A.G. Gancarski
In an open letter, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Ron DeSantis red-baits “socialist” presidential candidate Bernie Sanders on Monday, laying in shots at Alan Grayson along the way.
“I understand you have endorsed the Democratic primary challenger to Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Tim Canova. I assume this is a prelude to your endorsement of Alan Grayson in the U.S. Senate race in Florida,” DeSantis writes.
“In an email from your campaign to your supporters promoting the Canova endorsement, you cited the fact that he has endorsed your campaign for President, the fact that the incumbent (Wasserman Schultz) represents the Democratic establishment, and that Canova is a full-fledged supporter of your ‘progressive’ policy agenda,” DeSantis continues, adding that “an endorsement of Alan Grayson cannot be far off.”
DeSantis notes that “Grayson endorsed your campaign for President” while “Congressman Patrick Murphy endorsed Hillary Clinton,” before finding a way to slam both of the major Democrats vying for the Senate nod.
“Big money donors, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid are backing Congressman Patrick Murphy. His wealthy father has poured hundreds of thousands into a ‘Super-PAC’ to support his candidacy — just the type of big money politics you routinely rail against on the campaign trail,” while “Alan Grayson is exceptionally liberal and endorsed by the Progressive Democrats of America.”
“At this point,” DeSantis adds, “it is practically the textbook definition of a ‘no-brainer’ that your ‘people-powered’ campaign will get behind the so-called ‘Congressman with Guts’ in Florida’s Democratic Senate primary.”
The DeSantis letter serves several purposes. It hits Grayson and Murphy, while also dinging the Clinton and Sanders wings of the party, by way of winning the news cycle for Monday.
