PENSACOLA -- Nan Rich is a long way from home.
In this ultraconservative city on the western edge of the Florida Panhandle, the Democratic candidate for governor is more than 650 miles from her base of support in left-leaning Broward County.
Any farther and she would be in Alabama.
Rich is keenly aware of the distance as she settles in for a meet and greet at a trendy restaurant that serves both sushi and Southern comfort food. Winning votes here is a long shot. But so is winning the governor’s mansion.
Rich, a former state senator from Weston, is the decided underdog in the Aug. 26 Democratic primary. Her opponent, former Gov. Charlie Crist, is better known and better financed, and widely expected to face sitting Gov. Rick Scott in the general election.
Still, Rich has spent more than two years crisscrossing the state, hammering on her talking points: More money for public schools. An increase in the minimum wage. Healthcare for all.
Her campaign workers say she has traveled more than 160,000 miles and attended more than 325 campaign events.
"Look at what happened with Eric Cantor," Rich said last week, recalling the U.S. House majority leader from Virginia who shockingly lost this month’s primary election to a little-known economics professor. "That's the power of grassroots organizing."
Despite her best efforts, the spotlight has remained on Crist, a one-term Republican governor who ran a failed bid for U.S. Senate in 2010 and became a Democrat in 2012.
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