DeSantis' Fear Mongering Isn't Working In Florida-- Andrew Routed Him Last Night

Just hours before last night's first Florida gubernatorial debate, Andrew Gillum, the front runner, was interviewed by Adam Smith for the Tampa Bay Times and got right into DeSantis' head. Gillum, wrote Smith, "said he feels like he has a sense of DeSantis already from the Republican gubernatorial nominee's campaign. 'They have a uniquely unlikeable candidate. He's easily dislikable,' said Gillum. 'I don't think anybody could spend a lot of time with him and walk away feeling inspired or encouraged or believe that he in some way knows what it means to live their life. They realize they can't package him in that way. I've heard from Republican members of congress (DeSantis would) go on these congressional trips with them and he'd put on his headphones and not talk to them the entire time,' Gillum said. The Tallahassee mayor's tough comments came-- ironically, as he sought to contrast his campaign largely focused on his agenda for Florida-- with DeSantis' largely focused on attacking Gillum. He predicted Republicans and DeSantis will spend the remaining 17 days of the race trying to push down turnout by attacking him."

"They aren't trying to sell people on Ron DeSantis or his vision. They're trying to terrify people of me. They want people to know I'm black…They want to focus people on I'm different, not like everybody else-- dangerous," Gillum said. "All these others things to cause people to be fearful. It's not to convert their votes to him. It's to suppress votes. It's the same they did with the Trump campaign."

The DeSantis campaign is falsely saying he wants to enact an income tax, is the corrupt target of an FBI investigation, Gillum said.

"Mr. DeSantis has far too many degrees from far too many good schools not not know better," Gillum said.

"I think this is disqualifying to openly lie to Floridians when you know better. We will see filth from them. Susie (Wiles) has a particular style with these kinds of things. I think we're going to see that style on full display and with the lobbyists that are running his campaign as well. Look, this is a death grip. These folks have not been out of power for 20 years in this state. I have no expectation that they're going to part with it easily."

"What we're going to be matching that with is someone who is going to go uber positive and uber ambitious about our vision for the state," Gillum said, "and I think people are going to cling to that more easily than they will a message of fears."

The Miami Herald didn't wait for the CNN debate to announce the paper's endorsement: Andrew Gillum will be a governor for all Floridians. Between the Tampa Bay Times interview and the Miami Herald endorsement and the neo-Nazi Proud Boys news linking the Republican Party to outright Florida fascists, it's easy to see why DeSantis performed so badly last night.

Also before DeSantis' poor showing at the debate, a new CNN poll showed Gillum winning by a large margin and dragging a weak Florida team of Democrats on his coattails. "Gillum's 54% to 42% lead rests on advantages among women (60% back him vs. 34% who say they favor DeSantis), non-white voters (74% back Gillum, 23% DeSantis), younger voters (60% for Gillum, 33% for DeSantis) and political independents (51% back Gillum, 42% DeSantis). Gillum has also consolidated Democratic support (97% favor him) in a way that DeSantis has not matched on the Republican side (88% back him)."

Andrew Gillum is the best candidate to pull Florida back to the center, back to making sure the middle class and working class don’t continue to bear the brunt of Tallahassee’s misguided spending; back to acting on behalf of the Floridians denied health insurance by the current administration; back to putting public schools, which serve the majority of the state’s children, in the spotlight; back to being a leader in the fight against sea-level rise and the degradation of the environment.

The tenacity, political smarts and commitment to public service that propelled this Tallahassee mayor to victory from the bottom of the pack of better-known candidates in August’s Democratic primary speak volumes. We think that each quality will serve him well as he likely confronts and negotiates with a Republican-dominated Legislature. These lawmakers were used to falling into line behind a governor whose often skewed sense of public service too often matched their own.


Floridians can only expect more of the same should Gillum’s Republican opponent, Ron DeSantis, move into the Governor’s Mansion. That wouldn’t be good for Florida or the people who call it home.

It’s unseemly that, in a race in which the issues should be front and center, DeSantis and his surrogates have tried to paint Gillum as a socialist, an extremist and an anti-Semite. Gillum is none of these things. Though he has received support from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a self-described “democratic socialist,” Gillum has resolutely and rightly rejected the label. Indeed, his is nothing close to a platform of government ownership of private business.

DeSantis is using worn-out fear tactics to win votes. However, voters should really be alarmed at DeSantis’ close proximity to supporters and contributors who have made racist comments, especially at the candidate’s campaign appearances. His tepid repudiation does not persuade us that he would be the governor for all Floridians. That’s something voters themselves should reject. Gillum has conducted an all-embracing, optimistic and engaging campaign throughout the state, another quality that speaks well of the state leader he would be.

When it comes to the issues Floridians most care about, Gillum and DeSantis offer Floridians a distinct choice.

