There are so many interesting and terrible congressional and gubernatorial races happening around the country, but I don’t have the time or the inclination to cover everything. I’ve been low-key watching the Florida governor’s race though, because it is insane, even for “Peak Florida” standards. The governor’s race is between far-right-wing Republican Ron DeSantis and African-American Democrat Andrew Gillum. I’ve actually written about this race before – as soon as Mayor Gillum won the party’s nomination in the Florida primary, DeSantis went on Fox News and told Floridians to “not monkey this up” by voting for Gillum. He literally couldn’t wait 24 hours before calling an African-American Democrat a “monkey.”
Well, the race has been hands-down crazy. Just this week, a racist robocall has been making the rounds in Florida – the call was apparently made and funded by a white supremacist group that is openly pro-DeSantis. This was actually the SECOND racist robocall of the election cycle. Well, DeSantis and Gillum had a debate last night, and the Florida media outlets are calling it a “cage match” or something resembling a WWE match. Gillum hasn’t pulled any punches. He slammed DeSantis, saying in part: “My opponent as soon as he won the Republican nomination for governor went on Fox News and said to voters here in the state of Florida not to monkey this state up by electing me. It was followed up that same week by neo-Nazis making calls into the state of Florida to attack my character, jungle music in the background, and the calls of monkeys being heard.” And here’s the clip that went viral:
As my grandmother used to say — a hit dog will holler. pic.twitter.com/kC34Ldd0is
— Andrew Gillum (@AndrewGillum) October 25, 2018
FIRE. Florida Fire.
It should be said that Gillum isn’t squeaky clean and of course there are some corruption issues (again, it’s Florida!). But here’s the thing, Floridians: Ron DeSantis cannot win. He will drag Florida into the f–king Dark Ages. A vote for DeSantis is a vote for racist robocalls, open white supremacy and Trumpism.
Photos courtesy of Getty.
“I’m not saying he’s racist, but racists think he’s racist”
Such a simple sentence implying so much. Ima use this in the future
That was my reaction. That pretty much shuts down any arguments.
I like Gillem a lot. Is he perfect? No. But I thought he did great debating his opponent. De Santis is so awful, on every f*cking level. But saying a Republican is “awful” is just redundant at this stage. The only one that could have been seen as decent was McCain and now he’s gone. Not a good apple left in the bunch.
As much as republicans would like us to believe Gillum is the target of an FBI corruption investigation, he is not.
I find it hilarious that DeSantis is clutching his pearls over the Hamilton tickets while swearing fealty to Donald Trump.
That said, the only thing I’d watch out for with Gillum is the bit behind the Hamilton tickets – e.g., how The Edison was created and opened in Tallahassee (my former town, where my brother still lives). I think Gillum can likely weather it, but that’s the issue that will plague him.
Oh, so if the FBI targets a Democrat (not that they are) suddenly it’s a legit agency?
I can’t with the right wing propaganda anymore. This is why the Dems lost. The GOP are masters at bulls%^t and too many Americans buy it. I’m not saying we need to start spending lies and conspiracies…but I don’t know what can be done to combat their relentless and sadly all too effective lies.
DeSantis is THE most deplorable of the deplorables, imo. He is scum.
But WHY do so many Americans buy it? Why why why? They aren’t “master” bullsh*tters, they just bullsh*t A LOT. Is it as simple as liking some of their message, so embracing the entire message? Why can some people detect obvious bullsh*t and others not? This is the part I don’t understand, that has been infuriating me since Trump won in the primaries. Wtf is happening?
I’m voting for Gillum. I’d sooner rip out my own nails with a rusty clipper than vote for Ron “I love Trump.”
On NPR yesterday morning they were interviewing some Republican strategist person and the reporter said that the Democrat candidate was in the lead so far and dude goes “no it’s a really close race. He’s not in the lead.”
The reporter said “so you are saying that our information is wrong and yours is correct?” “I just think it’s a really close race.”
