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The 2018 FL Gubernatorial Democratic Primary, a contest between Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, Former U.S. Rep. (and daughter of former Gov/Senator Bob Graham) Gwen Graham, Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine, and Self Funders Jeff Greene and Chris King resulted in Gillum winning the nomination to a governorship he would end up losing to then U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis.
With Gwen Graham considered the frontrunner, and Levine not far behind her, most of the financial firepower was set on each other, and on them by the two self-funders in the race.
This in turn allowed for Gillum, a staunch fighter against the GOP, to gain prominence for his support for progressive causes—such as calling out Florida's "stand your ground" law, supporting medicare for all, and abolishing the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.).
This, combined with most candidates ignoring Gillum—and with the candidate receiving major African-American support throughout the state as the only major African American candidate in the race, plus significant support from major liberal donors such as Tom Steyer and George Soros propelled him to the nomination.
Despite this fact, there was a looming specter of corruption against him due to being mayor of Tallahassee—a specter of corruption loomed over Gillum's campaign, a specter of corruption (in addition to a badly run general election campaign) that would end up dooming him to lose to DeSantis.
An exemplar as to how he was able to best Graham throughout the state, Gillum was able to narrowly beat Gwen Graham in the congressional district that she had won in 2014. Riding his support from African Americans to a win in the then-abolished congressional district.
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