Kyle Frost

Your Turn

Few people expected Mayor Andrew Gillum to come out of this year’s primary election with the Democratic nomination for governor. Polls consistently showed him in third or even fourth place. That was, until the last minute, when polls began to show a sudden surge for Gillum in response to the attack ads aimed at Gwen Graham.

Still, people dismissed it, pointing to the 2016 election polls that showed Hillary Clinton with an over 90 percent chance of winning the presidency.

Against all odds — including being overwhelmingly outspent – we now have our first black gubernatorial nominee from one of the two major parties.

As much momentum as Gillum has, however, facing the Republican nominee, Rep. Ron DeSantis, will be an uphill battle for the mayor. Florida has traditionally been a purple state in presidential election years but historically tends to skew red in the midterms. This issue of being a red midterm state, leading to 20 years of Republican governorship, is something the Democratic candidates continually brought to voters’ attention.

It's an ideological battle of Trump-endorsed DeSantis against Sanders-endorsed Gillum. How can Gillum win? I believe the answer is simple: choose Graham as his lieutenant governor.

The polarity of these gubernatorial candidates leaves the rest of us moderates without a solid choice. There are issues that both sides have good ideas for, and there are problems with which both sides have bad or no solutions.

Many who fall into this gray area of moderate politics voted for Adam Putnam or Graham, depending on their political leanings. I was born and raised Republican, but switched to no party affiliation after feeling abandoned by the extremists on each side.

But even with my right aisle upbringing, I would’ve supported a Graham candidacy. I’ve met Gillum on many occasions; my mother is a good friend of his and R. Jai’s (even though they differ greatly on politics). He is a great person, and I admire all he has accomplished so quickly. But he is far from moderate.

I also believe the Democrats have the numbers this year. They were only short a few hundred thousand from doubling the average primary turnout. The “blue wave” that has been talked about is real, and it showed up in Florida.

Now Gillum has to convince everyone who voted for the other Democratic candidates to vote for him, something that may be difficult. If he showed his willingness to work with someone less liberal than he is — and someone he often criticized — Gillum may easily be able to sweep not only Graham’s voters, but also undecided and no party affiliated moderates into his circle.

By choosing the other Tallahassee hometown hero as his running mate, “Gwendrew” might just be able to truly #BringItHome.

Kyle Frost is a former candidate for Leon County Commission, programmer at Capital Health Plan, member of Big Bend Cares Board of Directors and student of political science. Follow him on Twitter @KyleJFrost.