Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, a popular Democrat, enters 2018 Florida race for Governor

| 11:57 am EST March 1, 2017
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Just four days after the Democratic National Committee elected its new leadership on the national level, the Democratic Party continues to take steps forward in the upcoming midterm elections. Today the popular Mayor of Tallahassee, Andrew Gillum, entered the 2018 Florida race for Governor with an optimistic message. In so doing, the lifelong Democrat becomes the first serious candidate to enter the race from either party.

Mayor Gillum is just thirty-seven years old, but he has a long history of holding public office, having first been elected to the Tallahassee City Commission when he was twenty-three. He hails from Gainesville but he’s a longtime Tallahassee resident, having attended Florida A&M University. Gillum launched his campaign today with a press release in which he began by quoting advice given to him by his grandmother:

“My grandmother knew then what I know now — that if we were going to get anywhere, we would get there together. And that’s why I’m coming to you today, with a humble heart and a whole lot of hope, as we launch this campaign for Governor of Florida. Because I know that our only path to victory is one we’re willing to travel together.”

Gillum then goes on to explain why he’s a Democrat and why he embraces social programs for lifting up the American people:

“Like so many of you, I am here today because of the very policies Republicans say are ‘destroying’ our great state of Florida. I grew up on food stamps in Miami and Gainesville. My parents weren’t college educated, but they both worked hard: my mother as a bus driver and my father as a construction worker. As Governor, I will work to create jobs that pay a living wage on every rung of the income ladder.”

It’s unlikely that Andrew Gillum will be the only Democrat to enter the Florida race for Governor. The current Republican incumbent Rick Scott is thoroughly unpopular, which may give the Democrats a leg up in the race, which in turn may attract more Democratic candidates. Scott himself is term-limited and can’t run again, and the Republican field to succeed him has yet to seriously materialize. The 2018 election is still twenty months away. But the launch of Gillum’s campaign is a reminder that the midterms are already in the early stages of being underway.

Watch Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum’s campaign kickoff video for the 2018 Florida Governor race: