Rep. Ron DeSantis won the Republican gubernatorial primary in Florida on Tuesday after he was catapulted from underdog to victor by an endorsement from President Trump.
Enhancing the president’s reputation as a GOP kingmaker, Santis was declared the winner by the Associated Press over Florida agriculture commissioner Adam Putnam, a well-funded Republican backed by the party establishment.
DeSantis, a Navy veteran and member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, now heads into a general election expected to be one of the most hard-fought in the country. Democrats also were choosing their nominee Tuesday, and former Rep. Gwen Graham was considered the frontrunner.
The race to succeed term limited Gov. Rick Scott is considered a tossup by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. Florida is closely divided between the parties and was won by Trump in 2016 by less than 2 percentage points. Some Republicans worry the choice of the more conservative DeSantis will make it harder to hold the governor’s mansion than if the nominee had been the more mainstream Putnam.
An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.
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