Gary Yordon

Democrat contributor

Dear Andrew,

Congratulations on your stunning victory. Over the next few weeks there will be many people shaking your hand and telling you they voted for you. Many of them actually did – and some will just want you to think they did. That’s the nature of a bandwagon.

I didn’t vote for you, Andrew. I voted for Gwen Graham. It wasn’t because I had an issue with you. I voted for Gwen because I believed she gave us the best chance to take back the governor’s mansion.

All the issues you passionately embrace ring true for me. But my concern was who stood the best chance to keep Ron DeSantis from moving his Trump sofa into the big house on Adams Street.

The archaic concept that, because you support one candidate, it means you have a problem with their opponent is absurd. I believe deeply in the issues you’ve embraced. I think public dollars should go to public schools. I believe health care is a right, not a privilege. I know helping less fortunate people is a strength, not a weakness. I believe our immigration policy is a national disgrace. Your bold stance on these issues wasn’t the problem.

It wasn’t you, Andrew. It was me.

Sunshine State Shocker:

In my 25 years as a political consultant, I’ve worked with a couple of hundred campaigns. I’ve learned momentum is a very real thing. In the natural ebb and and flow of a campaign, remarkable things can happen when momentum occurs just at the right moment.

The timing of your bus tour was impeccable. You struck just the right chord at just the right time. Coupled with the millions spent by Jeff Greene against Gwen, the perfect political storm was created.

In the long history of Florida politics, there may have been more pivotal moments that were never part of a plan. But I’d be hard pressed to find a political plan that was more perfectly executed than your trip around the state. It was so much more than a bus tour; it was an exquisite statewide group hug.

You and I have known each other for a long time. I shot your first campaign commercial in shadow of City Hall. I voted for you every other time you ran. And now you are my champion. Maybe I didn’t choose you, but you have been chosen.

I believe DeSantis, a minion of divisiveness, is precisely who Florida doesn’t need. A man who thought it was clever to show himself teaching his young daughter how to build a wall. A disciple of all that is broken in our country.

I’m hopeful you will reject the arrogance of victory. Tell those closest to you to reflect on the lesson Bernie Sanders gave us when he stood by your side despite your support of his opponent in his last campaign.

Do that, because for the significance of your stunning victory to resonate throughout Florida, an extraordinary helping of humble should be your guiding light. A blessing isn’t less of a blessing because it was derived from hard work.

And now, with all the rights of an admitted Johnny-come-lately, I selfishly want you to be there for me, despite my not being there for you.

So if you wouldn’t mind cracking open that bus door, I’d sure like to grab a seat.

Gary Yordon is a host of the political WCTV program “The Usual Suspects” and president of The Zachary Group. Contact him at gary@zprgroup.com.