Republican Florida governor nominee faces backlash after telling voters to not 'monkey this up' by backing his black opponent

'It's very clear that [my opponent] is taking a page directly from the campaign manual of Donald Trump,' says Andrew Gillum

Republican Florida governor race nominee Ron DeSantis faces a backlash after telling voters to not “monkey this up” by backing his Democrat opponent Andrew Gillum, who is black.

In an interview with Fox News, the Donald Trump-endorsed candidate said that Mr Gillum is “much too liberal for Florida” prior to demanding voters not to “monkey this up”.

“We’ve got to work hard to make sure that we continue Florida going in a good direction, let’s build off the success we’ve had on Governor Scott – the last thing we need to do is to monkey this up by trying to embrace a socialist agenda with huge tax increases and bankrupting the state…” he said.

Mr DeSantis received swift public backlash for his remarks, made fresh off his primary win – and after Mr Gillum pulled off an historic upset victory in the state’s Democrat primary. Mr Gillum, a Bernie Sanders-endorsed progressive candidate, would become Florida’s first black governor if elected.

Many have since taken to social media to lambast the GOP nominee for his words.

Terrie Rizzo, chairwoman of the Florida Democratic Party, said, “It's disgusting that Ron DeSantis is launching his general election campaign with racist dog whistles.”

“Calling black people monkeys is one of the oldest tropes in the long tradition of American racism,” said Danny Rivero, reporter for Florida’s WLRN.

The anchor who conducted the interview with Mr DeSantis, Sandra Smith, said on air later in the day that Fox News “does not condone” the language the Republican candidate used.

Mr Gillum later appeared on the news network and hit out at Mr DeSantis for the remark, saying the comment was “not lost on me” and was ripped out of Mr Trump's playbook.

“In the handbook of Donald Trump, they no longer do whistle calls — they're now using full bullhorns,” Mr Gillum said. “I'm not going to get down in the gutter with DeSantis and Trump, there's enough of that going on, I'm going to try to stay high.”

He added, “It's very clear that Mr. DeSantis is taking a page directly from the campaign manual of Donald Trump, but I think he's got another thing coming to him if he thinks that in today's day and age Florida voters are going to respond to that level of derision and division.”

Stephen Lawson, Mr DeSantis’ communications director, told CBS that the GOP nominee “was obviously talking about” the state making the wrong decision. “To characterise it as anything else is absurd,” he said.

The backlash surrounding the GOP nominee’s comments stems from a long history of black people being called monkeys or apes as a way to dehumanise them.

Recently, Roseanne Barr’s’ sitcom was cancelled after she likened former President Barack Obama’s aide, Valerie Jarrett, to a character from Planet of the Apes on Twitter, although Ms Barr later claimed her tweet was about anti-Semitism.

Mr DeSantis also referred to Mr Gillum as “articulate”, sometimes criticised for its inherent suggestion that black people are not expected to be articulate. It’s a critique that followed coverage of Mr Obama, when he was referred to “articulate” during his 2007 presidential campaign.

Asked about Mr DeSantis' comments during a White House meeting, Mr Trump said he had not heard the remark. However, the president had earlier taken to social media to criticise Mr Gillum, saying the candidate “allowed crime and many other problems” to “flourish” as the mayor of Tallahassee.

Mr Gillum responded to the president’s tweets by saying Florida and the rest of the US needs “decency, hope and leadership”.