Kelly Hayes
U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist will be in attendance at the 2022 Guaya Guaya Fest in Orlando Saturday as he continues his gubernatorial campaign.
Crist will join Orlando’s Hispanic community for the annual festival. At the event, Crist plans to meet with members of Orlando’s Puerto Rican and Hispanic communities to share his vision of a Florida for All. The Guaya Guaya Fest preludes the Zalsa Fest on Sunday, and features thousands of celebrators.
Crist’s visit to the Guaya Guaya Festival is part of outreach to Florida’s significant Hispanic population. The event comes as Crist beefs up his campaign operation. The campaign this month brought on Maurizio Passariello as Hispanic media director and Susan Windmiller as senior advisor for women’s outreach.
Crist, a former Republican Governor now serving in Congress as a Democrat, announced in May he’s challenging Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ reelection. He faces Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried and state Sen. Annette Taddeo in the Democratic Primary.
According to a recent poll from the Florida Chamber of Commerce, Gov. DeSantis holds a more than 10-percentage-point edge on any potential challenger in 2022. The poll, conducted by Cherry Communications between March 18 and 28, showed Fried faring best against the incumbent. However, the survey still puts the Republican in a strong position to win a second term.
Pollsters found similar results pitching a head-to-head matchup between DeSantis and Crist. There, the incumbent holds a slightly greater lead of 11 percentage points. That comes in part from the fact that 56% of no party affiliation voters going to DeSantis if the alternative is Crist. A similar 88% of GOP voters stick with the incumbent
