Charlie Crist lost his campaign manager just three weeks before the election for Florida Governor.
A spokeswoman for Crist announced that “Austin Durrer has departed the campaign to focus on a family matter.”
Florida Democratic gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist’s campaign manager has departed with less than three weeks until the election.
“Austin Durrer has departed the campaign to focus on a family matter,” Crist spokeswoman Samantha Ramirez said, according to Florida Politics. The campaign insists Durrer’s leaving is not the product of Crist’s sagging poll numbers. Sydney Throop will take over the role. Throop previously ran Crist’s congressional campaigns.
A former Florida Republican governor, Crist announced he would run for Senate as an independent following his failure to win the GOP primary contest against Marco Rubio in 2010. He subsequently won election to the House of Representatives as a Democrat and now seeks to topple Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and reclaim his old job.
The Crist campaign is struggling as election day nears.
Crist said they would have a $20 million ad blitz between September and November — but that has not happened.
The DeSantis campaign has spent $44 million on TV ads while the Crist campaign has only spent $11.3 million.
Airwaves — The television gap is stunning. An analysis by tracking firm AdImpact shows that as of the start of this week DeSantis and the Republican Party has spent roughly $44 million, compared to $11.3 million spent by Crist and the Florida Democratic Party. But a decent chunk of Crist’s spending was done ahead of the August primary, then Crist was off the air for about three weeks following his win over Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is currently dominating the race for Florida Governor.
DeSantis holds a 7-point lead over Crist — according to Real Clear Politics average of the race.
The Republican party now holds an over 300,000 voter advantage in Florida.
