears that Crist will indeed have a difficult road ahead. DeSantis has amassed more than $130 million for the upcoming election, a record amount for a gubernatorial candidate who isn't self-funded. Moreover, the economy appears to be on solid footing and the GOP has surpassed Democrats in registered voters in Florida for the first time. However, Democrats have long argued that the state’s prosperity has not been shared by all.

Earlier on Tuesday, DeSantis predicted that he would have to face Crist in the election. During a news conference in Tallahassee, he noted that Crist is “a guy that's been running for office for five decades, who is voting with [Joe] Biden 100 percent of time.”

He added that Crist “opposed every decision I've made to keep this state open, to keep people's rights, respected their rights, to save jobs, to keep kids in school, to save businesses.”

DeSantis, seen as a champion of conservative values, recently made headlines for announcing that twenty people who voted in the 2020 election will be arrested and charged with voter fraud, according to a Politico report. The investigation was led by the governor’s Office of Election Crimes and Security, which was created during the 2022 legislative session to focus on election fraud investigations and prosecutions.

He also asserted that the office would be investigating voters who were undocumented when they cast their votes in 2020.

Ethen Kim Lieser is a Washington state-based Finance and Tech Editor who has held posts at Google, The Korea Herald, Lincoln Journal Star, AsianWeek, and Arirang TV. Follow or contact him on LinkedIn.

Image: Reuters.