Wednesday on Fox News Channel’s “America’s Newsroom,” Florida Republican gubernatorial nominee Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) said Florida voters should not “monkey this up” by voting for his Democratic opponent Andrew Gillum.

DeSantis said, “You know, this is a guy, although he’s much too liberal for Florida, I think he’s got huge problems with how he’s governed Tallahassee. He is an articulate spokesman for those far left views and he is a charismatic candidate. I watched those Democrats debate and none of that is just my cup of tea, but he performed better than the other people there, so we gotta work hard to make sure that we continue Florida going in a good direction. Let’s build off the success we’ve had on Gov. Scott. The last thing we need to do is to monkey this up by trying to embrace a socialist agenda with huge tax increases bankrupting the state. That is not going to work.”

Reacting to the interview Florida Democratic Party Chairwoman Terrie Rizzo said, “It’s disgusting that Ron DeSantis is launching his general election campaign with racist dog whistles.”

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