Gillum would work with the Legislature to expand Medicaid. There are at least 400,000 Floridians who do not have health insurance. Even so, local taxpayers still subsidize the uninsured by paying for the most expensive care-- delivered in emergency rooms, where such patients go at their sickest. In providing coverage, Florida would take the burden off local taxpayers by ensuring they get less costly, preventive care first.

DeSantis opposes Medicaid expansion, and while in Congress voted-- again and again-- to repeal the Affordable Care Act, including coverage for pre-existing conditions. This would have hit Florida residents hard. Now DeSantis wants to lead a state that leads all others in ACA enrollees. The Commonwealth Fund ranked Florida 48th in access to quality healthcare. This is such a hot-button issue that many Republicans are backpedaling, unconvincingly, on their staunch opposition to maintaining coverage for pre-existing conditions and other popular elements of the ACA. 
Gillum would push for more funding for traditional public schools. They have gotten short shrift from the Scott administration, with charter schools getting an ever-increasing chunk of the education budget.

Traditional public schools and their students would not prosper under a DeSantis administration. Like Republicans in the Legislature, he would continue to funnel funding to charter schools. We think charters add to the mix of academic choices as parents search for the best way to educate their children. However, these for-profit entities have gotten favorable treatment from the Legislature at the expense of students attending many traditional public schools. Gillum could change that.

Gillum understands the urgency of addressing sea-level rise and other environmental challenges. And it’s heartening to see DeSantis oppose fracking and support building a reservoir south of Lake Okeechobee. This, and his decision to reject sugar-industry donations, helped win him the Everglades Trust’s endorsement. But he is less resolute about banning offshore drilling and his votes in Congress belie his status as a “green” candidate. He co-sponsored a bill that would block federal oversight of waterways and supported slashing both funding and projects that were under the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority.

While DeSantis has not done much to put distance between himself and racist supporters, Gillum has an FBI investigation of Tallahassee City Hall casting a shadow on his campaign. DeSantis has overreached in calling Gillum corrupt, willfully ignoring that Gillum himself is not a target of the investigation.

After eight years of misplaced priorities, it’s time to swing the pendulum back, back to a Florida that works for more of us, that builds on its prosperity and that doesn’t squander its more precious resources, be they fiscal, environmental or human.

DeSantis with props

Andrew won the debate-- hands down. DeSantis lied all evening; nearly everything he said was untrue. For example, he blundered into the classic Republican Party lie about Medicare-For-All: "Medicare for All," he stated, "is a euphemism because, if you read it, it abolishes Medicare for seniors, it abolishes Medicare advantage, and TRICARE, and as a veteran I know military families depend on it." PolitiFact rated this as pure bullshit when DeSantis' guru, Donald Trump included it in his infamous OpEd two weeks ago. "According to PolitiFact, "This is a 'horrible mischaracterization of the proposal,' said Linda Blumberg of the Urban Institute. Medicare for All would actually give an expanded version of traditional Medicare to everyone, with broader coverage-- including items such as dental and vision care-- while eliminating virtually all out of pocket costs,' she said. 'I find it impossible to imagine that the approach could lead to everyone losing coverage,' Blumberg said."

DeSantis also lied and said he supports protecting people with pre-existing conditions and that the Republican plan to kill ObamaCare, which he voted for, did that, which it didn't. DeSantis: "Pre-existing conditions should be covered. In that bill, they were required to be covered." PolitiFact rated that more bullshit ("Mostly False:). As for DeSantis personally... he was literally a leader in the fight to get rid of protections for pre-existing conditions. He, along with several other radicals, withheld support from the so-called American Health Care Act-- which would have taken away health care from 23 million people-- because he didn’t think it was extreme enough. DeSantis only voted for the bill after joining with the far-right Freedom Caucus to push for changes to allow insurers to charge more for people with pre-existing conditions. Since 2010 DeSantis has been vocal about his opposition to the Affordable Care Act’s 'essential health benefits'-- which ensure that insurance companies cannot sell junk plans or discriminate based on pre-existing conditions. Last year he supported the Cruz Amendment, which would have gutted essential health benefits, "undermine[d] protections for those with preexisting conditions," and led to "widespread terminations in coverage," according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Philip Levine, the former Mayor of Miami Beach, went nuts when DeSantis, an anti-Semite, tried to paint himself as a friend of the Jews. "Ron DeSantis," he said in a written statement to the media, "is shameless. It’s disgusting to hear DeSantis call himself a friend of the Jewish community when his campaign has paid anti-Jewish conspiracy theorists and he himself has palled around with vile anti-Semites like Gavin McInnes. Let’s be clear: when DeSantis calls himself an ally of the Jewish community on the debate stage, he is lying."