DeSantis vs. Newsom debate set for November on Fox News

The feud between Ron DeSantis and Gavin Newsom will go on full display during a one-on-one debate between the governors on Fox News in November.

The network announced that DeSantis and Newsom, a Democrat who leads California, will face off for 90 minutes on Nov. 30 with Fox News host Sean Hannity as moderator. The event will take place at a location in Georgia yet to be determined.

DeSantis, a Republican, and Newsom have been fierce critics of each other for years, with Newsom repeatedly challenging DeSantis to a debate and DeSantis finally accepting in August, although the details were not worked out until now.

But the showdown comes as the odds of a higher-stakes battle a year later between the two as their parties’ presidential candidates has faded. Newsom has fully backed President Joe Biden and DeSantis trails former President Donald Trump by huge margins in most GOP primary polls.

California and its COVID-19 policies have been a constant foil for DeSantis since he began to roll back such restrictions in Florida in 2020. DeSantis has cited Newsom’s dining at a fancy Northern California restaurant in violation of his own COVID guidelines as an example of Democratic hypocrisy.

“As he was locking down his citizens, he would then go and have these extravagant dinners at the French Laundry [restaurant] to basically rub his citizens’ noses in the fact that he was treating them like peasants,” DeSantis said last year, according to the New York Post.

Newsom also has made DeSantis his number one target, calling Florida an example to avoid.

“Don’t DeSantis our California,” singer John Legend wrote on Twitter during Newsom’s 2021 recall election, a variant of the slogan and Twitter hashtag, “Don’t DeSantis my California” popularized in advance of the vote, which Newsom won in a landslide. He was then reelected handily in 2022.

Earlier this summer, Newsom visited New College of Florida in Sarasota, where DeSantis has installed conservative leaders who have controversially overhauled the once-progressive institution to match DeSantis’ views.

Newsom also ran an ad in Florida telling Floridians “freedom is under attack in your state” and taking aim at the state’s abortion bans and LGBTQ+ laws.

“Join us in California, where we still believe in freedom,” Newsom said. “Freedom of speech. Freedom to choose. Freedom from hate. And the freedom to love.”

DeSantis responded with a commercial shot in San Francisco where he decried the state’s “leftist policies.”

“Within 10 minutes, I saw people defecating on the sidewalk,” DeSantis said afterward. “I saw criminals be able to run the street. I saw people using crack and fentanyl.”

The San Francisco Examiner later noted that the ad was shot on a street corner “blocks away from boutique hotels, national pizza chains and one of The City’s trendiest restaurants.”

Newsom also slammed DeSantis as a “small, pathetic man” for two migrant flights he arranged from Texas, to Sacramento, California’s capital. Newsom threatened DeSantis with legal action over the flights.

DeSantis responded that Newsom had to “deal with some of the fruits” of his immigrant “sanctuary” policies.