Gaggle Following February 13, 2018 Immigration Debate [PHOTO: Kevin Cate]

Debates are oxygen to campaigns.

While reporters cover them like nobody wins, in fact, everybody wins. Reporters get soundbites, supporters galvanize, and campaigns nail down message and tone.

For Andrew, debates couldn’t come soon enough. By the end of the year, he was spending more than he was raising, political knives were lodged in his chest, and the chattering class was sharing his political obituary.

But a debate came sooner than expected — in February 2018.

While the Democratic primary had turned into a Gwen Graham coronation, the Republican primary campaign had turned into a Donald Trump audition.

To get Trump’s attention, the Speaker of the Florida House Richard Corcoran ran a TV ad inaccurately portraying an “illegal immigrant” in a hoody shooting a young white woman.

It was a “sad attempt to be Florida’s most racist candidate.”

Andrew called it out as such, and Corcoran — at the height of his power as Speaker— flippantly challenged Andrew to a debate. And Andrew — at the depth of his political influence — called the Speaker’s bluff.

Following a behind the scenes dance by staff, the debate happened. The words didn’t matter, it was a win. But the words really mattered.

“I’m not standing here just for myself. In fact, I’m standing here for every single one of you, and anybody who has ever been told they don’t belong… I know well what it means to have heard where you don’t belong, where you shouldn’t go, what is and is not for you,” he said.

And then, sadly, foreshadowing the horrors of the next day, he said:

“The Speaker, if he was so sincere about his intent to make sure no life is lost unnecessarily, then I would ask him to stand up to the NRA and to the gun lobby.”