Read Gillum was ahead by 5 or 6 points. Close but not “really” close. Maybe a way of rallying the deplorables to get out and vote for De Santis.
This surprises me because NPR has bent over backwards to keep neutral to the point of allowing people to make ludicrous statements and not contradicting them with the truth. I have lost faith in NPR reporting.
Me too. I’m tired of them treating outright lies like a valid alternate point of view.
The media is so invested in not appearing biased and we’re all going to die because of it. In general, yes, the media should be impartial, but allowing liars air space to lie is not being impartial, it’s being complicit.
I don’t listen to NPR anymore either for that reason.
Yup! My BF and I are the same. It’s so freaking sad because we both used to LOVE NPR.
Even just using the term “falsehood.” The word is LIE. LIE is the word you are looking for!!!!!
I often have to turn off NPR, for putting on absolutely unqualified pundits just for purported “balance.” It makes me angry and sad, because I’ve relied on their reporting for decades. I do still like shows like “The World” and “Fresh Air” and the like.
Same for me for Morning Edition and whatever their afternoon general news show is. Some of their correspondents are still great (I will love Nina Totenberg forever and ever), but I just can’t do it. Like adastraperaspera, I still listen to some other NPR programming (and Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me makes fun of Trump mercilessly), but it’s like NPR is desperately worried about their funding and thinks that somehow the portion of it that comes from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting won’t get mercilessly slashed by Republicans if they do a little ring-kissing. Joke’s on them, because Republicans want to kill public broadcasting stone dead if they can ever get all their desired cuts through the appropriations process. NPR should focus on accurate reporting and keeping small-dollar donors passionate and willing to stump up.
I was also pleasantly surprised that the reporter shot back at him.
I’m pretty sure they brought in self identified white supremacists in to provide a counterpoint to a Black Lives Matter activist. That’s how I knew NPR wasn’t for me.
The level of anxiety I have that people in this country Still Don’t Get It is so high right now going into November. I honestly don’t know what I’m going to do if we lose in November.
I have teased before about asking my doctor for Xanax, but if we lose I will be begging for it.
I’m thinking I need fluoxetine, and have since the election.
On twitter the other day, I saw someone posting about voting third party and I screamed a little bit. Like HOW FO YOU NOT GET EHAT IS AT STAKE HERE!
If someone says “they are the same” I don’t listen to it anymore and tell them they are full BS and lies. I’m not tolerating that type of stupidity in my presence and not playing nice with my words with them. Not having a conversation with them. They deserve to be tongued lashed without mercy. They are IMO worse than Trumpers.
I took my sons with me yesterday to vote in TN. There was a Bredesen sign in front of my car, where I parked. My 11-year-old son said “Mommy, a man just walked by and spit on that Bredesen sign. Why did he do that?” He was horrified at this piece of trash acting so hateful and deranged. I explained that people like this man are what’s wrong with this country and why we must vote. And I voted blue down the ticket, with my son’s watching and asking thoughtful questions throughout the process. Then I loudly told them, as we were leaving, in front of all the elderly people there (sorry, no offense, but this state is red and older people here vote red), that when they turn 18, they WILL vote no matter what, at every election.
JFC these people are just beyond vile SMDH.
I volunteer to make calls at my local Dem HQ, and I can’t tell you the vile language and racist things some of these older RepubliTHUGS say before slamming down the phone on me. It is truly shocking! There is NO civility anymore, let alone manners in those people!
I live in Nashville, and in previous elections have had my yard signs knocked down. I also had a smoothie thrown on my Obama bumper sticker after a hockey game. Sorry your son had to see someone behave so badly. But how great is it that so many of us Dems are turning out to vote in Tennessee! Good on you!
and then they clutch their pearls when DeNiro says “F*ck Trump”.
the hypocrisy astounds. whenever I hear a GOPer say “what ever happened to CIVILITY?!” I say “you first”.
Trashy people with bad manners.
