Speaking to supporters at Florida Memorial University, Andrew Gillum, Florida Gubernatorial Candidate and the current Mayor of Tallahassee said,

I met [DeSantis] for the first time the other night, and then all of a sudden, without invitation, he was calling me only as Andrew. Between the two of us, he quit his job in Congress — I’m a sitting mayor, and he had the nerve to address me only as Andrew?

Does he not understand how badly arrogant statements like that play out with constituents? How does he think Rep. DeSantis should address him, Mr. Mayor, Mr. Gillum? This remark said more to the voters of Florida about his character than any speech ever could.

This has been a contentious race from the beginning. Within hours of winning the Republican gubernatorial primary, the media pounced on DeSantis’ unfortunate choice of words uttered during an interview on Fox News. He said, “The last thing we need to do is to monkey this up by trying to embrace a socialist agenda with huge tax increases and bankrupting the state.”

Clock it: Ron DeSantis has been declared a racist by Democrats less than 12 hours after winning his primary election for saying Monkey this up…
That might be a new record time for the DNC. pic.twitter.com/xxKNRXc47b

— Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) August 29, 2018

It’s no surprise that DeSantis was questioned about his “racism” during last week’s debate.

“Gillum said that while he’s not explicitly calling DeSantis a racist, he’s “simply saying the racists believe he’s a racist.””

Afterward, Gillum told students “I wanted to correct him, y’all, but I didn’t want to be petty. So, we just we pushed all the way through.”

Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) represented his district in Congress for nearly three terms, resigning in September to devote his time to his gubernatorial campaign. Prior to serving in Congress, DeSantis earned a BA from Yale University, a JD from Harvard and spent four years serving in the Navy.

Former Senator George Allen (R-VA) can relate to DeSantis’ current woes. A similar slip of the tongue sunk his reelection bid in 2006. He famously called his opponent’s campaign tracker by the name “macaca.” Even now, when you google “George Allen,” the third result to appear is “George Allen macaca.”

As for Gillum, he repeated a mistake made by former Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) in 2009. She is the only other politician whom I’ve ever heard correct an equal for not addressing them with their proper title. During a senate hearing, she corrected a Brigadier General who had addressed her as ma’am, saying, “Do me a favor, can you say ‘senator’ instead of ‘ma’am. It’s just a thing. I worked so hard to get that title, so I’d appreciate it. Thank you.”

“Yes, Senator,” said the General. And then Boxer’s comment went viral.

As Gillum’s has. Hopefully, but unlikely, it will damage his current (average) lead over DeSantis of 4.5 points.