In a major come-from-behind victory, Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum edged his way past former Rep. Gwen Graham to capture the Democratic nomination in Florida's race for governor with a 34-31 victory. That sets up a matchup for this open seat with Rep. Ron DeSantis, who rode an endorsement from Donald Trump to a comfortable 56-37 win over state Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam.
Gillum had trailed in the polls throughout the contest, even until the very end, and his campaign was hampered by poor fundraising and a long-running FBI investigation into corruption in Tallahassee (Gillum maintained the bureau had told him was "not the focus" of their inquiry). However, Gillum ran on the most aggressively liberal platform of all the main contenders, a field that included two wealthy self-funders from South Florida, former Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine and businessman Jeff Greene, as well as Graham, who had been a member of the conservative Blue Dog Coalition in her lone term in Congress.
Gillum was also the only black candidate in the race, and he received millions in outside help late in the game from Collective PAC, a super PAC devoted to helping black candidates. He also got a financial boost from billionaires Tom Steyer and George Soros, as well as an endorsement from Bernie Sanders. Much like Stacey Abrams in Georgia, Gillum targeted young people and black voters, putting together a coalition that ultimately won the day. He will now seek to become Florida's first-ever black governor.
DeSantis won in very different fashion. Putnam had had the governorship in his sights for years, and as a longtime establishment favorite, the immense war chest he'd amassed made him look like the man to beat at the outset. But DeSantis, a member of the far-right House Freedom Caucus who abandoned a Senate bid in 2016 when Marco Rubio unexpectedly decided to run for re-election, earned Trump's admiration by vocally defending him on Fox News, and that proved to be enough to shatter Putnam's advantages.
In the general election, we can expect both candidates to try to paint their opponents as ideologically extreme, though in a year that's favoring Democrats, DeSantis could pay the steeper price, particularly given his close association with Trump. Gillum, for his part, will have to step up his fundraising, because communicating with voters in the nation's third-largest state is an expensive prospect, though outside groups for both sides will assuredly flood the race. As befits the mother of all swing states, Daily Kos Elections rates this race a Tossup.