--- title: FanGate: Governor Rick Scott Refuses to Take Debate Stage Over Fan description: #Fangate canonical: https://time.com/3511659/rick-scott-charlie-crist-debate-fan/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-16T01:08:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T10:49:14.274Z article:section: Politics og:title: FanGate: Governor Rick Scott Refuses to Take Debate Stage Over Fan og:description: #Fangate og:url: https://time.com/3511659/rick-scott-charlie-crist-debate-fan/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbdfeebfb62df77eb/6987610bcd1bba204e6f2a92/rick-scott-debate.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5026 og:image:height: 2827 og:image:alt: Former Florida Governor and Democratic candidate for Governor Charlie Crist waits next to an empty podium for Republican Florida Governor Rick Scott who delayed his entry onto the stage due to an electric fan that Crist had at his podium at a televised d og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: FanGate: Governor Rick Scott Refuses to Take Debate Stage Over Fan twitter:description: #Fangate twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbdfeebfb62df77eb/6987610bcd1bba204e6f2a92/rick-scott-debate.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Florida Governor Holds Up Debate Over Challenger's Fan > Sponsored content. 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Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Oct 16, 2014 1:08 AM UTC  Former Florida Governor and Democratic candidate for Governor Charlie Crist waits next to an empty podium for Republican Florida Governor Rick Scott who delayed his entry onto the stage due to an electric fan that Crist had at his podium at a televised debate at Broward College on Oct. 15, 2014 in Davie, Florida. Former Florida Governor and Democratic candidate for Governor Charlie Crist waits next to an empty podium for Republican Florida Governor Rick Scott who delayed his entry onto the stage due to an electric fan that Crist had at his podium at a televised debate at Broward College on Oct. 15, 2014 in Davie, Florida. Joe Raedle—Getty Images by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Oct 16, 2014 1:08 AM UTC Florida Gov. Rick Scott [refused to take the stage ](http://www.c-span.org/video/?c4511526/fl-gov-debate-extremely-peculiar-situation)at Wednesday night’s gubernatorial debate after his Democratic challenger Charlie Crist was allowed to have a small fan under his podium, in an odd election moment that has already been dubbed “fangate” across the Internet. “Ladies and gentlemen, we have an extremely peculiar situation right now,” moderator Eliott Rodriguez said before Crist took the stage. “We have been told that Gov. Scott will not be participating in the debate.” The Scott campaign had requested there be no fan on stage during the debate, but because former Gov. Crist was allowed to have one, Scott refused to join him on the stage. The governor eventually relented, but not before Twitter erupted with snarky commentary. The Democratic Governor’s Association derided the incident as the “political equivalent of pleading the Fifth Amendment.” Here are some #fangate highlights. > [](http://twitter.com/jbarro/status/522529026607681537) > [](http://twitter.com/browardpolitics/status/522524442132742144) > [](http://twitter.com/TUSK81/status/522528312493502464) > [](http://twitter.com/PhilLatzman/status/522534535259373568) > [](http://twitter.com/CCristFan/status/522536409685446656) > [](http://twitter.com/CharlieCrist/status/522536557274619906) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3511659/rick-scott-charlie-crist-debate-fan/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3511659/rick-scott-charlie-crist-debate-fan/"},"headline":"Florida Governor Holds Up Debate Over Challenger's Fan","datePublished":"2014-10-16T01:08:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T10:49:14.274Z","description":"#Fangate","url":"https://time.com/3511659/rick-scott-charlie-crist-debate-fan/","keywords":["2014 Election","rick scott"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbdfeebfb62df77eb/6987610bcd1bba204e6f2a92/rick-scott-debate.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbdfeebfb62df77eb/6987610bcd1bba204e6f2a92/rick-scott-debate.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Former Florida Governor and Democratic candidate for Governor Charlie Crist waits next to an empty podium for Republican Florida Governor Rick Scott who delayed his entry onto the stage due to an electric fan that Crist had at his podium at a televised d","caption":"Former Florida Governor and Democratic candidate for Governor Charlie Crist waits next to an empty podium for Republican Florida Governor Rick Scott who delayed his entry onto the stage due to an electric fan that Crist had at his podium at a televised d","creditText":"Joe Raedle—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2014-election/","name":"2014 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3511659/rick-scott-charlie-crist-debate-fan/","name":"Florida Governor Holds Up Debate Over Challenger's Fan"}}]}] ```