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Ron DeSantis got the last laugh in his feud with Gavin Newsom after it was revealed that the California governor’s in-laws donated to the Florida governor’s campaign.
The donation was made by William A. Soskin, Newsom’s father-in-law, and his wife Linda, according to public records.
The couple gave $ 5,600 to DeSantis’ campaign on May 19.
This is not the first time that the Newsoms have donated to a Republican politician. In 2016, they contributed to then-presidential candidate Jeb Bush.
Newsom has been running ads in Florida denouncing DeSantis claiming “freedom is under attack.”
The California governor even went as far as to donate $ 100,000 to the campaign of Charlie Crist, who is running against DeSantis in the upcoming election.
However, it seems that Newsom’s efforts to defeat DeSantis are not being reciprocated by his own family.
The spat started when DeSantis said he sees “a lot of California license plates” in Florida, and suggested that Californians are fleeing the state due to high taxes and poor governance.
Newsom fired back, saying that if you go to California, “you ain’t seeing very many Florida license plates.”
However, it seems that Newsom’s in-laws have a few Florida license plates, as they have donated to DeSantis’ gubernatorial campaign.
They are not the only Newsoms to have given money to DeSantis – Gavin’s brother-in-law, Adam, has also donated to the Florida governor.
This is just the latest instance of the two governors’ feud, which started when Newsom said he didn’t have “any confidence” in how Florida was handling its coronavirus outbreak.
DeSantis responded by saying that he didn’t need advice from “failed governor Gavin Newsom.”
The feud continued when DeSantis said that California’s nursing home policies were to blame for the high death toll in the state, and Newsom fired back, saying that DeSantis was “politicizing” the issue.
The governors for California and Florida, Newsom and DeSantis respectively, have been tearing into each other about leadership and policies throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.
Now though, recently, Newsom has amped up the conflict by taking daily pot-shots at his Republican counterparts such as DeSantis in ads on Fox news. He even sent out an email to supporters fundraising off of their war of words with a subject line reading: “He’s at it again.”
The back-and-forth between Newsom and DeSantis is less about each man and more about the future of the Democratic and Republican parties. The two governors represent different visions for their respective parties and the country. Newsom is seen as a progressive leader who isn’t afraid to take on President Donald Trump, while DeSantis has emerged as one of Trump’s most vocal allies and a staunch defender of his policies.
The fight between Newsom and DeSantis is also a preview of what the 2024 presidential race could look like. If Trump doesn’t run for reelection, the two governors could be among the leading contenders for their party’s nomination.
Newsom and DeSantis have been trading barbs since the early days of the pandemic. In March, DeSantis was critical of Newsom’s decision to issue a stay-at-home order, saying it was “way too much” and would have a “devastating effect” on the state’s economy. Newsom fired back, saying that DeSantis was “dead wrong” and that he was “playing politics with people’s lives.”
The feud escalated in May when Newsom criticized DeSantis for allowing Florida beaches to reopen while California’s were still closed.
So it seems that, when it comes to this particular feud, Ron DeSantis has the last laugh.
