Bernie-Backed Andrew Gillum Wins Florida Governor Democrat Primary
Arizona Rep. Martha McSally won the Republican Senate primary to take over retiring Jeff Flake’s seat.
Tuesday had a bunch of primaries, but Florida and Arizona caught my eyes.
Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, a progressive backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), managed to win the Democrat primary for the Florida governor race and is the first black nominee for the position. Rep. Martha McSally (R-AZ), defeated former state senator Kelli Ward and former Sheriff Joe Arpaio in the Republican primary to take over retiring Sen. Jeff Flake’s seat.
Florida
Gillum shocked many with his win as the others in the primary led in pre-election polls. But as I’ve said many times since November 2016, it’s hard to take polls seriously!
From The Miami Herald:
With 94 percent of the votes counted, Gillum had an unofficial 3 percentage point lead over his closest rival, former U.S. Rep. Gwen Graham. Gillum overwhelmed Graham in Miami-Dade and Broward, the state’s two largest Democratic counties, by more than a 2-to-1 margin, in the highest turnout for a midterm primary election in Florida history.
“I am overwhelmed,” Gillum told a cheering crowd of supporters at a victory party at Hotel Duval in downtown Tallahassee. “I want you to know that this thing is not about me. This race is about every single one of us. Those of us inside this room. Those outside of this room. Those who voted for me. Those who didn’t vote at all. And those who didn’t vote for me because they are Republicans. But I want to be their governor, too.”
Gillum’s agenda squares with Sanders, such as “Medicare for all, a $15-an-hour minimum wage and staunch opposition to the Stand Your Ground self-defense law.”
One woman, Bernadette Albury, told The New York Times that many of the other candidates “focused on negative views of Trump and to be honest, that’s not relevant to Florida.” It also shows that Florida Democrats are sick of their party “nominating cautious, centrist candidates who have tried and failed to appeal to Republicans in the November election.”
Via The New York Times
Arizona
McSally won her primary by taking in 52.7% of the votes over Ward and Arpaio. She will take on Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema in November, which should be a heated competition. From The Wall Street Journal:
Although Mr. Flake was one of Mr. Trump’s most outspoken GOP critics, the primary to succeed him focused on who could claim to be the president’s closest ally. Ms. McSally, who had kept her distance from Mr. Trump during the 2016 campaign and has refused to say whether she voted for him, tacked to the right and portrayed herself as a Trump loyalist.
McSally and Sinema now have the opportunity to become the first woman senator from Arizona. Sinema is trying to become the first Democrat to win the seat since 1976. From AZCentral.com:
That the seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Arizona, is even in play is reflective of a traditionally red state trending toward purple at a level not seen in recent memory.
Arizona voters have not elected a Democrat to the Senate since Dennis DeConcini, an old-fashioned centrist, who won the seat in 1976 after defeating Republican Sam Steiger for the open seat and served three terms.
“It’s crucial to Democratic hopes of taking control of the Senate, it’s just hard to see how they would do it without Arizona,” said John J. “Jack” Pitney Jr., a political scientist at Claremont McKenna College in Southern California.
“If somehow they take control of the Senate, Democrats would control the confirmation process, making it extremely difficult for Trump to get his way.”
Via The New York Times
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Comments
It will be interesting to see how Gillum stacks up against Ron DeSantis, who is no Ted Cruz. This is the year of Democrats shooting for the moon I guess, although they did have the good sense to send Grayson packing.
Gillum in Dade/Broward? BIG DRIVE in the black communities to get out the black vote, for the black guy. If that sounds blindly reverse-racist, it is. And sadly- they will vote overwhelmingly for him – without even knowing or caring about his positions on the issues.
His economic agenda is closely aligned with Bernie – and you cannot give out all that free sh!t in a state with NO PERSONAL INCOME TAX. And we know what that means – massive deficit spending, with TAXES as the only way to pay for it.
He’s also vehemently anti-2A.
Hate sounding like the liberal crybabies in the runup to 2016 – but if he wins, I might have to consider moving to TEXAS (even though the left is screwing that place up too).
We need a HUGE EDUCATION DRIVE in the black communities – to FOCUS ON THE ISSUES – NOT THE SKIN COLOR.
I was “down in the hood” last night, shooting the breeze with a friend down there, and a few other people I know came by, real happy like – WE GONNA HAVE A BLACK GOVERNOR.
Alan West – IN A HEARTBEAT. Andrew Gillum – NO F-IN WAY!
Time to find the comfy sneakers and get my ass out there on the campaign trail this season. Looks like this election is going to be as PIVOTAL TO FLORIDA as it is TO THE NATION (and THE WORLD).
