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Andrew Gillum Has A Plan To Mobilize Florida Voters For The 2020 Election

Andrew Gillum Has A Plan To Mobilize Florida Voters For The 2020 Election

Former Florida Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum speaks during a rally, Wednesday, March 20, 2019, in Miami Gardens, Fla. The Florida Democratic Party plans to step up efforts to register voters in hopes of making the swing state go blue in the 2020 presidential race. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

When he ran for governor, Andrew Gillum got 4 million votes. Now he’s launched a campaign, but it’s not for president. It’s for Florida voter registrations.

Gillum has launched a voter registration campaign in Florida, the country’s largest swing state, to try and defeat President Donald Trump in the 2020 MAGA bid for re-election.

Gillum has named his voter registration campaign Bring it Home Florida, the signature slogan in his 2018 campaign for Florida governor. The former Tallahassee mayor lost to now-Gov. Ron DeSantis by 0.41 percentage points.

Rather than run for president himself, Gillum said he’ll be focusing on increasing the number of voters in the state. Thanks to the passage of
Florida’s Amendment 4, 1.4 million people with felony convictions had their voting rights restored as of Jan. 8.

Without Florida, Trump’s path to victory narrows significantly, Politico reported. Trump needs the state’s 29 electoral college votes (out of 270) to win.

Listen to GHOGH with Jamarlin Martin | Episode 20: Andrew Gillum Jamarlin talks to Andrew Gillum, mayor of Tallahassee and leading Democratic candidate for Florida governor. They discuss the DNC taking the Black vote for granted, its silence on the killing of 60 Palestinian protestors, and whether big tech and Silicon Valley elites can be regulated at the state level.

The Florida Democratic Party plans to spend $2 million in the next year to register 200,000 voters ahead of the 2020 presidential primary, Politico reported. The party has not dedicated enough resources to registering voters in recent years, according to Florida Democratic Party Chairwoman Terrie Rizzo. There are 4.96 million registered Democrats, 4.7 million Republicans and 3.6 million unaffiliated voters in the state. Florida party officials say they plan to partner with data science firms and hire dozens of full-time organizers as part of the new $2-million effort.

Gillum was one of three 2018 Democrats who lost statewide races and then were considered potential presidential candidates. Stacey Abrams lost the Georgia governor’s race by 2 points. She’s still deciding on the 2020 race and promoting a new voting rights group, Fair Fight Action. In Texas, Beto O’Rourke lost to Sen. Ted Cruz by less than three points. Beto’s running.

New York Times political reporter Astead W. Herndon asked Gillum why
the two Black gubernatorial candidates are working in grass-roots organizations while the white candidate is running for president.

“Listen, man, we’re used to working,” Gillum responded.