@ AD we live in Chattanooga. My husband had Obama stickers on his car, and people kept removing them. Removing someone else’s property from privately owned property. He kept ordering more (yes, he paid for them, they weren’t free) and people kept taking them off of his car. This is the mentality that we are up against.
@Juls. I also voted in TN on Saturday and there were 30 Blackburn signs and ONE Bredesen sign. I really tried to think about who I was voting for and it ended up being straight Democrat.
I took my 2 year old and they gave him a “vote 901” rock. I wonder if they would have taken it away if they knew how I voted!
White people get it. As in, the majority of white voters will vote for white interests over anything else. End of story. BIPOC voters have shown time and again that we will vote to protect rights across the board but the simple fact is that the majority of white voters, regardless of the excuses made by neo-liberals or how they try to explain it away, will consistently vote white supremacy first. That is what this country is founded on and until BIPOC are truly an overwhelming majority with the access to vote and have our votes counted, this country will stay white supremacist and will continue to move into the dark ages. Obama was simply too much for them; the clock had to be reversed even if it means, for white women, voting against their own self-interest. America’s gonna America. It’s what it does.
Hasn’t Gillum actually outlined detailed policy, information and initiatives about how he would govern, but De Santis hasn’t come up with anything other than vote for me cause I’m a Trump supporter? I just pray Gillum can get enough people to the polls to win.
The scarier thing is that GOP pundits in Florida are spreading this false story that Gillum will create a state income tax in Florida.
Fun fact: he can’t do that without amending the state constitution, and #FLLeg is super conservative.
what the actual hell? America, I am scared for the midterms. I am terrified for you, for us up in Canada, for the world.
@OriginalLaLa,
I live in Canada, in Hamilton, Ontario and we had our municipal election on Monday. One of the mayoral candidates was a white supremacist/Holocaust denier. When 9/11 happened my doctor’s temple was bombed because racists conflated Islam with Sikhism.
I’m sure that you are already aware of this but make no mistake, what happens in the U.S. has a ripple effect on what happens in Canada. The racists are emboldened on both sides of the border.
yes, this is why Im terrified. We are already seeing the consequences up here. In Qc we (I did NOT vote for them) just elected a right wing provincial gov’t which ran a campaign based on Islamophobia and hatred of immigrants. I’m furious and angry that my own family members supported this party, even though we are immigrants ourselves. Outside of my parents and brother, I don’t associate with the rest of my family anymore because of the increasingly racist rhetoric they spew.
Andrew Scheer and the Cons are taking up Trump style talking points. We are also in for a rough ride up here. We have to prepare to fight it with all we have.
yep…its happening everywhere. Look at Brazil right now. It is a worldwide rise of the right. Much like pre-WW2.
@isabelle You’re absolutely right. Worldwide rise of the right. I feel so overwhelmed right now…I want to leave the U.S. but I am scared of where I can go…I guess back to a majority Black country, at least, that would be of comfort which I experienced growing up…
I live in the Middle East and every time my phone beeps with a news alert, I get a little twinge of fear that The Orange Fascist, a person that I have never and can never (and would never) vote for, has started a war with one of our neighboring countries – which would undoubtedly spill over into here.
The wide reaching effects that a bunch of uneducated rednecks and white supremacists can have is truly horrifying.
DeSantis lives in my county which is really red, but strangely, I have only seen one sign for him.
This sign is located in an area along a major road to the barrier island where I live, and just one day before had oh, 5 or 6 Gillum signs along it, which are now gone. Gillum signs were everywhere but as early voting started yesterday they are disappearing. Resist stickers are and have been seen on many cars and that gives me hope. The red voters around here are not displaying their beliefs for once, are they scared or just ignorant? I know so many people that do not pay any attention to what is happening in politics since election 2016 and more than likely have no idea the bomb scares are happening, among many other things they have no idea is going on, its frankly quite frightening.
I voted last week via absentee ballot, voted straight blue and took that ballot in my hot little hands and hand delivered it to the county elections office and watched them stamp it as received. I wasnt taking any chances.
