Page 4 - ARUBA TODAY

A4 U.S. NEWS
Monday 19 noveMber 2018

1st black Democratic nominee

for Florida governor concedes

By GARY FINEOUT and fought campaign Satur- change in this state that re-
BRENDAN FARRINGTON day as the state’s first black ally allows for the voices of
Associated Press nominee for the post. everyday people to show
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) Gillum, whose refrain had up again in our govern-
— Andrew Gillum, who been “bring it home” as he ment, in our state, and in
tried to energize Florida’s recounted stories of grow- our communities. We know
young and minority voters ing up poor in the state, that this fight continues.”
through a Democratic co- concluded his campaign Gillum’s concession came
alition seeking to end two with a Facebook video he hours before Florida’s
Andrew Gillum the Democrat candidate for governor speaks at decades of Republican recorded alongside his wife counties must turn in their
a news conference on Saturday, Nov. 10, 2018, in Tallahassee, control of the governor’s in a park. official results at noon Sun-
Fla.
Associated Press office, ended his hard- In his four-minute plus vid- day after tense days of re-
eo, Gillum congratulated counting ballots in both the
Republican Ron DeSantis gubernatorial and a U.S.
and also vowed to remain Senate contest — two na-
politically active even tionally watched midterm
though his term as mayor elections that have keep
of the Florida capital of Tal- the presidential swing state
lahassee ends next week. on edge since Election
Of his future plans, Gillum Day.
said: “stay tuned.” Gillum’s brief remarks
Gillum, just 39 years old, came hours after President
earned national atten- Donald Trump, who at one
tion and financial backing point in the campaign had
from well-known liberal bil- sharply criticized Gillum,
lionaires with his first bid for praised him for running a
statewide office. He ran tough race. Gillum had ini-
on a liberal platform that tially conceded to DeSan-
included expanding Med- tis on election night, but he
icaid and raising taxes to retracted it as the razor-
spend more on education thin margin between the
even though both ideas two candidates narrowed.
would have been hard to But he still trailed DeSantis
pass through the GOP-con- by more than 30,000 votes
trolled Legislature. following a legally required
His final act as a candidate machine recount. Counties
was less confrontational are wrapping up a hand
than that of another promi- recount this weekend and
nent African-American must submit their official re-
candidate in this year’s sults by noon Sunday.
midterm elections: Stacy Gillum’s concession as-
Abrams in neighboring sures Florida Republicans
Georgia ended her cam- will retain their grasp on the
paign for governor on Fri- governor’s office since Jeb
day, ceding to a Republi- Bush’s term starting in 1999.
can with an unapologeti- DeSantis, 40, was consid-
cally indignant tone estab- ered an underdog before
lishing herself as a leading Trump tweeted his support
voting rights advocate. for DeSantis in December,
“This has been the journey a month before DeSan-
of our lives,” said Gillum, tis even entered the race.
appearing in the video with Trump campaigned to
his wife, R. Jai Gillum. “Al- help push DeSantis to a pri-
though nobody wanted to mary victory in August and
be governor more than me visited Florida two more
that this was not just about times to help the Republi-
an election cycle. This was can in the final days of the
about creating the type of election.q