The Daily - An Unexpected Upset in Florida

Episode Date: August 30, 2018

The Florida governor’s race was supposed to come down to a predictable face-off between the establishment Republican and the establishment Democrat. That’s not what happened. Guest: Patricia Mazzei, Miami bureau chief for The New York Times. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

From The New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. Today, in Florida, the governor's race was supposed to come down to a predictable face-off between the establishment Republican and the establishment Democrat. That's not what happened. It's Thursday, August 30th. Patty, heading into this primary election on Wednesday night, give us a sense of the state of politics in Florida.

Florida is the biggest battleground state in the country, the largest swing state. And it's voted purple in presidential elections for years. It voted twice for George W. Bush. It voted twice for Barack Obama. And then it voted in 2016 for Donald Trump. Patty Mazzei covers Florida for The Times. But in midterm elections, Florida behaves differently. It behaves usually like a red state. The recent midterm elections have been won by Republicans up and down the ballot, governor, state senate, state house. And so the electorate that comes out is usually conservative. So what's the question that's being answered in these primaries on Tuesday. What exactly is being tested? The question for Florida Democrats is how to win in a state where Republicans have held the governor's seat for 20 years. Do they try to go for the center or do they try to move to the left? Because they've tried the center and it has not been working for them. What do you mean? The last two midterm

elections in Florida, Democrats ran middle-of-the-road centrists, including a former Republican, and both times they lost by less than one percentage point, but they still lost. So going into this year's Democratic primary for Florida governor, which Democrat was in the lead? Our state faces great challenges in the future, and it's going to take someone who's committed to working through those tough challenges and finding the solutions. The frontrunner is Gwen Graham, a former congresswoman from Tallahassee. And so I'm running because I know I'm the candidate that can work together with the legislature and find a right path forward in areas such as public education. She is campaigning as someone who can get things done because she can

work with both sides of the aisle while still upholding democratic principles. So it's a two-part. You've got to be someone who can be thoughtful and planning and thinking about what are the solutions that we need moving forward. But Graham finds herself in a five-way primary where things start getting a little complicated. Gwen Graham promises to protect our environment from developers, but now she's facing tough questions over her family's ties to a multi-billion dollar mega mall. How complicated. You have two self-funding candidates, Philip Levine and Jeff Green, going after each other and against Graham in TV ads. Every environmental group is dead set against Graham's mall. You will personally financially benefit from this project.

And that brings her numbers down. But going into election night, she was still the favorite to win. So what happens? Things don't go quite as planned. Hi, everyone. I'm Elaine Quijano. Welcome to CBSN's special election night coverage of the Florida and Arizona... I am in Gwen Graham's election night party in Orlando where there is a lot of press because she looks like the person who is going to win this close primary race.

Gwen Graham was considered the favorite, but Andrew Gillum is exceeding expectations. How surprising is that to you? Instead, look, Andrew Gillum is more than exceeding expectations. to you. Instead... Look, Andrew Gillum is more than exceeding expectations. Latest numbers I saw before I got wired up, he's winning. Close to eight o'clock... He's ahead right now. The race starts tightening with Graham and the mayor of Tallahassee, Andrew Gillum. They were all running attack ads against each other, but nobody was taking a punch at Andrew Gillum. Who in some polls had been in third or fourth place. And suddenly. We're not calling that race for him yet, but he's ahead right now by a substantial margin. Gillum is now in first place.

Wow. And the woman next to me goes, oh my God. This could be one of the biggest stories in the country tonight is Andrew Gillum, an African-American who is not a millionaire. Every other candidate on the Democratic side was. He even had a billionaire. And people start looking at their phones and refreshing hysterically. And he would not lose the lead again. The Senate projects Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum will win the Democratic nomination for governor of Florida, taking another step toward becoming the state's first Black chief executive.

So the mood at Graham's party turns from disbelief to an acknowledgement that a lot of these Graham voters like Gillum, too. They're excited by him. They are just not sure if he can win. Hmm. And they're excited by him. They are just not sure if he can win. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Andrew Gillum, mayor of Tallahassee, Florida. So who is Gillum? Hello, my fellow Democrats.

