Today is Friday, December the 1st, 2023. Greetings and welcome to the Daily Article podcast. I'm Chris

Elkins with the Denison Forum, narrating today's article written by Dr. Ryan Denison.

Last night, Florida governor and presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis debated California governor Gavin Newsom in what was billed as

the Great Red versus Blue State debate.

But while the given purpose was to provide both governors a platform to contrast the approaches

they've taken to leading their respective states, the amount of bad blood that is built up

between the two men over the last few years seemed to

elevate the stakes beyond their respective approaches to governance. Both governors came into office in

2018 and both were re-elected in 2022 by decisive margins. More importantly, though, both were

also in charge of leading their states through the COVID crisis and much of

their mutual resentment stems from that time. Their resulting rise in the national profile

served to heighten their exposure on other subjects as well, and neither has been shy about pointing

to the other as essentially everything that is wrong with the opposing party. Consequently,

when they met last night on Fox News for the debate, it quickly moved beyond the rivalry between

their states to focus more on competing visions for the country. And given the size and national

significance of both California and Florida, the first and third most populous

states in the nation, respectively. Framing the conversation in those terms made some sense.

Ultimately, the debate was a chaotic and intense event that covered some important ground,

but also devolved into name-calling and contrasting claims that likely led to a restless night

for those with the unenviable task of fact-checking the myriad statements made by both men.

However, my most enduring takeaway from the debate had less to do with their approach to any

particular subject than the general feel of the event.

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