Discussion: In Upset, Progressive Bests Dem Frontrunner In Florida Gov Primary

Pelosi is going to shit a green squealy-worm over this; it’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez redux!!

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Divided by 3 or 4 candidates, one being a former congresswoman and the former governor’s daughter. This is a huge upset even much bigger than Ocasio Cortez beating Crowley.

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He campaigned on an unabashedly leftist platform of providing Medicare for All, abolishing the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency “in its current form,” and reforming the bail system.

Aren’t Medicare for All and abolishing ICE things that have to happen in Washington? Why would those be major planks for a candidate for Florida governor?

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It was, of course, Florida’s call. I’m not super enthralled by the guy, but that’s the awesome part about federalism. Florida gets to pick who should represent Florida and make political decisions that are internal to Florida, not me.

Turnout was similar (1.4M) for Rs & Ds.

Precincts still reporting are in counties Gillium carried. Margin of support looks a bit higher for Graham in the counties she carried, though a few counties she carried look to have been a tossup. Gillium has decent margins of support as well – though lower than Graham’s overall. Upshot is that Gillium’s prospects look pretty good based just on the primaries.

Based on a quick look (mouse hover gist) from here:

Edit to correct rough turnout count. Thanks, @ralph_vonholst

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He’s hot!

Well…somebody had to say it. :wink:

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Very much so. And it needed to be said.

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For Governor? 1.4 million?

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Hope I’m wrong, but this looks a lot like the situation in Maryland where another Sanders endorsed “progressive” (Ben Jealous) won the Democratic primary for Governor, and Jealous is now headed towards a very likely double digit loss in the general election (he’s 16% behind in the most recent public poll) … Florida “progressives” may rejoice on primary night because they defeated the “moderate” candidate, but it will not be such a happy time in November when the right wing Republican is elected governor.

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Yep. Those would be Senate or House campaign issues.

Thanks, yes. I divided the counts by 100 then didn’t multiply the result. Good catch.

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Maybe, we’ll see. Florida Democrats get to decide on that, just as you get to help decide in your state and I in mine.

I am, of course, rooting for the guy in the general.

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I don’t claim to know anything about FL Dem primary politics, but I’ll say this: if he overperforms in FL, as Beto is overperforming in TX, then he wins, even if he “loses.”

#BlueWave

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People still watch Morning Joke?

I was split on this race and stayed out of it because I liked Graham, but have also been watching Gillum since he kept showing up to help Margaret Good in her surprise win in the FL HD 72 special election (Sarasota). I realize that Gillum embraced a lot of far left positions and big money, but I always thought he was doing it because Graham and Levine had a solid hold on the middle. In embracing health care, gun control and some other left issues, he found a way to galvanize a coalition of African American and young voters to get a win out of nowhere. It’s amazing that Graham basically owned the I-4 corridor and lost. She did poorly in South FL and that tells me that maybe she might not have driven the vote she needed to win against a GOP candidate who will likely get a max vote out of the FL panhandle.

Dems have been running a lot of moderate types in FL and have always come up short. Charlie Crist was probably the best moderate candidate the Dems have run statewide in 2 decades and he lost to Scott by a point. I don’t think Gillum is a worse bet than Graham, and I do think he has real upside. I also see big time upside for various House races in South Florida and other urban areas, plus I think it will be a big boost for Bill Nelson. He can ride Gillum’s coattails in the big cities, while Gillum rides Nelson in the I-4 and elsewhere.

Going into this race, I thought Graham would likely finish 1st or 2nd in most of the counties and be able to hold off Gillum. But Gillum got such big numbers in his strong areas and Graham really underperformed in So Fl that one can only say that Gillum earned this.

Gillum’s win sets this up as an old FL v new FL, diverse FL vs Panhandle FL race. That contrast may be what Dems need to get that boost of occasional voters to show up.

As a Mayor, I think Gillum probably has more ability to appeal to pragmatic moderate voters than does Trumper Desantis. I think Gillum has a decent chance.

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I read a comment from a Florida- based front-pager at Balloon Juice that Gillum campaigned hard for Clinton in 2016.

Good luck to him. Going to be a tough race. Vote!!!

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I’ll admit to not having followed this election, but he sounds like a great choice for governor!

(Writing from Madison, WI, where we, too, have a great choice for a new governor this fall.)

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Adam Putnam got shortchanged here. He deserves a good write-in campaign. :innocent:

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He isnt under investigation

https://twitter.com/baseballot/status/1034606929618841600

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