The legend of Nikki Fried ended last night after the parodical Democrat candidate for governor got crushed by former-Republican Charlie Crist. Now, we are getting our first general election musings from Crist as he sets out to defeat Gov. Ron DeSantis, and boy are they something.

The Democrat emerged on the morning after his primary triumph to lay out perhaps the worst political strategy I’ve ever seen. We’ll get into why that is in a moment, but first, let’s go to the tape.

Crist: "Those who support DeSantis should stay with him and vote for him and I don't want your vote. If you have that hate in your heart, keep it there." pic.twitter.com/S0B93bw52i

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) August 24, 2022

What Crist just did, in front of millions of Florida voters, is basically concede the election to Ron DeSantis without even firing a shot. The current governor’s voters make up a majority of the state.  You see, that’s how he became governor in the first place. Crist can not win without pulling some of those over to his side, and his response to that reality is to…tell those voters to stay with DeSantis. It’s a bold strategy, Cotton.

Was this actually a written line he meant to say, or was this an off-the-cuff mistake to just remind us of how horrible of a politician Crist is? To further the point, Florida is a majority-GOP state when it comes to voter registration. There are currently 5.2 million GOP voters in the Sunshine State. There are 4.96 million registered Democrats. Simple math says there aren’t enough Democrats to make Crist governor assuming he doesn’t carry independents by some completely unrealistic number.

He needs GOP crossover votes, and he’s not going to them by telling DeSantis’ voters to pound sand. Still, I’m not entirely sure Crist even wants to win. Take his first official campaign commercial as an example.

Let’s make history, Florida.

Defeat fascism, defeat DeSantis. pic.twitter.com/o5AwUDtTjO

— Charlie Crist (@CharlieCrist) August 24, 2022

“Defeat fascism” is going to be his rallying cry? Really? That’s the best the over-paid Washington consultants running his campaign could come up with? Implicitly, he’s suggesting that millions of Floridians are themselves fascist, while ignoring that the state is actually a bastion of freedom and economic success. The unemployment rate in the state sits at just 2.7 percent. On no planet is that a winning message. This is a California campaign being run in a state that is only getting redder.

It’s also quasi-religious in that he’s suggesting people who vote for DeSantis must have “hate” in their hearts. What does Crist think about inflation? Lock-downs? The Second Amendment? Abortion? We don’t know because he’s too busy saying woke incantations.

In summary: DeSantis by 10.