In the meantime, the longest two weeks ever, I am scared shitless for our once great country. Ughh.
Gillum has mad debate skills. I love watching him. I don’t know anything about corruption, I saw the times tweet something about a Hamilton ticket, and I tweeted back , is this an effing joke??
I mean, these are the trump years people. You better bring me something if you want me to take a look, and even then, FOR MY OWN PHYSICAL SAFETY, I will vote for the democrat.
Because the other side wants me and my friends dead.
Most of the negative I have read is about the Hamilton ticket. So petty when so much more has happened with Trump and his minions and are still happening.
What is being said? I had only read about the Hamilton tickets as well
If there was ever a man that wanted to call another man the N-word with the hard “ER” on national tv, it was DeSantis during that debate.
Already had my ballot marked for Gillum. Alas, my sister & I are just canceling out our parents, but still.
At least you cancelled those two out. That’s something.
And to think that just a century ago anyone with the last name DeSantis would not have been considered white…
I am considering sending money to Democratic candidates who are currently running even though I am in Canada and am not working right now… this political climate is ridiculous. I was going to state unbelievable but it’s not, it’s just a heightened version of what existed before.
I live in Florida and voted Dems all down the line. This is my first time voting for the midterms. My fiancé will be doing the same.
Voted in Georgia already, all blue. Come on Abrams and Gillum!!
My first chance to vote in Florida and I get to vote for this wonderful human. He is a true Christian and he teaches his children to walk in the foot steps of Jesus Christ, not some lying, scheming, cheating carpetbagger from New York. For those not in Florida, the political ad shows DeSantis reading the Trump book to his little boy. So f%$!kin sad!
The Republicans are pulling every dirty trick possible in their ads. The FBI is looking into problems in Tallahassee and Gillum has cooperated fully in the investigation. He is part of the solution, not the problem.
DeSantis had a horrible record in Congress. I can’t believe that the people who put him in office think he has done a good job for the economy, health care, the environment, gun safety etc.
70% of the people of this country want Medicare for all. Only the Democrats are talking about doing this!
Remember the good words of Nelson Mandela: It always seems impossible until it’s done.
Get three friends to vote!
Another good quote to remember: “The Difficult We Do Immediately. The Impossible Takes a Little Longer”
~~Charles Alexandre de Calonne
We are now in the difficult phase. We WILL overcome! I was so depressed earlier this morning, but after reading all the comments by everyone here, I HAVE to believe this!
I’m in New York, but the 3 races I’ll be watching most closely, while nervously drinking G&Ts, on election night is this one in FL, Abrams / Kemp in GA and of course Beto / Cruz in Texas. If the dems can win those 3 I will start to feel maybe… just maybe things can change and there is some chance for the country to turn around from the edge of the cliff it’s currently hanging on to.
Good idea G&T. Those three races are very important. If Stacey and Andrew win I will drink two!
Being a Texan I can’t tell you how much I want Beto to win. On the night of the election we are giving a margarita party with some friends. We are hoping it will be a celebration, and if those three win we’ll go all night!
I’m watching your three, a too-close-to call race (which shouldn’t be) for a House seat in my own district, plus Wisconsin governor. I want to toast Scott Walker’s political demise.
I’m in Mass but yeah, same.
I’m also watching Steve King’s opponent J.D. Scholten in IA. I know it’s a longshot but I would LOVE to see that racist POS unseated. Also, my BF is from Iowa and I want better representation for his family.
I’m in Louisiana, so I have literally nothing to celebrate other than the possibility of forcing the state to apply a unanimous jury standard to felony cases (we are currently one of two states to not require a unanimous jury verdict).
Honestly I can’t watch returns on the 6th. It is ike waiting for your boyfriend to maybe or maybe not dump you. My nerves won’t be able to handle it.