Andrew Gillum is the mayor of Tallahassee. He's 39 years old. And hello, my fellow Floridians. He has been considered a rising star in the Florida Democratic Party, which doesn't have many rising stars. And he has spoken at a couple of Democratic national conventions. Hillary Clinton has shown us her heart, her strength, her passion for this country's future. And even acted as a surrogate for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign in 2016. The list of candidates for Florida's next governor is growing. Our time is now. That's why I'm a candidate to be Florida's next governor. So during the campaign... We believe that health care ought to be a right and not a privilege,

which is why we're from Medicare for All. Gillum backed progressive policies like providing Medicare for All. If you believe like me that people ought to earn a $15 minimum wage in this state, that you ought to be for me. Like impeaching President Trump. Like abolishing ICE. We should not become a show-me-your-papers state. That's what we believe in this state. So he really did stand out for being progressive and liberal. Yeah, he said Governor Rick Scott, a Republican, should declare a state of emergency over Stand Your Ground,

the controversial self-defense law, after an unarmed black man was killed by a white man near Tampa. Wow. These are not the typical planks of Florida Democrats who are looking to appeal to an electorate that in midterm years votes red. The progressive movement in this state is going to show up like we have never shown up before. And we're going to flip this state blue in 2018. And what about his personality and his kind of political style? What's that like? Well, he is the son of a school bus driver and a construction worker whose personal biography is central to his campaign.

My mother and father are the best examples of hard work that I know to this day. They are. He is charismatic and gregarious and likes to tell his narrative. In fact, when my daddy didn't have construction work to do, you would find him on a street corner selling fruits or vegetables. On Saturday mornings, he would set up his truck across the street from the cemetery and sell flowers to bereaved families. Being the first person in his family to graduate high school and go to college and having three older brothers who have criminal records. And he's just very open about the fact that, as he says, he was the only person running who was not a millionaire or a billionaire.

I am the fifth of seven kids to my mother and father and the first to graduate from high school and the first to graduate from college. You can't tell us we don't know what it means to see intergenerational poverty interrupted at the hands of a good public education. Patty, what do you think propelled his victory as a reporter who really knows Florida? He had the backing of billionaire progressives Tom Steyer and George Soros, who in Florida, at least, have not always backed a winning horse. Back to winning horse. But the money they gave him, which he used to field organize primarily, was enough to get him started. And he rallied in the last month with Bernie Sanders. I want you to join me in welcoming in the most Florida way that we know how, Senator Bernie Sanders. Thank you, Tampa.

And that helped the young, white, progressive millennial voters get excited. We need a government that represents all of us, not the 1%. the 1%. And after the election, the Florida Democratic Party noted that about a quarter of people who cast ballots early in Florida were people who had not voted in a midterm election before. And that was exactly the population that Andrew Gillum was targeting. So, Patty, what's your big takeaway from Gillum's nomination on Tuesday night? What are we to make of all this? We were expecting a traditional middle-of-the-road campaign for Florida governor in 2018. And instead, we find ourselves with a candidate on the Democratic side who essentially represents a referendum on President Trump and a sign of what 2020 could look like, right? Because

if a progressive can succeed in a state like Florida, then what does that mean for the rest of the country? Now, some of the folks believe that we've got to run Republican light in order to win here in the state of Florida. I say no. I say no. It is my belief. And I don't know what you believe. But if you believe like me, I believe that the way we're going to win this state in November is by giving our voters a reason to go out and vote for something and not just against. We're going to win this race.

We're going to win this race. We'll be right back. So, Patty, who will Andrew Gillum be running against on the Republican side? Who won that nomination on Tuesday night? Well, that's actually a really interesting story, too. Good morning. News Channel 8 is your local election headquarters, and this is Politics On Your Side. There was a frontrunner there, a favorite of the political establishment in Tallahassee. Joining us today, the leading candidate on the Republican side, former congressman and Florida's current agriculture commissioner, Adam Putnam. Good

morning to you. Good morning to you. Thanks for having me. Absolutely. Thanks for coming. Adam Putnam, the agriculture commissioner and former congressman, who essentially spent the last 20 years preparing to run for governor of Florida. All across the state, North Florida, South Florida, the coast interior, we're seeing this momentum building because I believe that they share my vision for a stronger, better Florida. And then a representative named Ron DeSantis was endorsed by President Trump. DeSantis is a three-term congressman and Navy veteran from the Daytona Beach area who jumps into the governor's race and is trailing Putnam. And so DeSantis needs a little magic to move up in the polls and starts courting the president.

The state's Republican race for governor has been seen as a test of the president's endorsement. He is an ardent supporter of President Trump, and he starts appearing on Fox News and working behind the scenes to try to see what sort of support he can get from the White House. And that support comes as a tweet. Oh, the difference a single tweet can make. Yes, Ron DeSantis was behind, and then suddenly the president came along, supported him with a tweet. That proved very useful for him. What happens after the tweet is that Putnam just plummets in the polls, and DeSantis soars, and then...

We need to elect Ron DeSantis as your governor. Trump comes and has a rally in Tampa. Gotta do it. And I'm telling you, I know him well. He's a great, great guy. He's going to be an incredible governor. I have no doubt. I have no doubt. And there was just no coming back for Putnam from that.

