Andrew Gillum, the former Democratic nominee for Florida governor who came within fewer than 34,000 votes of beating current Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in 2018, was arrested in Alabama last week after police said a traffic stop turned up marijuana and methamphetamine.
Gillum, 46, was stopped around 10:45 p.m. on July 2 on U.S. Highway 98 near North Main Street in Daphne after officers observed what police described as erratic driving. During the stop, an officer spotted a glass pipe on the center console of the vehicle, police said. That led to a probable cause search.
"Several rolled marijuana cigarettes and three packages of a substance that tested positive for methamphetamine were recovered," police said.
Gillum was charged with unlawful possession of a controlled substance, a Class D felony under Alabama law, and second-degree marijuana possession, a Class A misdemeanor. He was first booked into the Daphne City Jail, then transferred to the Baldwin County Correctional Facility. Jail records show he was later released.
Eight years ago, Gillum was one recount away from becoming governor of Florida.
He was the 2018 Democratic nominee, the former mayor of Tallahassee, and a national favorite of the left during the first Trump midterm. He lost to DeSantis by less than one percentage point.
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More than four million Floridians voted for Gillum. Democrats treated him as one of the party’s next major stars. Obama cut ads for him. National liberals poured attention into the race as Florida became one of the biggest political fights of the 2018 cycle.
DeSantis, as noted, won by a razor-thin margin.
Gillum’s public troubles did not start in Alabama. In 2020, he was found inebriated in a Miami Beach hotel room where another man had apparently overdosed. Police said Gillum was too intoxicated to answer questions about what happened. No charges were filed in that incident.
Gillum withdrew from public life afterward and said he was entering treatment for alcohol abuse and depression.
"This has been a wake-up call for me," Gillum said at the time. "Since my race for governor ended, I fell into a depression that has led to alcohol abuse."
Two years later, Gillum faced federal charges connected to allegations that he and a political ally misused campaign-related funds. He was acquitted of lying to the FBI, while the remaining charges were dropped after a mistrial.
Gillum has since returned to public commentary. He now co-hosts the "Native Land Pod" podcast with Angela Rye and Bakari Sellers.
The Alabama case remains in its early stages. Court records for the new charges were not yet available Tuesday, and it was not immediately clear whether Gillum had retained an attorney to speak on his behalf.
The 2018 race remains one of the closest gubernatorial contests in modern Florida history. Gillum came within a whisker of taking over America’s third-largest state. DeSantis went on to win reelection in 2022 by nearly 20 points and became one of the most recognizable Republican governors in the country.
Florida voters had their close call in 2018. They picked DeSantis by just enough. That looks better by the day.
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