Ron DeSantis squashes ‘squish’ Randy Fine, says CD 6 voters ‘took one for the team’ in electing him

DeSantis in Ocala 04 2 25

Gov. Ron DeSantis is slamming a former legislative nemesis for winning his old congressional seat.

DeSantis, the former Congressman from Florida’s 6th Congressional District, derided U.S. Rep.-elect Randy Fine as a “squish” who needed President Donald Trump and millions of dollars of outside help to win because he couldn’t connect with voters.

“I think these are voters who didn’t like Randy Fine, but who basically were like, ‘You know what? We’re going to take one for the team. The President needs another vote up there. And so we’re going to do it,'” DeSantis said in Ocala at a press conference.

The Governor said Trump “really had to bail him out at the end because this race would have been much closer had the President sat on the sidelines.”

Thus, DeSantis said the outcome shows Trump has “got the juice to be able to get Republicans to go out on Election Day and even vote for a candidate that they’re not crazy about.”

“You know, this guy, I mean he lives like 150 miles away from the district. It’s just an odd fit on that,” DeSantis said of Fine.

The Governor also said on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom” ahead of the presser that Fine was in “dire straits” because he was a “squish Republican.”

“A lot of money came in to support him late, millions and millions of dollars. But I think what really drove the turnout to make it a little bit more respectable was President Trump doing the tele-town (hall). I think that this was trending to probably a single-digit race (before that),” DeSantis said.

The Governor rejected comparisons between Fine’s margin of victory and the equally underwhelming performance by former Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis in the Special Election in Florida’s 1st Congressional District to fill the opening left by Matt Gaetz.

“Jimmy did get outspent pretty significantly. Randy did not get outspent if you count the PAC money that came in to support him,” DeSantis said.

“So when you look at these races and you’re comparing margins, if you don’t have money behind you, your margin’s going to be less because not as many people know the election and all this stuff. So I attribute that to that. I think if they had put the same amount of effort in terms of bringing money in, I think Jimmy’s margin would have been better.”

DeSantis spent much of Election Day slamming Fine, saying Trump got “bad advice” to back him in the CD 6 contest. Clearly, DeSantis still has more to say even after the election.

He also noted on Wednesday that his attempt to secure Fine the presidency of Florida Atlantic University failed because the entire board would have resigned if he’d gotten the job.

Fine offered a response.

“A dying star burns hottest before it fades into oblivion. I’m focused on working with (Trump) to stop Democrats from taking this country backwards, not working with them. Let’s go.”