Charlie Crist Loses Campaign Manager Three Weeks out from Election 

Florida Democrat gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist’s campaign manager has left the campaign trail less than three weeks away from the election.

Austin Durrer will be replaced by Sydney Throop, who previously ran Crist’s congressional campaigns and guides daily operations for his gubernatorial campaign. Durrer left the high-stakes campaign “to focus on a family matter,” according to Crist spokeswoman Samantha Ramirez.

Durrer’s departure comes amid falling poll numbers for Crist. Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), who has maintained a polling advantage over Crist, has extended his lead to double-digits, according to a recent Sachs Media Group poll.

That poll found that 52 percent of Florida voters support DeSantis, compared to just 42 percent for Crist, who served as Florida’s governor from 2007 to 2011.

Another sign that does not bode well for Crist is Florida’s voter registration numbers. DeSantis recently announced that Florida Republicans outnumber Democrats by more than 300,000 voters.

“Here’s what I can tell you. When I was standing here four years ago, preparing for the governor’s election, this state had almost 300,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans. And we had never in the history of Florida — prior to me being elected governor — had more registered Republicans and Democrats,” DeSantis said during a campaign speech over the weekend.

“And even though we’ve never had an election in Florida history [where] we’ve had more Republicans than Democrats, this November, we will now have over 300,000 more Republicans than Democrats,” the governor added.

Crist and DeSantis are scheduled to meet for their first and only debate on October 24.

Jordan Dixon-Hamilton is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jdixonhamilton@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter.