By Lee Williams
SAF Investigative Journalism Project
At one point, former Tallahassee mayor and gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum was known nationally as a staunch anti-gunner and a rising star of the Democratic party, in a state where guns and gun rights are a massive part of our culture.
Gillum lost his 2018 gubernatorial bid to Florida’s current governor, Ron DeSantis, by only 0.4% of the vote. It was one of the closest races in history.
Gillum was arrested last week in Alabama by officers of the Daphne Police Department, who stopped him for erratic driving, noticed a glass narcotics pipe sitting on the car’s center console and conducted a search. They allegedly found marijuana, three packages of what later tested positive for methamphetamine and the glass pipe.
He was arrested, booked, jailed and released the next day. Gillum faces up to five years in an Alabama state prison for the charges.
This is not the first time that the married, 46-year-old father of three has been caught with methamphetamine.
In 2020, he was found naked and passed out in a Miami motel room. Another naked man who had also overdosed on meth was found in the same room. Small baggies, pipes and piles of crystal meth were scattered everywhere, but Gillum denied using any illegal drugs. He agreed to seek treatment—for alcoholism—and no charges were filed.
In 2022, Gillum was arrested and charged with public corruption, but even though three other officials were convicted, charges against Gillum were later dropped due to a hung jury.
Anti-gun history
During the 2018 gubernatorial race against DeSantis, Gillum made guns and gun rights some of his key points. He blasted the National Rifle Association and promised to ban “assault weapons,” standard-capacity magazines and bump stocks. He also promised to implement universal background checks—in Florida.
The NRA gave Gillum an “F” rating, while some locals said he should have received an F-minus. DeSantis received an “A” grade.
In 2017, Gillum wrote an editorial titled: “We beat the NRA and you can, too.” His column bashed Florida’s powerful preemption statute, which preempts local governments from regulating arms and ammunition. Any public official who violates the statute faces fines of up to $5,000.
“The gun lobby, like many special interests, supports something called preemption, where they spend lots of money on state lawmakers to circumvent and strip power from local government. These preemption laws can end up allowing fracking in your neighborhood, guns in public parks, discrimination, dirty water, and many other harmful developments,” Gillum wrote. “We didn’t back down at the threat of personal fines, two years of litigation, and an onslaught of attacks from right-wing, well-funded interest groups. We found great lawyers, great partners, and made an example of the NRA and their affiliates. We also founded LINK REMOVED.” (NOTE: Gillum’s link now takes readers to a Mexican gambling website.)
DeSantis, of course, opposed additional gun control, defining “gun violence” as “identifying the problem people rather than imposing blanket bans of the rights of law-abiding citizens.”
Gillum’s staunch anti-gun statements drew praise from the country’s anti-gun community.
“The choice is clear! Urge your family and friends to Vote for Gillum! The effects from Florida’s ‘Stand your Ground’ Law have been devastating!” wrote the Women’s National Democratic Club.
Everytown for Gun Safety spent $2 million supporting Gillum’s run for governor.
“In Florida, this election is about gun safety — not political partisanship,” John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety said in a 2018 press release. “The era of the NRA calling the shots is over.”
Neither the Women’s National Democratic Club nor Everytown for Gun Safety have issued a statement regarding Gillum’s latest arrest.
Takeaways
In 2018, had Gillum somehow managed to obtain a few thousand more voters, Florida would be a massively different place.
Gov. DeSantis and his team strongly support the Second Amendment, which Gillum would have desecrated.
Nowadays, Gillum co-hosts a podcast titled: “Native Land Pod.” Last year, the podcast received an NAACP Image Award.
It is not yet known whether Gillum’s current legal predicament will affect his podcasting.
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