On August 28th, Florida residents lined up at the voting booths to vote for candidates for governor and Congress in the primary election. Primary elections are held so people can decide who they want to represent their political party in the general election.   

The Democratic winner of the gubernatorial election in the primaries is Andrew Gillum, who has been the mayor of Tallahassee since 2014. Gillum was only 23 when he was elected to the Tallahassee City Commission, which makes him the youngest person ever to do so. If he wins the general election, he will set another milestone for the state of Florida, becoming the state’s first black governor.  Gillum ran against six people, one of them being Gwen Graham, daughter of former United States senator, Bob Graham. She was also a former U.S. representative for Florida’s 2nd congressional district. 

 The Republican winner of the gubernatorial election is Ron DeSantis, who was elected as the representative for Florida’s 6th congressional district in 2012. DeSantis was endorsed by President Trump, who also held a rally for him in Tampa in early August. He is currently receiving backlash for his statement about Gillum,  saying Gillum will “monkey this up” if the economy is handled by him. Many believe this statement has racial connotations, while others deny any prejudice. Gillum’s reply to the remark from DeSantis was: “I’m not going to get down in the gutter with DeSantis and Trump. There’s enough of that going on.” Other Republican candidates running against DeSantis were: Adam Putnam, Don Baldauf, Timothy Devine, Bob Langford, John Mercadante, Bruce Nathan, and Bob White. 

In the primary election for Senate, incumbent Bill Nelson ran unopposed, which guaranteed him a spot for the Democratic U.S. Senate general election. Florida’s governor, Rick Scott current governor, beat Rocky De La Fuente in the Republican primary for Senate with more than three times as many votes.

The general election will be held on November 6th, 2018, but the deadline to register to vote is October 9th. If you are over 18 The OCSA Ledger staff encourages you to exercise your right to vote this November!