Andrew Gillum has nearly $4 million left over from his losing campaign last year to become Florida’s first African American governor. And he has a plan to use it to destroy Donald Trump’s chances of winning reelection in 2020.
Most people know that Trump can’t win reelection without winning Florida’s electoral votes.
Gillum’s plan will make it almost impossible for the president to do that.
Instead of using the leftover campaign funds on another election, Gillum will spend the money on a new voter registration group which has one sole purpose: to make sure Trump won’t win Florida again in next year’s election.
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According to a special report this morning in POLITICO, the former Tallahassee mayor will formally announce Bring It Home Florida, which takes its name from his signature campaign slogan. He registered the new group last week with the Florida state election division.
Gillum very narrowly lost his race to Republican Governor Ron DeSantis in November, and his PAC (political action committee) Forward Florida still has nearly $4 million available to use as he sees fit. So he has decided to invest all of that money into efforts to increase the number of voters in his home state rather than joining the Democratic presidential field. Instead of seeking personal goals, he will seek to give the vote to thousands of previously disenfranchised Floridians.
“In this period of time,” Gillum said, “whatever resources that I raise and time and energy I spend in this state is going to be around voter registration and deep-level engagement, so that when we have a nominee, we have an apparatus we can turn on.”
Trump’s re-election campaign is heavily focused on Florida, which has 29 of the 270 total electoral votes needed to win. A survey taken earlier this month showed that as of right now most Florida voters do not want Trump to be reelected.
Democrats know they have a turnout problem in the Sunshine State but are planning to overcome that by increasing the number of registered voters.
Republicans in the Florida state legislature just yesterday introduced a new bill aimed at restricting the new right to vote by 1.4 million former felons, which was given back in November after 64 percent of voters approved an amendment to the state’s constitution.
State Rep. James Grant (R-Tampa) is sponsoring the measure, which would require the former felons to pay money before restoring their voting rights.
Gillum Can Help a Democrat Win in 2020
In December we reported that Gillum had been meeting with Beto O’Rourke to discuss their 2020 plans.
Since then O’Rourke has joined the 2020 presidential race while Gillum has decided to take a different route. If he is successful registering enough Democratic voters in Florida, he may also succeed in winning the presidency for the Democratic Party.
I am a lifelong Democrat with a passion for social justice and progressive issues. I have degrees in writing, economics and law from the University of Iowa.
