In their final meeting before Floridians choose their next governor in two weeks, Tallahassee mayor Andrew Gillum and former U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis traded fire for fire at Broward College in Davie Wednesday night in their second gubernatorial debate.

The hour-long event bounced from the Broadway show Hamilton to healthcare and eventually sank to mudslinging, even including declarations from Gillum of "shame on you." Here are five takeaways from the heated night:

1. It got ugly. Fast.

Moderator Todd McDermott asked both candidates whether they believed politics had become too divisive after news earlier Wednesday that a series of suspicious packages and pipe bombs had been intercepted or found at several Democratic politicians' homes and offices, including that of U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who attended the debate.

DeSantis invoked a shooting that targeted congressional Republicans two years ago when a gunman opened fire on some of the politicians preparing for the annual congressional baseball game.

"A gunman tried to shoot my teammates, did shoot [U.S. Rep.] Steve Scalise because he didn't like Republicans. So I know firsthand that when we start going down that road, that can be very, very deadly," he said. But DeSantis also hammered Gillum for what he said were dangerous connections to groups like the Miami-based social justice group Dream Defenders, whose platform has asserted police have no place in society.

"It doesn't get more divisive than the Dream Defenders, and Mr. Gillum has not condemned the Dream Defenders," DeSantis said.

Gillum for his part, criticized DeSantis for his infamous "monkey it up" comment the morning after the primary, which he has said was a racially charged whistle call. "We've really seen the collapsing of our political discourse."

That comment, he added, "was followed up that same week by neo-Nazis making calls into the state of Florida to attack my character, jungle music in the background, and the calls of monkeys being heard."

2. Andrew Gillum addressed the controversy over his 'Hamilton' ticket

Gillum faced fresh questions this week over his connections with lobbyist and former friend Adam Corey, who has become a focus of the FBI's public corruption investigation in the capital city. Those questions were fanned Tuesday by the release of hundreds of pages of emails and photos documenting some of Gillum's trips with Corey and meetings with other lobbyists.

Among the points of contention has been a New York trip in August 2016 during which FBI undercover agents provided Gillum with tickets to a showing of Hamilton and took them on a boat tour of New York Harbor.

Gillum, in a rare moment of regret, said he took responsibility "for not having asked more questions."

"I was aware that Adam Corey and Mike Miller [one of the undercover agents] arranged so that we could go and see the show. I arrived at the theater and received my ticket from my brother," he said.

"The problem that I have is that I should've asked more questions to make sure that everything that transpired was above board. I was informed by my brother at the time that he gave Adam Corey tickets to a Jay Z and Beyonce concert of which I understand they took later. And I understood that to have solved whatever the issue was with regards to the expenses associated with it."

But Gillum also asserted that of all the issues facing the state, "we got 99 issues, and 'Hamilton' ain't one of them."

He said he released his receipts from his travel to New York and Costa Rica that are being reviewed by the Florida Commission on Ethics, and criticized DeSantis for withholding receipts from the Naples Daily News for travel through his congressional office.

"I get that this is what my opponent wants to discuss, but what happened to the $145,000 in receipts of public taxpayers money that he has yet to reveal?" Gillum asked.

DeSantis countered, "I receive my money legally," and added he had released all the documents as mandated by Congress.

3. Ron DeSantis released his healthcare plan, at long last

As the debate turned to healthcare, DeSantis defended his vote to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act — and dropped a long-awaited healthcare proposal of his own on his website.

Among the highlights of the plan: that "no person should be denied access to medical care based on the existence of a pre-existing condition."

But the former congressman's platform added that "should Congress repeal the [ACA] law, Ron DeSantis will work to ensure hard-to-insure Floridians with significant health needs have access to coverage by creating a more diverse, robust insurance market that will enable and encourage Floridians to buy insurance before they get sick."

DeSantis also said he plans to "finish implementing" Florida's legalization of medical marijuana, which was approved by more than 70 percent of voters in 2016. Legislators passed a bill implementing that amendment the following year, but the state's Department of Health has lagged in setting rules and regulations governing certain portions of the law.

DeSantis also reiterated a longstanding opposition to Medicaid expansion, a signature issue of Gillum's. DeSantis' platform reiterates the state's Medicaid managed-care model, "which has helped to curb the growth of that entitlement program."

4. Racism became an issue, and DeSantis bashed the 'altar of political correctness'

One of the most heated moments came not between Gillum and DeSantis, but when McDermott tried to question the Republican nominee about his appearance at a David Horowitz Freedom Center conference., some of whose members have been accused of racism.

Before McDermott could finish, DeSantis cut in.

"How the hell am I supposed to know every single statement somebody makes?" he asked angrily. "Let me just say this straight up. I've lived my life whether it's athletics, military serving as a prosecutor. When I was down-range in Iraq we worked as a team regardless of race… But I am not going to bow down to the altar of political correctness. I am not going to let the media smear me as they've done with so many people."

Gillum took the opportunity to needle DeSantis: "My grandmother used to say a hit dog will holler — and it hollered through this room."

"He has spoken at racist conferences. He has accepted a contribution and would not return it from someone who referred to the former president of the United States as a Muslim n-i-g-g-e-r," he spelled out. "Now I'm not calling Mr. DeSantis a racist. I'm simply saying the racists believe he's a racist."

5. Gillum got a tough question about his ties to the sugar industry

Florida Today's Isadora Rangel pressed Gillum on how he'd hold the sugar industry accountable, pointing to his close ties with Tallahassee lobbyist Sean Pittman — who has represented Florida Crystals, a major player in the industry — and his past statements he wouldn't demonize workers who rely on the industry.

Gillum pointed to his environmental record and promised he would hold major polluters accountable to curb " out-of-control development that is happening north of Lake Okeechobee" and the blue-green algae crisis happening in the region. But Gillum did not address his friendship with Pittman, who is his gubernatorial run's finance chair and remains a driving force of his campaign.

DeSantis, who has made the environment one of the major planks of his campaign, cast himself as the "only candidate who fought Big Sugar and lived to tell about it. They came after me in my primary with millions and millions of dollars attacking me every which way. They called me everything but a child of God."

But Gillum criticized his opponent as being ranked among the worst by environmental agencies in Washington, D.C.

"He's taken over a couple of hundred thousand dollars from the biggest polluters of this state," he contended. "Mr. DeSantis is not going to stand up to Big Sugar or big polluters because he's owned by them."

Times/Herald staffers David Smiley, Joey Flechas and Emily L. Mahoney contributed to this story.