R
And the NY Slimes map – in purple, shows the regions with LARGE BLACK COMMUNITIES. DeSantis is going to have to hit: Dade, Broward, J-Ville, Tampa & Tallahassee REAL HARD – and really get out the R-Vote – REALLY GET IT OUT.
Hate to make this a race, based on RACE – but it’s sadly, going to come down to just that. Just like it did with ObamaLamaDingDong.
The rumor has an FBI investigation related to corruption on Gillum going on. Won’t matter.
Rick
We have a popular governor in a tight race with Bill Nelson that will help the GOTV. As for race-based voting, Hispanics may have a slight advantage in numbers over blacks in Florida. I heard a rumor. Not saying don’t work it, but that there are some inherent advantages for the Republican candidate as well.
Sadly – when there’s a black candidate running – the number of black voters that actually make an effort to get out to the polling places is HUGE – in comparison to when there isn’t.
I didn’t see ONE GILLUM SIGN anywhere other than “the hoods” down here in Broward. We have one large “Early Voting Station” in Pompano (a community center in the hood). The number of folks out campaigning in the area surrounding was HUGE.
And sadly – as much as it SHOULDN’T BE ABOUT RACE – it always ends up being that way.
Same with Alcee Hastings. C-R-O-O-K. Impeached from the federal bench for Bribery & Perjury (which doesn’t happen all that often – only 8 have been convicted and removed in US History) – who gets in the senate EVERY TIME. Running UNOPPOSED for his 14th term – because his distract (strangely enough) is 95% black (like CREEPILY the EVERGLADES and ONLY THE BLACK NEIGHBORHOODS in Dade/Broward/Palm Beach) and there are no black republicans down here to run against him.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida%27s_20th_congressional_district#/media/File:FL20_115.png
At least we have MANDATORY VOTER ID here (and strangely enough, our minorities don’t seem to have any hardships in getting ID – wonder why we’re SO SPECIAL).
Remember – Obama never OVERTLY PLAYED the race card himself the first time around – he let it PLAY ITSELF. After that – it was all IDENTITY POLITICS, and it’s worked so well for the left, it has gotten EVEN WORSE.
I won’t vote for Gillum – not because he’s black – but because he’s a socialist anti-gunner. You can be sure Bernie and OcasioCortez will be down here stumping (since she’s pretty much a shoe-in, Pappas doesn’t really stand a chance, and neither does Crowley – even as an independent).
Win or lose – it’s gonna get UGLY DOWN HERE. REALLY UGLY.
DJT will support DeSantis – and that will turn off the left even more – they may see it as a referendum on DJT (even though he scraped out a win down here – mainly because people recognized the ABJECT EVIL of Hillary).
Enough from me…
Rick
“who gets in the senate EVERY TIME.” should read “who gets in the Congress EVERY TIME.”
Gillum will get almost all of the Black vote. The worry is the “white guilt” vote which helped Obama win twice.
Yep
There’s no such thing as “reverse racism”. It’s just racism.
Hmmm – yeah it is all racism. But when it’s played out by the “historically oppressed”.
It’s “reverse racism” when you vote for the black guy JUST BECAUSE HE’S BLACK (versus NOT for the same reason).
R
“Reverse racism” implies that racism exists in only one direction, so when you see exactly the same thing but going in the other direction it has to be distinguished. But that’s patently untrue. Racism has no direction, and probably never has had. There have always been people, of all races, who dislike people who are not like them. And the existence of widespread racism among black people in particular has been documented and well-known for decades. So I object to the term “reverse”.
Racism exists in only one direction is required knowledge in race relations courses. Or was in the 1970s. I doubt anything has changed in the teaching.
Didn’t we just get over 8 year of Obama?
No. We got through them, but we’re not even close to over them.
Much of Florida is nothing but New York with palm trees. Gillum has a chance.
On a related topic. What’s up with McCain’s replacement? We need him for the Kavanaugh vote.
The guy’s only been dead a day or two. Give the governor some time. The vote on Kavanaugh is at least a month away.
Uhm. Hearings start Sept 4.
Yes, and the vote won’t be until at least the end of September.
Ducey has already said he won’t announce anything until after McCain’s funeral, which will be on Saturday. McCain will be buried in Annapolis on Sunday, so don’t expect to hear anything before next Monday, if then.
Looking at the results Gillum got just above 1/3 of the votes statewide, meaning his message didn’t resonate with most of the Dem primary voters. It will be interesting to see how that pans out in November.
McSally will be a female McCain. The GOP establishment just fooled the stupid voters again. You can bet I’ll be here to point out every betrayal by McSally over the next few years. It probably won’t take long.
