(CNN) Only a few days after making his return to the campaign trail following a hurricane-enforced hiatus, Florida Democrat Andrew Gillum will square off with Republican Ron DeSantis on Sunday night in the first debate of their high stakes gubernatorial race.

CNN's Jake Tapper will host the one-hour face-to-face beginning at 8 p.m. ET, from the WEDU studios in Tampa. The debate will be broadcast live on CNN.

With only a little more than two weeks now before Election Day, and early voting starting on Monday, DeSantis is likely eyeing the showdown as an opportunity to alter the course of a race he's consistently trailed in the polls. A new CNN survey conducted by SSRS out Sunday found Gillum with a double-digit lead, 54% to 42%.

At a campaign stop on Friday, Gillum, the young progressive mayor of Tallahassee, predicted the Republican former congressman would hit him low and hard -- then warned he was prepared to return the favor.

"(DeSantis) is going to call me a socialist. He's going to call me corrupt. He's going to throw his covered-up versions of racial epithets. He's going to call me anti-Israel," Gillum said, comparing his opponent to President Donald Trump, whose endorsement DeSantis rode to victory in the August primary.

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