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Gillum Picks King As Democratic Running Mate
September 7, 2018
Doubling down on his appeal to progressive voters, Andrew Gillum on Thursday picked former primary rival Chris King as his running mate on the Democratic ticket for governor.
Gillum and his wife, R. Jai, joined King and his wife, Kristen, to make the announcement in a live session on Facebook.
Gillum, the mayor of Tallahassee, said his first criteria in picking Chris King, who is a Winter Park businessman, was selecting a running mate who could step in as governor if necessary.
“But we also talked about the fact that this is a difficult journey. It’s hard. It’s difficult work at times. And what we want to do not only in this race, but when we win the race for governor, is have a partner in helping to lead this state,” Gillum said.
The Gillum-King partnership is founded on a lot of similarities. Both candidates ran as outspoken progressives in the Aug. 28 Democratic primary, embracing such issues as the expansion of Medicaid, the legalization of marijuana, gun control, criminal justice reform and a $15-an-hour minimum wage.
Gillum, the first African-American nominated for governor by a major party in Florida, was the surprise victor in the primary, winning the race with 34.4 percent of the vote. King, making his first bid for elected office, finished in fifth place with 2.5 percent.
After campaigning for nearly a year and half against him, King said he developed a friendship with Gillum.
“This is not a political marriage. This is not a marriage of convenience,” King said. “I came to admire him. His gifts, his talents and most importantly his vision for the state of Florida, to lift up families all across the state who have not had a champion like Mayor Gillum, who have not had someone who has spoken up to issues that the current leadership just doesn’t care about.”
In addition to their politics, the two Democrats mirror each other in other ways. Both are 39 years old. They each have families with three children. Their wives have played key roles in their campaigns.
“When we met Chris and Kristen, we saw that they had those same values, partnership, more importantly, your family, your faith, things that are really important to us as well. I’m just so excited,” R. Jai Gillum said.
One difference between the two candidates is their personal finances. During the primary, Gillum often remarked he was the only “non-millionaire” in the race. King reported a net worth of $17 million in June and spent more than $4 million of his own money during the election.
King’s prosperity is a result of a company, Elevation Financial Group, that he started and has developed affordable-housing projects, an issue important to both candidates.
“We have to do everything that we can to ensure access to accessible and affordable housing for more people in this state,” Gillum said.
Gillum’s decision to join forces with King, rather than some of his more centrist primary rivals, like Gwen Graham or Philip Levine, is another sign that his unprecedented campaign remains committed to trying to energize the progressive base of the party.
Gary Yordon, a Tallahassee-based Democratic political consultant who supported Graham in the primary, called Gillum’s selection of King a surprise.
“It’s surprising because everybody keeps thinking Andrew’s going to pivot more towards the center, and he’s just not,” Yordon, who did some work for Gillum more than a decade ago, told The News Service of Florida on Thursday.
Adding King to the ticket “solidifies where he is as a progressive,” Yordon said of Gillum.
“I think it is another brick in that foundation. This is the campaign it’s going to be, and he’s all in. I think the Chris King pick just says, yep, this is where we are,” he said. “To me, it’s a little bit refreshing to find someone who didn’t try and be something he’s not for a campaign.”
But Gillum’s embrace of the progressive wing of his party is opening up attacks from Republicans, who are characterizing him as too liberal for mainstream Florida voters.
“Andrew Gillum’s choice of Chris King is being heralded by national media outlets as ‘the most liberal in state history,’ and we agree,” said state Rep. Blaise Ingoglia, chairman of the Republican Party of Florida.
Ingoglia also contrasted the Democratic ticket with Republican nominee Ron DeSantis’ decision to pick state Rep. Jeanette Nunez, a Cuban-American lawmaker from Miami, as his running mate.
“This socialist-progressive ‘dream team of bad ideas’ has a total of zero legislative experience, and it shows,” Ingoglia said about Gillum and King.
by The News Service of Florida
Comments
5 Responses to “Gillum Picks King As Democratic Running Mate”
Gillum would be as bad, if not worse, then Jerry Brown in California. I agree with Mr. Stewart: “Progressive” is a marketing term to make their platform sounds more desirable. It is not. Progressive = leftist = socialist.