He lost. He lost huge. So it's not like this brings in a ton of outside funding or anything. It's that literally this tweet is starting to take voters for Putnam and swing them over to DeSantis. I would go to polling places and interview Republican voters

and they would say that they were going to vote for DeSantis because he was loyal to Trump. And that's what they wanted. They wanted somebody who would support Trump in the governor's mansion. That's fascinating. I had never seen anything like it in politics, just a turnaround, a campaign decided by a single presidential tweet. And what does that tell us about Republicans in the midterms this year?

What did they learn from this? Florida Republicans have been forced to acknowledge that theirs is the party of Trump. This was the state that had once, you know, loved its sons, Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, who lost to Trump famously. And who were moderate. And who were more moderate. And parts of the party establishment were really reluctant to vote for Trump and to support him. But the Florida Republican Party has become the party of Trump. And DeSantis, like Gillum, was outspent. He was not the one who raised the most money or spent the most money.

But what he had going for him was Trump and Trump's base. And he just hugged him as close as he could. Everyone knows my husband, Ron DeSantis, is endorsed by President Trump. But he's also an amazing dad. Ron loves playing with the kids. Build the wall. After the endorsement, DeSantis' campaign produced this ad where his wife decided to tell viewers how much her husband loved the president.

And it shows their two young kids, one of them building a wall with dad. He's teaching Madison to talk. Make America great again. People say Ron's all Trump, but he is so much more. Big League. So good. I just thought you should know. Ron DeSantis for Governor. I wonder how much Republicans as a party like the message that this sends,

given that the president's support is very strong among Republicans, but decidedly mixed among everybody else? There are some voters who have told us that they are turned off by a sort of loyalty test to the president, if that is what the party is moving toward. But I don't know if come November, that will be enough to steer those voters to vote for the opposite party. You know, the president this morning tweeted this out. Not only did Congressman Ron DeSantis easily win the Republican primary, but his opponent in November is his biggest dream, a failed socialist mayor named Andrew Gillum, who has allowed crime and many other problems to flourish in his city. This is not what Florida wants or needs.

So, Maddie, what have we seen in the 24 hours since the primary that gives us a sense of what this general election is going to be like? It immediately became this proxy war between Trump and the liberal resistance. And it got ugly because DeSantis was interviewed on Fox News. So we've got to work hard to make sure that we continue Florida going in a good direction. Let's build off the success we've had on Governor Scott. The last thing we need to do is to monkey this up by trying to embrace a socialist agenda with huge tax increases. Florida does not need a socialist agenda to monkey this up, which immediately was seen by Florida Democrats as a racist dog whistle. In the handbook of Donald Trump, they no longer do whistle calls. They're now using full bullhorns. And it gave Gillum an opportunity to go on Fox News himself.

But I think he's got another thing coming to him. If he thinks that in today's day and age, Florida voters are going to respond to that level of derision and division, they're sick of it. respond to that level of derision and division, they're sick of it. By the way, DeSantis said it was absurd to look at it as a racist remark. But the fact that this is immediately where the race went is probably not a promising sign of a lot of puppies and rainbows over the next 69 days. I think there's going to be a reckoning among Democrats. This is not the general election that they thought they were going to have. They thought with a moderate, they would be able to peel off Republican votes that were dissatisfied with Trump, that did not like DeSantis. And now they're faced with an entirely different proposition. And we don't

know where those middle of the road people that they were going to try to appeal to will go. We don't know if it's going to be the typical battle for the middle, or it's going to turn into more polarizing discussion about the sort of things we see in Washington, the same sort of fights playing out at the state level. And what fights do you mean? Well, because Gillum mentioned federal issues like abolishing ICE or impeaching the president. Is that going to become now an issue in a state race in Florida, even though the governor of Florida doesn't really control those matters? That's a question that I just can't answer right now. Right. And this was the fight that from everything we've been told for

months is what the Democrats were hoping to avoid making the midterms about as they try to reclaim, especially the white working class voters, that they lost to President Trump. But it sounds like this is the fight that some Democratic voters want. And are not willing to wait for the next presidential election to have. 2020 is now. Patty, thank you very much. My pleasure, Michael. Here's what else you need to know today.

On Wednesday, President Trump surprised his White House counsel, Don McGahn, by announcing on Twitter that McGahn would leave his job in the fall. The Times reports that McGahn was unaware of the decision until reading the tweet, which comes just 11 days after it was revealed that McGahn cooperated extensively with Special Counsel Robert Mueller in the Russia investigation,

testifying for more than 30 hours. In his tweet, the president said McGahn would depart after the Senate votes on the Supreme Court confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh. I have worked with Don for a long time, the president wrote, and truly appreciate his service. That's it for The Daily. I'm Michael Barbaro. See you tomorrow.