Trump-backed DeSantis faces Sanders-endorsed Gillum
After Andrew Gillum's surprise victory in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, battleground Florida is a proxy Donald Trump vs. Bernie Sanders showdown; Phil Keating reports from Orlando.
The Florida Republican Party amended a campaign ad at the request of a Pulse nightclub shooting survivor.
The Spanish-language ad criticizes Democratic gubernatorial nominee Andrew Gillum’s agenda, saying it will result in “abusive taxes,” “excessive government,” “choking bureaucracy and parents losing control over the education of their children.”
Several photos of Gillum are used throughout the 30-second ad, but one in particular caused the ire of a survivor of the mass shooting attack on the Orlando Pulse nightclub in 2016 that left 49 people dead. In the photo, Gillum is looking down at a commemorative ribbon for those who lost their lives in the tragedy.
Brandon Wolf, a survivor of the attack, told those on a press call organized by Democrats he’s “sick of Republicans using Pulse as some political prop after they turned their back on that community for so long,” the Tampa Bay Times reported.
“I am really sick of desperate political serpents like [GOP nominee] Ron DeSantis who will quite literally say anything and do anything to win elections,” Wolf said. “I am really really sick of the memory of 49 lives constantly being trampled on.”
Geoff Burgan, an advisor to Gillum’s campaign, tweeted the Florida Republican Party “sunk to a new low” with the ad.
By Tuesday afternoon, the ad was amended and a different photo of Gillum was used.
“There was no intention to be insensitive in anyway,” Meredith Beatrice, a Florida GOP spokeswoman, told the Tampa Bay Times. “However, we stand by the message of the ad.”
Last month, a pro-gun control super PAC agreed to change an ad after the father of a Colorado school shooting victim complained it was “politicizing” the death of his daughter.
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The ad from the Giffords PAC criticized Rep. Mike Coffman, a Republican up for re-election, for his ties to the National Rifle Association. It featured text messages from “Emily” informing her mother a shooter was in her school.
“I’m so scared. I love u. Tell Dad I love him,” the texts in the ad read.
John-Michael Keyes said the ad was “problematic” because it seemed to mirror the tragedy his family endured. His daughter, Emily Keyes, was fatally shot in 2006 after a 53-year-old man took several female students hostage at Platte Canyon High School in Bailey, Colorado, and sexually assaulted them. She was 16 years old.
Before her death, Keyes texted her family, “I love you guys” and “I love u guys, k?”
The super PAC agreed to amend the ad to make it “clear that it is not connected to any one incident.”
The Florida gubernatorial election is ranked a tossup by Fox News. Gillum, the Tallahassee mayor, faces DeSantis, a former GOP congressman, in the November election.
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