Here is what the last Eight years has got us, Don’t be Fooled.
State of Florida is covered in toxic algae, waterways and lake Okeechobee
is dying, Rick Scott abolished the state EPA and water management, Slashed funding and removed regulations for his corporate buddies.
Rick Scott please just go away. He Took the fifth amendment 75 times in a deposition in the largest Medicare Fraud case in history.
settled several million dollar law suits with our tax dollars for violating Florida Sunshine laws for open government, Google the firing of Gerald Bailey, former FDLE director
Total disgrace what he did to a man with a impeccable law enforcement career..Keeps all his assets hidden in a blind trust in his wife’s name.
Changed your automobile insurance, benefiting insurance companies so you only have 14 days after you have a accident. to file a medical claim, who does that benefit. Scott has already spent sixteen million on TV ads. Spent millions of our tax dollars building a sea wall around a golf course in south Florida.. Yet he vetoed most projects in our area. Scott has destroyed the department of health , department of corrections, remember when the tornadoes hit century , Scott was in Pensacola and would not even go to century to check on those folks. He privatized Silver Springs in Ocala Now looks like a dilapidated ghost
town. I was there. Tried to cut funding for in home care for disabled children and put them in senior nursing homes , thankfully a judge stepped in and stopped it. Rick Scott and his wife attend a special Olympics for disabled children and
the same day ,he goes back to his office and signs legislation cutting funding to disabled children, What kind of a man would do such a thing. need I say more. Please Vote.
Stop talking about labels……Nobody cares. I want clean air, and water in the State of Florida. I am tired of special interests and impotency in government. How about this unique idea for a label………efficient government which actually cleans up the poison killing our wildlife. Tourism in Florida depends on a pristine environment, can we at least agree to clean this state up, and not watch animals smothered in our collective sins.
Isaiah 24:4-6
“The earth dries up and withers, the world languishes and withers, the exalted of the earth languish. The earth is defiled by its people; they have disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes and broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore a curse consumes the earth; its people must bear their guilt. Therefore earth’s inhabitants are burned up, and very few are left.” (NIV)
Pay attention to our environment and forget the labels.
The Democratic primary contained seven candidates. The billionaire, Chris King, spent $5.5 million dollars of his own money and finished fifth, receiving a mere 2.48% (37,616) of the vote. Heck of a choice by Gillum —- NOT!
Regardless, Gillum and King have a lot in common. They were viewed as the two most liberal candidates in the Governor’s race. They campaigned on raising taxes. Gillum wants to increase the Corporate tax rate, but anyone with a business sense know that Corporate taxes are paid by consumers via higher prices on good and services. King wants to create a new tax on “bullets”.
They both like giving things away for free. Free college tuition and expanding the Medicaid rolls to allow more people “free health care”. Apparently neither candidate realizes that nothing in life is free. Somebody has to pay the tab. When it’s the government giving away “free services” the tab is being paid for by taxpayers.
Both ideas sound great if you are the one receiving the “free” goodies. However, this taxpayer believes in a smaller, leaner government. I also believe charity begins at home. People should be “earning” their own way, and not reaching into my pocket to pay for their “wants”.
Both support eliminating “ICE” – not the stuff in your freezer, but the Law Enforcement arm that addresses “ILLEGAL Immigration”.
Gillum, likes to thank all the folks who donate the “little dollars” that fund his campaign, but he doesn’t often mention the big donors like George Soros and Tom Steyer. Both Soros and Styers openly push for “OPEN BORDERS” and frequently contributes millions of dollars to campaigns seeking to elect minions who will push the same agenda. Soros is not a friend of the American public.
Florida does not need Andrew Gillum as its next Governor.
Don’t be fooled by the Progressive title. They are Socialists. Vote Republican!