I just listened to the Pod Save America episode where they interviewed Andrew Gillum, and I loved what he had to say about candidates being authentic and going out in their communities to meet and talk to voters, even those who probably won’t agree with their policies. He said something to the effect of “I can’t be a great version of someone else, I can only be the best version of myself.” I love that message, and I think Dem candidates should take it to heart. Authenticity is important in the era of Individual 1.
Finally! A Democrat who isn’t afraid to come out swinging when he’s dealing with a lying sack of crap.
I live in FL, me and my mom are both registered Democrats. I voted for Gillum and Nelson and she went with DeSantis and Nelson because of the Hamilton tickets debacle. I honestly wish I could change my vote for DeSantis, I don’t agree with 100% but the Hamilton tickets really didnt sit right with me. Also at the ned of the day I am terrified my taxes will be raised. The best thing about FL is the low taxes.
So you’re alright with DeSantis racist remarks & the racist robocalls in support of him? Do you understand that your vote endorses that behaviour? Is that how you wish to be represented? From what I understand Gillums is assisting in the FBI investigation in whatever way asked & the scandal is being blown out of proportion to the facts currently available.
I understand liking low taxes but taxes are how the state & local governments support the services you & your mother enjoy. Unless you are one of the wealthy individuals or businesses who made out like bandits thanks to the republican tax bill you & your family will see your federal taxes rise &’your federal services decrease so you can pay for that bill. If you or members of your family rely on medicare or social security I hope you watch closely because the republican run government is trying to eliminate as much of that as possible to fill the 3+ trillion dollar budget hole they have created in their not even two years of governing.
That purposeful scandal pales vs some brouhaha about tickets. Your great grandchildren will be paying down that deficit & probably their kids.
You wish you had voted for a white supremacist because of tickets to a play?
Well butter my ass and call me a biscuit!
Taxes? Seriously?? My husband makes a very good living working for a major aerospace defense contractor. They just got a new contract to sell and service weapons to Saudis Arabia. Voting republican would always butter my bread. I have never voted republican in my life. And I never will.
so you and your mother are both trumpers, got it. thanks for sharing.
Gillum’s policy proposal is to raise the corporate tax. That’s HIGHLY unlikely to impact your homestead exemption or property taxes.
And he cannot create a state income tax. That’s a fear tactic spread by DeSantis.
There’s even a measure on the ballot limiting homestead tax increases. For crying out loud. Stop believing the lies, and that’s all the GOP does these days, lie and praise White Rich Jesus (not to be confused with the Arab empath of the bible).
True to all of that. But he’s not just raising the corporate tax rate. He wants to raise it by a whopping 40 percent. That is concerning and I’ve read many articles on this to be educated on the ramifications from such a jump. I’m not fully on board. I’m on board with what he wants to do with that money, though. But I am supporting him and voting for him. DeSantis is a horror show. It’s like a mini version of the Trump election. That’s how bad he is.
I hear you, Jayna. But remember – anything he does will be an uphill battle given how conservative the Florida legislature is. It’s unlikely he’d ever be able to raise corporate taxes beyond an incremental amount.
@Jayna no candidate is perfect and no candidate will ever be able to do everything they say they’ll do. And as already mentioned, Gillum will face huge obstacles every moment of his tenure if he wins. The old racist white folks don’t want him “monkeying things up.”
Barbara, please educate yourself on their actual platforms and not attack ads on TV. Gillum took a free ticket to Hamilton but DeSantis is far worse. The outgoing governor defrauded Medicare and Tricare and Desantis toes that party line. Open your eyes.
Oh my Hamilton. WTF? Have Americans lost ability to not equate reality with actual facts then weigh the two? It is really not that hard.
Please do not lump all Americans. Black Women in particular have been trying to save this stupid fucking country that primarily tries to kill us in every possible way and that is not an exaggeration. *White* Americans. That is the word you’re looking for. They consistently vote for white supremacy. It’s in the DNA of this nation.
I told my 22 year old son that this is the time to vote blue to get the horrible old republican men out of office.
Once we get it back to normal again he will have the luxury to vote for his unicorns.
He agreed with me.