Andrew Gillum

Andrew Demetric Gillum (born July 26, 1979) is an American former politician who was the 126th mayor of Tallahassee, Florida, from 2014 to 2018. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a Tallahassee city commissioner from 2003 to 2014.

In 2018, Gillum was the nominee of the Florida Democratic Party to be the governor of Florida. He had won the Democratic primary election over a field of five other candidates, including former U.S. Representative Gwen Graham and former Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine. In the general election, he lost in a close race to Republican U.S. representative Ron DeSantis. Gillum's margin of defeat was just 34,000 votes (0.4%), making the election one of the closest gubernatorial races in modern American history.

In 2022, Gillum was indicted on 21 felony counts, including wire fraud, conspiracy, and making false statements, for allegedly diverting money raised during the campaign to a company controlled by one of his top advisors. The jury found Gillum not guilty on the charge of making false statements and was hung on the remaining counts. In May 2023, federal prosecutors moved to dismiss the remaining charges against Gillum.

Early life and education

Gillum was born in Miami and raised in Gainesville, Florida. He is the fifth of seven children born to Charles and Frances Gillum, respectively a construction worker and a school bus driver. Gillum graduated from Gainesville High School in 1998 and was recognized by the Gainesville Sun as one of the city's "persons of the year." He then moved to Tallahassee to attend Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU) to major in political science.