He got a third of the democrat vote. Missing from the discussion are the independents, of which I am one.
I expect a massacre.
Missing for all the anti-trump hysteria is the simple fact that all of Trump’s policies. taken individually, have majority support.
Yes, she’s my congresswoman and she’s a big RINO. Of course, during the run-up to her elections, she always “tacks right” and pretends to be more conservative than she is, but that is typical of AZ establishment politicians.
Schweikert is my Congressman, and he cut a campaign commercial for McSally. He’s gone off the reservation, and is now in the establishment camp.
Americanism v Communism. The only card he has is the race card and it will be played over and over again. Ad Nauseum.
DeSantis this am says Gillium should not Monkey around with the good FL economy. Race card played instantly by MSM. They are offended. That did not take long.
Seems to me that if a person immediately associates a black man with the word “monkey,” that person is the racist, not the person who said the word “monkey.”
Except that DeSantis did no such thing. It was the black Democrat left who associated the word with a black man.
“monkey it up” = “muck it up”
No racial inference whatsoever, but the “blacklash” is predictable.
Remember the guy in Maryland who used the word “niggardly” and was immediately swamped by the black Democrat mob? He was fired, but after someone pointed out to the mayor that the word means “stingy”, he got an apology and his job back.
The point is that the left (particularly the black left) will seize on any opportunity to play the race card.
Instead of discussing this, we should be yawning.
Why don’t they speak the truth and show that 66% of the voters favored someone else.
Just some personal analysis on the Florida Dem Governor race.
Gillum beat Graham by only 3%. This with Levine siphoning off 20% of the vote and various other candidates sucking up another 14%. So, Gillum is hardly the overwhelming favorite. Also, Gillum was pretty much assured the Black Dem vote.
How does this translate into a statewide, two-party race for governor? Well, Gillum will likely still take most of the black vote, which will be energized by his candidacy. He will likely take some liberal votes as well as those who vote a straight Dem ticket. But, with 66% of the Dem vote going to his opponents, in the primary, it is going to be an uphill climb for him to take the general. While DeSantis also has a fairly tough row to hoe, he beat Putnum handily in what was a two person race and the current numbers of Republican and Democrat voters is pretty equal. Also, most of those Republican voters live in central and north Florida away from the major metro areas. I would say that it will be a fairly close race, but that DeSantis should take more Republican votes, as well as some independent and Democrat votes, than Gillum will take Dem votes. We’ll have to see how it works out in November.
So the Dems ran on “Vote for us or you’re racist” twice and won the presidency each time, but “Vote for us or you’re sexist” failed, so they’re going back to what worked?
I have a sneaking suspicion that “What are the issues?” is going to get drowned out seriously in this election, replaced by frothing and foaming from the left.
Nobody has a clue who he is or what he stands for. He’s got months to show his true colors and set himeself on fire.
Turn off the Boob Tube. Weeks of Monkeys coming up. Next the commie will claim ‘I am not a Monkey’. Monkey Mania will ensue. A Social Justice extravaganza.
Really interesting result in Florida. The race had 4 big spending candidates.
Gillum: Tallahassee mayor, and the black guy
Greene: Big Spending Palm Beach Billionaire
Levine: Miami Beach mayor, and Hillary’s Fundraiser in Miami
Graham: Daughter of a popular governor.
I think the result of the race shows that Democrat voters in Florida are purely voting on identity and tribal lines. The big money TV campaigns of the Billionaire and the fundraiser never got either of them traction. The democrat primary electorate is too recent to remember Bob Graham, and his voters may be Republicans now. In any case, his Daughter didn’t get the turnout that her polling data indicated. Meanwhile, Blacks voted for the Black guy.
On Twitter, Trump is gloating because he thinks that the Republican DeSantis, who ran as a Trump loyalist, has a good matchup.
I do not believe that the snowbirds that have flown to FL will go for this nut. Most of them are retired and know that “Free” stuff isn’t really free. What this guy is proposing is almost as extreme as the dim wit from NY. FL is a no income tax state and with the ideas this fool endorses they will have to enact income taxes just to stay above water.
He wants to monkey around with their medicare.
Seems like that guy as governor could and would destroy Fl as a great place to live with a rocking economy…what he will do will bring it to a screetching halt…..but hey he’s black so we won’t be able to point that out…
No, Florida does not want to be ‘The Chocolate State’.
“[F]lorida Democrats are sick of their party ‘nominating cautious, centrist candidates who have tried and failed to appeal to Republicans in the November election.'”
Of course! So in order to appeal to Republicans they nominate a wacked-out leftist. (?!)
[eyecross]