It's finally official: Gov. Rick Scott and former governor Charlie Crist will face off (with Libertarian Adrian Wyllie) for the office in November.

The bitter rivals claimed easy victories in Tuesday's primaries, with Scott cruising against two obscure challengers in the Republican race and newly minted Democrat Crist solidly beating former state legislator Nan Rich in his race.

Of course, this was a foregone conclusion. Scott and Crist have been going at each other for months with a dizzying area of negative ads, and both were expected to win easily.

Scott's challengers, Yinka Adeshina and Elizabeth Cuevas-Neunder, have never held a public office and didn't campaign significantly. The results reflected that. With 99 percent of the precincts reporting, Scott had collected 88 percent of the vote to 11 percent for Cuevas-Neunder and 2 percent for Adeshina.

Bay News 9 and the Associated Press called the races for Scott and Crist about an hour after the polls closed at 7 p.m.

Crist enjoyed a huge advantage in name recognition and money over Rich, a credible candidate whom Crist chose to all but ignore. The only real concern for Crist was whether Rich, whose budget never allowed her to run a TV ad, could show well enough to demonstrate widespread voter skepticism about his political conversion. It didn't happen.

With only 1 percent of the precincts still out, Crist led Rich with 74 percent to 26 percent and was even tripling up Rich in her home county of Broward.

"Congratulations! It's a wonderful night!" Crist said as he hugged his running mate, Annette Taddeo, before making his victory speech.

In his speech, Crist pointed out that even as a Republican he vetoed bills that would have required ultrasounds before abortions and established a merit pay system for teachers. He also extended early voting hours in 2008 even though it helped Obama.

"When it comes to taking even a single step to make it a little easier for families to pay the bills, raise their kids, save for retirement, Rick Scott hasn't been on our side," Crist said.

Crist was also focused on Scott leading up to the primary, reminding voters that Scott is a former hospital chain CEO who ran a company that paid a $1.7 billion settlement for Medicaid fraud.

"He thinks everything is OK because life is good for those at the top," Crist said Tuesday night. "But for too many of our fellow Floridians, it feel like it’s not working out for them. And the truth is, the only time my opponent isn’t looking out for the special interests is when he is looking out for those who share his extreme, out-of-touch tea party ideology."

Crist, 58, has won three statewide races as a Republican, and it wasn't that long ago that he called himself a Jeb Bush Republican. He was once considered a potential running mate for 2008 Republican presidential nominee John McCain. He also had the backing of GOP leaders in a 2010 bid for the U.S. Senate - until Marco Rubio used an image of Crist hugging Obama to chase Crist from the primary. Crist lost an independent bid for the seat Rubio now holds.

After campaigning for Obama in 2012, Crist completed his political transition later that year by posting a photo of his voter registration card on Twitter during an event at the White House.

Chris Ingram, Bay News 9's Republican Party political analyst, said Crist is great at giving speeches but not so effective at governing. The former governor, Ingram said, is a "chameleon" who has "flipped-flopped on just about every important issue of the day. Issues that should be in your heart, just just (finger) wind-tested on what the electorate wants."

But Ana Cruz, Bay News 9's Democratic analyst, tweeted that the victory speech was the "first real glimpse of Crist as a Democrat" and it showed him "hitting his stride."

"There is no doubt Charlie Crist is a great orator," she said. "But he also, from right out of the gate, talked about making this election about the people of Florida. That also started with Annette today with her speech. They hit all the right marks, they're talking straight to the middle class and they're going to continue to do so until November."

An upbeat Rich, speaking in Fort Lauderdale, thanked her "small but mighty" staff, supporters and family and promised to continue fighting for the progressive principles she has espoused for decades.

"I spoke to (former) Gov. Crist a few minutes ago before I came in and I offered him my congratulations," Rich said. And then she cracked, referring to Crist's refusal to debate her, "It was a brief call. I didn't feel like debating tonight."

"Don't tell him I said that," she added.

Rich stopped just short of endorsing Crist in what could well be a race that goes down to the wire. Based on the average of recent polls compiled by RealClearPolitics.com, Scott leads Crist by 1 percentage point.

"I entered this race to defeat Rick Scott and get Florida back on the right track," she said. "That is the goal I remain committed to. I hope that all of you will join me in that goal."

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.