Key West welcomes Gillum at a ‘blue wave’ rally on the beach

Five days before Election Day, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum traveled all the way to Key West, where he was welcomed in a city that turned blue while the rest of the county went red in the 2016 election.

He gave his standard stump speech at a beachside rally on Thursday. Part of that was characterizing his Republican opponent, Ron DeSantis, as not presenting a vision for Florida.

“He can’t get my name out of his mouth quick enough to talk about what it is he wants to do for the people of Florida,” Gillum told several hundred people gathered for a rally on Higgs Beach at the Salute! on the Beach restaurant.

DeSantis, who has the support of President Donald Trump, is Trump’s “acolyte,” Gillum said.

“They were just together last night on Halloween, and boy, were the tricks in full effect,” Gillum told the crowd. “It is discomforting to put it mildly. This is the brand of politics they’re trying to usher in.”

In response, DeSantis’ communications director Stephen Lawson said, “We reject this premise completely. Ron DeSantis has spent the entire campaign laying out a positive vision for Florida. Andrew Gillum is desperately trying to deflect from his record of crime, corruption, and a career in politics that involves gifts from lobbyists and an ongoing FBI investigation.”

The Key West crowd, and many local elected leaders, cheered on Gillum.

“Are you ready for a blue wave in Florida?” City Commissioner Clayton Lopez asked the crowd, before Gillum took the stage..

Gillum said environmental peril is the result of the past 20 years of state policies favoring some of the biggest polluters.

“We can guarantee red tide will probably be back next year,” Gillum told reporters during a post-rally news conference. “That has to do with the fact that for 20 years, and certainly in this last eight years, we’ve seen the total degradation of environmental policies.”

Gillum added, “At least we’ll have a governor who believes in science.”

In his speech, Gillum brought up gun control, saying he knew it was unpopular to do so.

“You’re going to have a governor not afraid to stand up to the NRA,” he said. “Why can’t we honor what it means to have the Second Amendment and at the same time embrace common-sense gun laws?”

Gillum, who grew up in Richmond Heights in South Miami-Dade, also made note of his humble start.

“My mother was a school bus driver, my dad was a construction worker,” Gillum said. “I understand well what it means to have to have your parents argue over what bills to pay before something got cut off.”

Gillum said he has no problem asking Republican voters for their support.

He said he recently visited the very conservative community of The Villages and raised $6,000 without even asking for donations.

“At a place they told me I wasn’t supposed to go,” Gillum said. “The lesson is, we’ve got to go everywhere. At the end of the day, we’re all Floridians.”

This story was originally published November 1, 2018 at 12:38 PM.