Newsom-DeSantis rivalry hits the debate stage tonight

The day has finally arrived.

It’s been more than a year since California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom challenged Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis to a debate. Tonight, the governors will meet in Georgia for what Fox News is billing as “The Great Red vs. Blue State Debate.”

Newsom and DeSantis have stoked their rivalry with snarky tweets (“I’ll bring my hair gel. You bring your hairspray.”), pointed political ads (“We’re in the once great city of San Francisco, we came in here and we saw people defecating on the street.”) and cross-country stunts. DeSantis in June arranged a flight carrying 36 South American migrants to Sacramento, where they were taken in by local religious groups. Newsom in April traveled to Florida to meet with students and faculty at a progressive college where DeSantis appointed a conservative board that fired the school’s president, disbanded its diversity office and denied tenure to a handful of professors.

Now Americans will get to see what happens when the two ambitious governors go face to face to defend their policies, their politics and their state’s way of life.

I’m Laurel Rosenhall, The Times’ Sacramento bureau chief, here with everything you need to know about the Newsom-DeSantis debate. Grab your popcorn.

How to watch

The debate is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. Pacific time on the Fox News Channel. It will also be broadcast on Fox News Radio and livestreamed on FoxNews.com, but a cable subscription is required.

Conservative cable news host Sean Hannity will moderate the 90-minute debate at a studio in Alpharetta, Ga., without a live audience. My colleague Stephen Battaglio talked to Hannity about his surprising relationship with Newsom:

“From the first time we met we just hit it off and there was a certain relationship that developed that was like, ‘Oh, come on, you don’t believe all that,’” Hannity said of Newsom in a recent interview at Fox News headquarters in Midtown Manhattan. “It was always friendly and never contentious. You can say anything to him. You can have fun with him.”

What to know

The debate is supposed to focus on how the two huge states reflect America’s political divide. Because Democrats have all the power to shape state laws in California, while Republicans dominate policymaking in Florida, the states will be scrutinized as examples of what’s possible when a state government is run by one political party.

The differences show up in how the two states approach abortion, guns, healthcare and more. For DeSantis, the debate is an opportunity to reinvigorate his floundering presidential campaign with Republican primary voters. For Newsom, who is not running for president next year but is widely seen as a potential candidate in 2028, it’s a chance to build his national image as a fighter for the left. So the debate offers major upsides for both governors.

Times reporters scoured the governors’ records shaping laws in their respective states. This cheat sheet breaks down exactly how Newsom and DeSantis are using their power to deepen America’s blue state-red state divide.

And if you’re looking for something a little lighter? We made printable bingo cards you can play with while you watch the debate.

Go deeper

While Newsom and DeSantis are busy building their brands around their states’ political differences, Times journalists have been exploring the ideological and cultural schisms between California and Florida. Check out their work:

California vs. Florida: Why are people moving from one state to the other?
Cross-country moves between progressive California and conservative Florida have taken an outsized role in the rivalry between DeSantis and Newsom. More Californians are relocating to Florida than the other way around — but the number moving in either direction is minuscule compared with each state’s population.

California vs. Florida: The surprising answer to which state handled COVID better
Though the controversy over stay-at-home orders and mask mandates preoccupied the minds of many early in the pandemic, the deeper, more lasting debate surrounding COVID-19 vaccines may be the most notable distinction between the states.

Newsom and DeSantis both promote freedom in education. But their focus is wildly different
DeSantis wants to give parents the freedom to control what their children will learn and where. They also are free to leave public schools entirely — using state funding for a private school. Newsom’s version of freedom to learn is about protecting the civil rights of students, expanding opportunities within public schools through new investments — such as schooling for 4-year-olds — and also allowing instruction about diverse views related to race and gender.

Speech is freer in California than in Florida, watchdog group says ahead of Newsom-DeSantis debate
PEN America, which defends the rights of authors and others around the world to write and speak out without fear of government reprisals, has compared the two states’ policies on campus speech codes, book bans, curriculum fights, diversity and inclusion, internet freedom and other 1st Amendment issues in the interstate feud between DeSantis and Newsom.

In a Florida boom town, builders and homeless services providers fret: ‘We can’t be L.A.’
For most of the last decade, developers and nonprofits in Jacksonville have built almost enough houses and apartments to keep most low-income residents from becoming homeless. But now local builders and advocates worry the flow of new arrivals is pushing the Florida city past its limit. A cautionary tale — an unfettered homeless crisis — is lurking more than 2,000 miles away. “We can’t be L.A.,” said the leader of Jacksonville’s largest homeless services provider.