OPINION: Wake up, Florida Democrats: Three's a crowd in the governor's race

As Gov. Ron DeSantis continues to view Florida as little more than a 65,758-square-mile petri dish to test out and hone his blustering one-liners, divisive policies and cynical strategies for a run for the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential nomination, one thing has become increasingly evident:

While there are three major contenders seeking the Democratic Party’s nomination to face DeSantis in the November general election – U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist, Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried and state Sen. Annette Taddeo – that’s already become two candidates too many.

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It's time for two Democrats to pull out of the party’s Aug. 23 gubernatorial primary and throw their support behind the remaining candidate who is truly best suited to challenge the heavily favored DeSantis. It's time for two Democratic candidates to make the selfless move to allow the general election race to effectively begin right now.

Indeed the decision that Floridians will make at the ballot box in November is such a critical one for this state that Florida Democrats should actually feel a sense of obligation to render their August primary moot by settling right away on one candidate for governor.

Because make no mistake about it: the November election will not merely represent a referendum on DeSantis’ performance during his first term in Tallahassee. It will also represent the potential last electoral hurdle for DeSantis to clear before he inevitably becomes a part-time governor and a full-time GOP presidential candidate.

And before DeSantis is able to assume such a lofty perch, Florida's Democrats owe it to voters to make him earn every bit of it by engaging in an extended general election campaign against a Democratic challenger.

Florida’s voters deserve to have DeSantis spend several months both defending and extolling his first four years as governor while on general election footing – and not merely during a relatively brief period between the end of the August primary and Nov. 8.

And, conversely, Florida's voters deserve a chance to fully judge whether a Democratic challenger is worthy enough to take the governor's seat – a test that should be met by having that candidate spend all summer and fall in direct engagement with DeSantis, a massively-financed incumbent.

Yes, we know the question that comes next: “OK, so who among Crist, Fried and Taddeo should step aside and clear the path for the one remaining candidate?"

Frankly, the onus for reaching that decision shouldn’t rest with the Editorial Board, though you can make what you will of a recent University of North Florida poll that estimated Taddeo's overall support at 4% – and had DeSantis leading Crist and Fried by 21 and 23 percentage points, respectively.

No, the onus for reaching that decision should rest with Crist, Fried and Taddeo. Period.

Clearly all three should take a cold-eyed look at whether they possess a genuine shot at giving DeSantis a real race in November.

Clearly two of the three should make the proper if painful decision to step aside.

And clearly two of the three need to have these epiphanies occur immediately – if, that is, they want to act in the best interests of Florida's voters and future.

Under most circumstances, there would be nothing wrong with having as many candidates as possible vie for as long as possible for the right to be Florida's Democratic nominee for governor.

But such circumstances don't exist at the moment – not given Florida’s ascending status as one of America's most-influential states and DeSantis’ rising status as an influential political figure on the national landscape.

So wake up, Florida Democrats.

When it comes to the race for the party's gubernatorial nomination, three really has become a crowd – and it's time to reduce that number to one prominent, credible candidate.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Florida Democrats need one candidate to face Gov. Ron DeSantis